Real Estate Investor · Cary, NC · Member since 2014 · 27 posts · 3 votes
Hi, I've been looking into automated ways to accept checks. Brandon Turner mentioned Dwolla on a recent podcast. I've also looked at buildium. Another user mentioned cozy.co which seems ideal. It's free and includes ach as well as tenant application and screening. Does anyone have experience with this site is there a catch or might there be one in the future?
I have no affiliation with any of these sites
Thanks
Rob
Real Estate Investor · Bellingham, WA · Member since 2016 · 4 posts · 8 votes
10y
I bought my first property a year ago (a triplex with 8 total bedrooms). I inherited renters and used Cozy for the first set of leases I created after the legacy tenants left. I'm currently setting up leases for the second time.
Just wanted to weigh in on Cozy from my limited experience:
Overall, I'm very happy with them. Their customer service in particular is among the most responsive and personal of any company I've ever dealt with, and that goes a long ways in making up for any other shortcomings.
They are a young company and like all tech startups, launched with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), meaning that there was lots of stuff they planned that wasn't ready yet, but they wanted to get users and build momentum.
Compared to some ultimate landlord tool you might imagine, their feature set is still kind of basic, but they are continuously building it out.
I like the looks of the planned feature roadmap, and I think they'll do a good job on it.
Their usability could be a little better, but I'm a usability guy, so I never saw an app I didn't think I could improve :-) And they are a lot better than some of the others would appear to be on a superficial review.
On the ACH payments: I shared @Matthew David's perception on the timing, but I recently went back and looked at the calendar for every payment I've received, and the variability was actually due to weekends, holidays, etc. In every case, the deposit was exactly 5 days after tenant payment.
They've added an express payment feature, which reduces that to 2 days or so, and is the first pay option service that has been offered to landlords. I cocked an eyebrow at their explanation (5 days due to obsolete bank network technology, express uses new tech), but am taking them at their word.
As a small property owner, the extra 3 days of waiting really isn't making enough difference to justify even the modest fee. I just keep a month's mortgage buffer in the account so it doesn't matter if that payment comes out before rents come in.
But I'm considering signing up for it anyway, just to support their move to a monetized model. I like them and want them to make it. (They make some money now from brokering tenant-paid screening reports, but I think that's it.) The expedited payment would just be a bonus for me.
So, on balance an endorsement for sure. Just know that some others may have more complete feature sets so you know what to expect. But in my survey of the other ones, they look sort of old school in ways that aren't always great, so I'm putting my money on the startup.
Investor · Granby, CO · Member since 2015 · 3 posts · 2 votes
11y
Hi guys. I've been watching this thread for a couple weeks as I looked into Cozy. I have had the same experience as JD and Matthew. Easy to setup for me and my tenant (asked my tech savy-est tenant), many notifications during the ACH process, and deposit received in my account 9/8/15. I definitely got paid faster by my other tenants who did not use Cozy (direct deposit and snail mail) but Cozy was entirely hands-off, after initial setup. I'm on the fence about moving my other tenants to Cozy for now. I'm going let it run for another couple months with this tenant.
BTW I used the Cozy Rental Application, Credit and Background Check service last month on another unit. It was great. Very fast and easy to compare applicants. Will use that again for sure.
Investor · San Jose, CA · Member since 2015 · 246 posts · 183 votes
11y
I experience the one day faster deposit also. Money showed up in my account first thing yesterday morning. Extrapolating, I'm guessing that October's rent will arrive on the 7th and November's on the 6th.
Rental Property Investor · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 4k+ votes
11y
The tenant debit that came out on 9/1/15 hit my bank account on 9/8/15. So that's about 7 days. Technically 4 banking days.
But my question is -- I know why humans take off Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. But this is all done by computer. Why do computers have to have the day off those days too? Why can't computers operate essentially 24/7?
EA to Founder/CEO · Providence, RI · Member since 2015 · 1 post · 1 vote
11y
I just signed up for this forum just to post this as I use Cozy and it seems there's a bit of lacking information that may be helpful here.
I initiate ACH payments to vendors often for my job. To understand the usability and processing speed behind Cozy’s free payments service we need to first understand the ACH process. This is a good article on why some places take longer than others:
It is important to note, however, that each service or bank has its own cutoff time for transfers to post as an initiation that day. I’ve seen 10PM Central, 9PM EST, 4:45PM EST, etc.
So, if your tenant initiates after the cutoff time, you may get an email from Cozy advising it was initiated that day, but the ACH won’t actually begin to process until the next business day. Hence, an “invisible” additional day’s delay.
@Gino Zahnd can you advise us what the cutoff time is for ACH payments via Cozy/Stripe? This way landlords can let their tenants know that they must complete the initiation by X time of day so the payment will process in a more timely fashion. Or, is it based on the cutoff time of each specific renter's bank? This is crucial info for us to have.
IMHO, it's a fantastic service. It's a free service that Cozy is actually paying Stripe for us to use (in the hopes that we will utilize their paid services, I imagine.) Good business model, and it seems Cozy is working their butts off to add value to their customers every day. Let's not forget, Cozy is a startup, so there are growing pains, and many startups are understaffed as they grow and find new roles they need to fill (trust me), so we need to give them that time to grow (and grow with them, if you can.) They just days ago acquired some top league talent, Omid Ashtari , as VP of Strategy & Operations, so things are definitely looking up for this startup (and it's customers!) And the fact that the Founder & CEO is personally taking time to answer your questions here speaks volumes about their values and the customer-focused business model they are building upon.
Disclaimer: no, I have no affiliation whatsoever with Cozy (I'm just a renter using the service) -- but I do work for a startup as the EA to the Founder & CEO, so I know what it's like on the other end of this ;)
Our ACH deadline is at 2PM PT each banking day. Our payment processor will batch and send all ACH debits and credits to the ACH network. All payments through Cozy are processed on a scheduled automatically recurring basis, so all payments ready to process on a given day will be processed before the deadline.
1. As stated in #3 in our Terms of Use, Stripe is our payments partner. https://cozy.co/terms
2. Tenants can currently specify a date between the 1st and 5th of the month. If you prefer a certain date, you'd request that from your tenant.
We're currently working on the next release of our payments system, which will include a number of enhancements and flexibility around payment dates.
For (2) it would be super helpful if the landlord knew the date the tenant had specified to take out the rent from their account. So if something needed to be updated, the landlord could inform the tenant.
1. As stated in #3 in our Terms of Use, Stripe is our payments partner. https://cozy.co/terms
2. Tenants can currently specify a date between the 1st and 5th of the month. If you prefer a certain date, you'd request that from your tenant.
We're currently working on the next release of our payments system, which will include a number of enhancements and flexibility around payment dates.
For (2) it would be super helpful if the landlord knew the date the tenant had specified to take out the rent from their account. So if something needed to be updated, the landlord could inform the tenant.
Stephen, I just started trying Cozy out this month as a test and it actually does tell you what date the tenant selected. In the "Payments" section under the rental address it lists the reoccurring date that the tenant selected. For instance, my tenant chose the 3rd of the month, so it shows that a payment was made on September 3, and the next one is scheduled for October 3. Hope this helps.
Rental Property Investor · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 4k+ votes
11y
Cozy just made an utter mess of two of my rent transactions for September. The one I posted above on was just 1 of 3 I currently have setup.
Tenant B is setup for $725 and that started debiting her account on 9/1 however it failed.
Tenant C is setup for $745 and that started debiting his account on 9/4 and it did go through.
Cozy prematurely sent the rent from Tenant B to my Bank account "C". Since it failed, they decided to intercept my rent from Tenant C in the amount of $745 that was on it's way to my Bank Account "M".
So now I have Tenant C's rent in the bank account for Tenant B. And $20 is still missing which Cozy took and I'm supposed to get it on Monday. They have to clarify which bank account that money is going to.
Last month I sent out flyers advertising the Cozy service to my tenants. I'm going to hold off getting anyone else signed up until this service actually works as expected.
They are doing a good job of telling me what exactly happened, however it would have been nice of them to tell me they were stealing Tenant C's money to make up for the mistake they made with Tenant B's money then shorted me $20 on top of everything.
Rental Property Investor · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 4k+ votes
11y
The tenant had insufficient funds. The part I'm upset about is that they took another tenant's rent payment and now I have to move funds from an account where they don't belong.
Investor · Lake Oswego , OR · Member since 2015 · 81 posts · 33 votes
11y
I'll chime in a little late on Cozy. I have been using them for a number of months now. The user interface is nice but there are still multiple issues that they are working through. I felt like I signed my tenants up and then found out about a bunch of items that couldn't be done through cozy automatically such as adjusting the rental rate or terminating a tenant from the system. Instead I need to email support and have them make changes which they do pretty fast, it just takes away from moving toward simplicity and automation.
As far as the payment processing, yes, it takes a long time, I have emailed them about this, got the standard response about why it takes so long. They just moved to stripe payment processing which I am hoping will speed the process up. One example from this month is debting starts on the first, just had confirmation yesterday that processing was complete and that funds should be deposited in two days to my account. Well, my late fees start on day 5. Do I bill the tenant for late fees when the payment isn't arriving to me until the 12th or later. Why did this rent take so long when my other tenant payments were deposited to my account a few days prior? That is frustrating for me.
Rental Property Investor · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 4k+ votes
11y
I just started using the new features Cozy added, and I'm very happy with them! I love the ability to add misc charges and offline payments! I really like that there is a description feature because I can add the tenant's check number or money order information. This is a handy way to keep a rent ledger as well.
The only thing I think they took away, unless I'm not seeing it, is what stage the tenant is in regards to setting up their account. Previously it showed the 3 steps -- signed up, added bank account, verified bank account. Now it just says "Not Setup".
Investor · Bloomington, IN · Member since 2015 · 195 posts · 36 votes
11y
I'm starting out with rentals and looking for a good system to use. Cozy seems like it will work for a small number of rentals, but I might be more combursome when you start to get a larger number? Does anyone use it for more then just a few rentals and is Cozy looking to add any functionality to help landlords with large numbers?
Founder/CEO · Portland, OR · Member since 2014 · 45 posts · 93 votes
11y
@Andrew Meyer over the next 4-8 weeks we'll continue to roll out a number of fundamental changes to Cozy, including the ability to manage large numbers of units and property types. We've had more and more property management companies using our services, and we're now in the process of releasing many new improvements and new features to meet those needs. So, by mid-November Cozy will work as well if you have 400 units as it does if you have 4.
@Andrew Meyer over the next 4-8 weeks we'll continue to roll out a number of fundamental changes to Cozy, including the ability to manage large numbers of units and property types. We've had more and more property management companies using our services, and we're now in the process of releasing many new improvements and new features to meet those needs. So, by mid-November Cozy will work as well if you have 400 units as it does if you have 4.
We're excited about Q4!
That's awesome! Thank you for the reply. It is good to know the Cozy is planning on growing and will be able to work with me as I get a larger real estate business.
Lawyer · Albuquerque, NM · Member since 2010 · 1 post · 0 votes
10y
I came across this great thread inadvertently during a search for info on using Google Wallet for rent collection. Cozy sounds like a much better alternative. The only hitch, for me, is payment time. @Gino Zahnd you mentioned instant debt-to-debit: Is that already scheduled for release? Thanks for building an awesome platform!
Investor · Atascadero, CA · Member since 2015 · 238 posts · 90 votes
10y
@Gino Zahnd does push to debit mean renters will get a bill and can instantly pay it with their debit card or a credit card? Would processing be faster?
Sounds like you have a good thing going here. Thank you for being so pro active and answering questions.
Investor · Sandy, UT · Member since 2012 · 71 posts · 29 votes
10y
I've been testing out Cozy for a couple months now. I'd like to roll it out to my tenants. One big concern I have is knowing which tenant has paid. The transaction on my bank account only shows up as:
ACH Dep: STRIPE INC CO: STRIPE INC
Since I have several tenants paying the same amount for their unit, how can I verify which tenant has paid? I know that within Cozy it shows "Payment from John Doe tenant" once their payment has been submitted. However, what if they don't have sufficient funds when Cozy tries to pull the payment? Is there a notification of this? Or if they ACH payment is processed and then kicked back. I also work at a financial institution and I've seen ACH payments get reversed before. How would I know which payment was reversed?
Property Manager · Livonia, MI · Member since 2011 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y
i didn't read any of the responses or questions, but wanted to ask a question since i just signed up...
i have a company name and noticed that during the signup, it was asking for "first" and "last name". well, it's a company name, not a person.
also, i am trying to add/verify my bank account and it's doing the same thing... aasking for first and last name. the bank account is under the company name and it does NOT have a social. it has an EIN. it also asks for a DOB.
this is not very good.
why does cozy assume that only individuals will use it to collect rent?
Great questions! but really the best place to ask them are to the Cozy support team. You can reach them at [email protected]
But I'll address here for anyone who is interested:
1. You're free to put anything you want on the name lines, it doesn't have to be your personal name. You could put "OnPoint" in the first name and "Rentals" in the last name field, and that's what your tenants will see. Soon, a company field will be present, which will supersede any personal name fields.
2. You can add any checking bank account you want. Business or personal. Cozy doesn't need the EIN nor do we ask for it. The SSN verification is a requirement of federal "Know Your Customer" regulations (my nickname for them). It's just to make sure that your username/profile is a real person, not a spambot. It has nothing to do with your business. After all, we are processing millions of dollars, and security is a top concern. Once you verify your identity, then you can add any bank account.