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 · Atascadero, CA · Member since 2015 · 238 posts · 90 votes
9y
@Lee Kowal I could see your point if Cozy charged renters for all forms of payment but paying your rent with a credit card is your choice, not the landlords. The total rent amount is due to the landlord, not the rent less what it costs you to send the money. If you drive it over can you charge for gas? If you purchase a money order can you take the fee off your rent? Open a checking account and have the money taken out with no fee.
New York, NY · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 0 votes
9y
Yes, I know. that makes it convenient for you, but not for me. And therefore, I am being punished if I want to pay by credit card. Not fond of that concept, especially since I have been paying by credit card for nearly three years now. Suddenly to do so, means my rent has essentially gone up 260.00 per year, if I choose that option. Sucks!
So in order to make YOUR company work, I have to play by your rules - which were not my landlord's original requirement and by comparison to PayPal, your payment methods seem a bit more outrageous.
Glad that works for you. Makes me want to find a different place to have my studio.
Besides which, I just signed up for a, hopefully, one time ACH payment and it's not going through and I have to wait for 5 days???? And you are going to send money to my account just to test it? Will that true for each checking account I put on there, each month? I do not want a reoccurring option.
New York, NY · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 0 votes
9y
@Ronda R. No, but if I buy groceries or gas, there is no extra fee charged for the "privilege" of using my credit card. The concept that irks me is that I am now being asked to take on a charge that others do not ask for. A charge that others in the world of credit card payments roll into their pricing. I don't ask my customers/clients to pay a service charge just to buy my artwork or products when they pay by credit card. Do I prefer they pay by check? Probably. But that's really not the point, is it?
Yes, I understand I can go to my bank and set up another checking account devoted to simply paying my rent. I just don't understand why I should have to do that.
New York, NY · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 0 votes
9y
@Ronda R ...@Jordann B
"It's important to note that you can't add the fees in states whose laws ban them, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.
Merchants who accept American Express have something else to think about, according to the federation. To add the surcharge to Visa and MasterCard transactions, merchants must also add it to those on American Express transactions. But American Express rules prevent the addition of a surcharge to any transaction. So merchants who want to add the surcharge cannot do so if they accept American Express cards"
Investor · Mcdonough, GA · Member since 2017 · 8 posts · 4 votes
9y
I'm giving Cozy a shot and set it up this past month. I'm asking my tenants to provide feedback and will go from there. My normal method was just through check. Paypal didn't seem like a good option to me because of possible charge backs.
Still, I don't like the idea of tenants having to pay fees to pay me, so I'm hoping they will use ACH payments. If not they can still just pay me with check. If they choose to use a credit card then it's their choice and their fees. I was up pretty upfront with payment methods before we signed the lease.
I'm wary of tenants who use credit or borrowed money to pay rent, because they may not be able to stay tenants for long.
Investor · Atascadero, CA · Member since 2015 · 238 posts · 90 votes
9y
@Steven Chandler I give my tenants a choice too. They can use cozy or send a check. Most have chosen to use Cozy because of it's convenience, and I agree, if they choose to use their credit card then it is their fees.
Linthicum, MD · Member since 2017 · 1 post · 0 votes
8y
I've had a terrible experience with Cozy. Everything set up fine, but when applications came in and they applied and did their credit and background check, I could not access them. Tech support was NO help. they kept throwing it back/blaming Experian. When I tried another site also using Experian for identity verification, it worked flawlessly. Told them about it and nothing..... They said I had to wait 3 days and TRY to verify my identity again, but no guarantees. So here I have live tenants that have applied and I cannot see their info...... Cannot intelligently respond to them as to the status of their application.... So I would NOT recommend Cozy.
Real Estate Broker · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2015 · 65 posts · 25 votes
8y
That's weird, I've never had any problems accessing credit and background checks with Cozy, and I've had good luck with their tech support. The initial Experian identity verification can be irksome, but that's a one-time deal and once it's done it's smooth sailing.
Aurora, OR · Member since 2017 · 44 posts · 58 votes
8y
My $.02. I currently use Cozy.co for tenant screening and monthly payment processing. The screening process was smooth and I received positive feedback from my applicants and final selection.
The payment processing works well but it is slow. For payments paid by the tenant on the 1st, it will rarely hit the bank account prior to the 7th or 8th of the following month. I also found the "user uploaded" renter's insurance procedure to be very clunky and abandoned it as a method of storing the policy docs.
The selling point of Cozy for me was the very detailed and helpful videos they have produced for both the Landlord and the Tenant.