Apartments.Com Has Failed- Best Rent Collection Tool You Use?

Question

Greetings all - after years of success with Cozy, Apartments.com has completely failed with one of my two tenants, and is not helping after numerous emails to customer support. I need a new electronic rent collection system.

With only managing 2 rentals myself, I'm looking for:

-ACH transactions that are free to both tenant and landlord

-ideally zero monthly fee, but if not, something under $10

-Easy to use

-nice to have: Allows for one-time charges

What is your NON-Cozy / NON-Apartments.com recommendation, and why? Tell me!  Thanks.

Patrick M. · Answer

@Joe Splitrock are you confusing Zelle with Venmo? I transitioned my tenants from Venmo when they came out with their new fees.

I use chase and there are no such warnings, actually- the complete opposite: Chase business Zelle

Joe Splitrock · Answer

Sorry you are correct i was confusing the two. Venmo has the fees. Zelle used to be only personal payments, but they launched Zelle for small business in 2020. Zelle is an ACH based system that lets participating banks set their own rules. There are about a dozen banks that participate in Zelle for small business. You just need a business account to link. The only potential draw back on Zelle is if the tenants bank doesn't participate. There are some banks and credit unions that do not, but every national bank chain is part of the network. Thanks for the correction!

Joe Splitrock · Answer

Can you explain what the specific problem is you are having? Even if you are no longer interested in solving the issue, it would be beneficial for others to understand what the problem is. I was moved from Cozy four months ago and twelve tenants were transitioned without a single issue. As far as customer support at Apartments, unlike Cozy, they have phone support. In my experience that is a faster way to resolve an issue. My only problem in the transition was duplicate properties, because I had used Apartments.com for listings. When they merged Cozy, I ended up with duplicate properties. I called support and they just told me to delete the duplicate and everything was find. Just be careful not to delete the one that is tied to rent collection.

As far as alternatives, I would avoid Zelle because their terms of service do not allow business use unless you have a business account. They charge 2% for business transactions. If they catch you using personal for business, they can close your account and freeze funds.

Zillow has an alternative that is very similar to Cozy / Apartments. I am trying Zillow on a new tenant to see how it compares to Apartments.com. The nice thing on Zillow is they allow digital lease signing and they are a dominant listing platform. It becomes a one-stop shop for small landlords which saves time.

There are probably 30-50 other rent collection services out there. Be careful of the small companies or startups. I just see too much risk in placing financial services with a company that doesn't have a track record.

Tom Degroodt · Answer

How did Apartments.com fail?  We had an issue with a property that was migrated from Cozy where we had to call their support team to allow payments to work correctly.

Patrick M. · Answer

Zelle

Apartments.Com Has Failed- Best Rent Collection Tool You Use?

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