Cozy? Is it a one stop shop?

Question

Hello BP members!

First off I would like to thank you for reading another post about Cozy.co, I know there are many. Many are older and still leave me with a few questions.

I have read “The book on managing rental properties” and “Landlording on Autopilot.” I would like to make good use of the information found in these books. I would like a platform to help manage properties and use all the proper forms.

So with that being said, here are my questions.

Does Cozy.co offer...

Communication with prospective tenants to allow showings?

Move- in/ Move-out checklists?

Business websites?

Custom documents? (Lease/application/work orders/etc.)

Bookkeeping?

Bi-weekly payments?

Upselling like maid service?

Thank you again for your knowledge and experience. I may be asking a lot for a free site. Does another option offer all of this?

John Warren · Answer

@Nicholas Knaebel for move in checklists, I just do a paper one that is part of the lease. I have to meet the tenant anyways to do the lease, so I do it then.

As for funneling leads to show units, I still do it by emailing and texting all of them a form email. I have found that routing everything through a gmail account with a google voice number connected to google hang out allows me to be very efficient. I can text from my email, which means I can realistically respond to the 50-100 interested folks every day in about 15 minutes.

If you want to avoid that part of the process, I recently heard about a pretty cool site called showmojo.com. I am not affiliated with them, nor have I used them, but @Mark Ainley mentioned that his company has been using them. It may be worth a look.

Nicholas Knaebel · Answer

Wow thank you @Daniel Gutierrez. I will definitely be doing this. Great insight

Daniel Gutierrez · Answer

@John Warren and @Nicholas Knaebel Pre-Screening questions are a must! As Jonh mentioned, many of the calls will be a waste of time and never do a one off showing as they'll most likely not show up and you'll find yourself wasting hours and hours every week trying to accommodate everyone's showing requests.

We take videos of the units on our phone and with some quick editing on iMovie we put together a virtual tour video that we send everyone before we schedule them for one of our viewing time slots. It'll save you a lot of time and will help you get better and more qualifies tenant leads.

John Warren · Answer

@Nicholas Knaebel I am leasing out a lot of units right now in the same building, so I bunch the showings and do an open house style. I copy and paste info into an email or a text (I use google hangout from my computer linked to google voice). This makes it very easy to get the same info to dozens of people.

If I had only one unit, I would use pre-screening questions and try to screen out more of the bad tenants. I also would still bunch the showings, and I never do a one off showing for a tenant. I also try not to answer the phone, as that leads to them wasting your time. Call people back after they leave a message if you want, but try to keep it all virtual to avoid the time suck.

Nicholas Knaebel · Answer

@John Warren thank you for your responses! It appears I am going to have to dig in and learn googles products. I have heard it a few times now and it seems to be invaluable, I can even store my documents with them.

Another question about showings. What method do you find works best for you? Do you go there a bunch of times? Only show to those who qualify? Open- house? Have you ever used the Mike Butler lock box method?

Thank you again for your insights.

Nicholas Knaebel · Answer

@John Warren thank you. Do you just perform your own move-in checklist? Also, how do you handle people wanting to see the unit?

John Warren · Answer

@Nicholas Knaebel I love both cozy and the book on managing rental properties. I recently transitioned to using cozy at all of my properties here in the Chicago suburbs, and it is great. With that being said, most of the features you mention will come with much more expensive software that you pay for. In addition, some of them are probably completely unnecessary for rental real estate unless you are buying an apartment community (business website, etc).

I am managing 32 units currently, and for the most part google sheets still can keep up with the rent roll, book keeping, etc. I think Cozy is great for rent collection, on-line lease storage, tenant screening, etc.

Cozy? Is it a one stop shop?

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