All Forum Posts by: Yvonne H.

Caveat, I do use cozy to advertise.

@Matt A. I agree with you on most everything about erentpayment but Cozy is not the answer, and I can't speak to the others.  True erentpayment does NOT deserve my business and they were truly horrible...they even got rid of being able to talk to a person on the phone during the debacle...I am embarrassed to say that I still use it. Why, you may ask, am I still using this shameful company?  Because I had so many tenants and properties already set up and I have not had time to put in the work to get all those properties set up and make tenants get their info transferred to another service.

That being said I still recommend against cozy. Why? Because they are not up to par and I don't want to set up my properties on cozy to save $1, only to have to move to another new service a third time. I did try cozy as a replacement and immediately realized it was not going to do what I needed. It's extremely important to me to be able to see if tenants have submitted their payments, and I don't want to have to keep track on day 6 of who needs a late fee sent much less chase after my tenants for it. 

Even if I only owned one property I would not use cozy until they provide those 2 things that currently they do not. It's worth $1 to not have to chase late fees. I am looking for a service that will do what erentpayment does, but that has better customer service. I'm probably going to give appfolio a try. 

erentpayment

I don't know all of those but 2 reasons I do not use Cozy are:

-I can't tell immediately when a tenant has submitted a payment and I don't get an email notification about it

-I have to manually charge a late fee if a tenant pays late, which puts that burden fully on me, whereas the current service I use automatically charges it if the tenant pays late.

Seth, I also want to throw this out as an idea. In my area we have a lot of apartments that are used as student housing for Nascar Tech. So, 4 young men in a 2 bedroom apartment. In those situations there is a generally a vacuum of responsibility regarding cleanliness. As a result, the housing entities charge a slightly higher rate, which is used to pay for monthly inspections. You can hear the students freaking out a couple of days before the inspection. "I can't go out tonight because we have our apartment inspection tomorrow". The dirtiest one of the bunch, who doesn't keep clean and help out, quickly gets booted out. 
If you are going to continue renting to a dormitory-type situation, it might be worth your while to pay someone $50 to go in your property once a month and make sure the tenants are keeping the place hygienically acceptable. 

I would want these tenants gone as easily and quickly as possible BUT without losing any more money. The parents have watched way to much HGTV. 

Mold allergies are real--I am allergic myself, and I applaud you for taking the complaints seriously and being diligent in remediating. However, HGTV has convinced people that mold is the new asbestos. Based on what you have told us, I would guess that the tenants themselves could be causing the mold situation. Check their toilets, check their showers.  Check the heat to see if they are keeping the place adequately heated. If there are 4 young men living there, I suggest there will be mold under the rim of the toilet. Document that. Then you could offer a "couple of solutions". 
"I have been diligent in addressing the issue on my end. The abatement experts have agreed with me. If you still want to end your tenancy, I can let you out of the lease, but I'll need you to work out a month's notice, and be sure to keep the place immaculate so I can find a quality tenant and have a new tenant move in immediately. Alternatively, you are free to hire an abatement expert. Just so you know, it will cost you upwards of $600, I myself paid more to remediate the mold that was created when your boys didn't take care proper care of the dryer. The experts may find that your boys' negligence caused even more problems than we earlier thought. Let me know which option you prefer."

You need to know whether or not their is a mortgage. What leads you to believe there is? Call the Dade County Recorder. They can verify whether or not there is/was a mortgage and if it has been cancelled.  

I will soon max out my 10 allowed Fannie Mae/Freddie loans on my SFR rental homes. I'm looking for financing with fixed rate and term, such as 30 or 20 year fixed that is NOT Fannie or Freddie.
Please let me know what you have. Thanks in advance.