As a landlord, there are a lot of things to worry about. You have to find tenants, make sure those tenants pay rent on time, respond to their maintenance requests, and keep your property in good condition, among other things. For most landlords, these responsibilities are on top of a full-time job.
Fortunately for you, there are property management software platforms that can help save you time and money. However, not all software platforms offer the same tools to make renting easier.
Now that Cozy has fully transitioned over to Apartments.com, here is a look at the tools that Cozy used to offer landlords that can be found on Avail and what to expect from the new Apartments.com platform.
Avail vs. Apartments.com (Cozy): Scope of Services
Apartments.com, formerly Cozy, offers products that help landlords complete the different stages of the landlord journey. Avail helps you list your rental property, find great tenants, properly screen tenants, digitally sign rental leases, collect rent, track rental income, and manage maintenance — all online. Our tools are specifically designed to make you even more efficient as a landlord.
For more clarity on how Avail compares to the new Apartment.com platform, we did a complete feature-by-feature and pricing comparison below.
1. Rental Listings
The location of your listing can impact how many tenants will see your listing, so it’s important to find a platform that posts your rental listing across multiple high-traffic sites.
Avail: Avail published your rental listings to over a dozen top listing sites including Zillow, Trulia, HotPads, Zumper, PadMapper, Apartments.com, Apartment List, Walk Score, Realtor.com®, Doorsteps.com, and affiliate sites to maximize reach to prospective tenants,. On average, landlords using Avail receive 18 leads within two weeks of listing their property.
Apartments.com (Cozy): Landlords can post their rental listings across five sites, such as Apartments.com network, including Apartments.com, ForRent.com, ApartmentFinder, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, and Apartmentos.com. However, you can publish your listings across seven more network sites if you upgrade to Premium.
Avail also offers tools to easily manage tenant leads, which can be one of the more stressful and time-consuming aspects of the screening process. View a list of prospective tenants and their contact information, have them fill out a digital rental application, and easily reply to tenant inquiries all in one place.
2. Rental Applications
Apartments.com offers digital rental applications that tenants could complete online, but Avail allows landlords to choose which reports they want to accompany the application, such as a credit, criminal, or eviction report.
Avail: Requesting a rental application from tenants is now easier than ever. Through Avail, prospective tenants are able to see what’s required to apply — including requirements to complete a credit and background check and cover the cost of these reports. Once the tenant authorizes the reports, you can view their results in minutes.
Once a tenant completes an Avail digital rental application, they are asked to provide previous landlord references with email addresses. Our system automatically sends an email to their landlord references to fill out a short questionnaire about the tenant. These responses are then sent directly to you, which can be accessed through your landlord account. This allows you to hear feedback from tenants’ prior landlords without doing any additional work.
Apartments.com (Cozy): Apartments.com provides digital rental applications that landlords can use for their rentals. Prospective tenants can apply to your rental listing and be requested to fill out a standardized rental application. You will then be provided information on their employment status, household information, and rental history.
3. Credit, Background, and Eviction Reports
It’s often recommended that a landlord requires credit, background, and eviction checks when screening a tenant, but this can differ based on local landlord-tenant laws.
Avail: Landlords can require a credit check, background check, and eviction report for a one time fee or separately, depending on what they can request from tenants. Avail landlords can choose whether the fee is paid by them or the tenant, and the whole process is transparent. Tenants can see which reports are required by the landlord before they apply and what it will cost them. After the tenant authorizes the reports you want, both you and the tenant are provided with the results in an easy-to-understand format that highlights what you need to know.
Apartments.com (Cozy): Cozy did allow landlords to run these reports for a fee, but now landlords can utilize Apartments.com to handle this task. Similar to Cozy, applicants will always be required to pay for their screening reports and the fee cannot be absorbed by the landlord.
4. Online Rental Leases
Avail offers digital, lawyer-reviewed, state-specific online leases. Apartment.com also offers online leases that are compliant with local laws, all of which could be e-signed by landlords and tenants.
Avail: Our online rental leases include every necessary rule, regulation, clause, and addendum that you’ll need as a professional landlord to comply with local ordinances. The leases automatically update as laws and regulations change, so you’ll never need to hire a lawyer to update a lease for you. Avail digital leases are also customizable through Unlimited Plus, so landlords can add in clauses specific to their property, like pet, smoking, parking, or other clauses they want included.
Avail lease agreements can be signed online by all parties for free. However, you can also upload your own ready-to-sign documents to collect digital signatures, at no additional cost. The signed lease agreement is then stored in each parties account to reference throughout the lease term.
Apartments.com (Cozy): The new Apartments.com platform offers digital leases that are expert-reviewed, specific to local ordinances, and can also be customized. Landlords and tenants can sign the lease agreement for free and access through their dashboard.
5. Online Rent Collection
Offering online rent collection can make it easier to collect on-time rent payments and track rental income for your rentals.
Avail: Tenants can elect to turn on automatic rent payments through AutoPay so they don’t have to worry about paying rent each month. With automatic payments through Avail, tenants can avoid any late fees, and landlords are five times more likely to get rent on time.
Landlords with both residential and commercial properties can also add multiple bank accounts and deposit different payments into each. This is especially important if you live in a city where it’s legally required to keep rent and deposits separate. Landlords can also opt-in for next-day rent payments, which are helpful for landlords who don’t want to wait for the delay of payment processing times.
Finally, tenants have the added bonus of turning on CreditBoost* in their accounts. Avail will automatically report every on-time rent payment to Transunion and help them build up their credit scores, incentivizing tenants to pay rent on time and helping them get something in return for their rent payments.
Apartments.com (Cozy): Landlords with residential properties were automatically migrated to Apartments.com to manage their rental property. However, those with commercial properties in their portfolio can no longer utilize the new landlord software to collect rent from tenants.
6. Rental Property Accounting
As a landlord, you’ll be responsible for bookkeeping your rental income and operating expenses to report on your tax forms. To ensure you fill out your taxes correctly, it may be worth investing in a platform that can help you keep track of your rental property income and expenses.
Avail: Avail allows you to track your income and expenses for multiple properties with the Rental Property Accounting tool. If you’re already using Avail to collect rent payments and manage maintenance requests, your transactions will automatically populate to your dashboard with information on the payer, the total amount, and when it was collected. You can also upload receipts, invoices, and payment confirmations to each transaction to reference in the future or share with tax professionals. Your income and expense tracker can also be exported into a spreadsheet to further customize or share with your accountant.
Apartments.com (Cozy): Apartments.com has launched an expense tracker to help landlords simplify the bookkeeping process for their rentals. Each expense can be assigned a tax category and include an image of all associated receipts for future referencing. However, you will need to navigate to the “Payments” tab to see how much rental income you’ve collected for each month. The expense dashboard can also be exported as a .PDF format or a spreadsheet to help you file your taxes or share with an accountant.
7. Maintenance Tracking
Avail: Through Avail, tenants can submit maintenance tickets with photos and a description of the issue. Landlords can assess the request, communicate with the tenant within their account, and track repairs and receipts. This way, maintenance requests are easy to file and transparent, and landlords have a full record of prior maintenance at the property.
Apartments.com (Cozy): Cozy offered a similar tool where tenants can submit maintenance requests and photos, track repair progress, and communicate with their landlord. This can still be found on Apartments.com to handle maintenance requests.
8. Landlord Pricing
Avail: Avail is free for all landlords, no matter how many units you have. You can upgrade your account to Unlimited Plus for $5/per unit per month for next-day payments, waived ACH fees, and a customized property marketing website.
Apartments.com (Cozy): The new Apartments.com site is free for landlords that own residential properties. Those with different types of properties are not eligible to use the platform.
9. Extra Features
Avail offers a Rent Analysis report that provides a rent estimate for your property, rent benchmarks for your area, county rent trends, and other information to help you competitively price your rental.You can also earn up to $500 in account credit by referring 10 landlords who successfully create an Avail account through the Avail Referral program.
Manage Your Rentals With Avail
Managing a rental property can be stressful, but landlord software can help you save time and money without a property manager. With Avail, you can manage more than one rental property and streamline various aspects of the renting process. From advertising your rental property to managing rental property accounting, there are various tools that can alleviate the stress of landlording.
Create an account today to set up your rental properties.
*CreditBoost results may vary by individual.
FAQs
Is avail a legit website? ›
Avail is a great option for listing, leasing and rent collection, which is a HUGE help. It's not perfect but for the price I think it's the best option right now. I'd recommend for anyone with small portfolios or just starting out. The software is great about streamlining processes.
What does avail mean for apartments? ›Avail: Tenants can elect to turn on automatic rent payments through AutoPay so they don't have to worry about paying rent each month. With automatic payments through Avail, tenants can avoid any late fees, and landlords are five times more likely to get rent on time.
Is cozy the same as apartments com? ›Apartments.com (formerly Cozy) is a powerful free rental property software that helps landlords collect rent, track expenses, communicate with tenants, and market properties.
What is the lowest credit score for an apartment? ›What Credit Score Do You Need To Rent an Apartment? There's no set minimum credit score to rent an apartment, but you'll have the best luck with a score approaching 670. This score is considered “good” according to FICO scoring models. A score lower than 620 could make renting more difficult.
What credit report does avail use? ›Through Avail, landlords can request TransUnion credit reports from prospective tenants. These reports show a tenant's credit score, as well as an individual's detailed payment history for things like credit cards, auto loans, student loans, and mortgages.
Is avail app secure? ›Our servers are maintained by a reputable third-party service provider and housed in a secured facility. We separate the application server (servers that you interact with) and the database servers (servers that store our data).
Does Avail affect credit score? ›It's important to note that adding a tradeline to your credit history can result in a short-term decrease in your credit score. The main reason a renter would see a dip in their credit is because the new tradeline from Avail decreases the average age of your accounts that are being reported.
What is an Avail status? ›The status “On Avail” typically indicates that a talent, or representative, has confirmed that they are available to work during the shoot dates of a project.
What is an Avail check? ›An “avail check” quite simply refers to the fact that casting is double checking your availability for the shoot dates of the role you're in consideration for.
Is the cozy app safe? ›Despite a strong stance on privacy and security, Cozy Cloud doesn't encrypt your stored files, making it risky for storing any sensitive information you haven't encrypted yourself. Cozy Drive makes it easy to import your files from different places through an impressive number of native and third-party apps.
Who is cozy owned by? ›
Cozy was bought by Apartments.com in 2018.
Does cozy report to credit bureaus? ›Cozy: Property management portal for landlords that reports rental history to credit bureaus without charging the renter. Basic service is free for the landlord.
Can a 600 credit score get you an apartment? ›“Each landlord is different, but most landlords and property managers look for a credit score above 600,” Fluegge says. FICO® and VantageScore® credit scores typically range from 300 to 850. An applicant with a higher credit score might be considered to have shown a pattern of managing their finances responsibly.
What credit score do most apartments approve? ›Landlords generally look for a credit score of 650 or above to approve a rental application. They're unlikely to approve you with poor credit history, but might consider you if you can demonstrate current financial stability paired with a decent score.
Can I get an apartment with a 480 credit score? ›The simple answer is yes. You can rent an apartment even if you have bad credit, but you may need to do some extra work to convince the landlord to accept you as a tenant. Another option is to look for apartment rentals that do not require a credit check at all.
How do I show my credit score to my landlord? ›Experian says rental applicants can pay $19.95 to buy a copy of their Experian credit report online and choose to grant one or more prospective landlords access to view their credit report for up to 30 days. Personal information, including Social Security and account numbers, are not shared with prospective landlords.
How does credit boost work on avail? ›How Does CreditBoost Work? With CreditBoost, we report a tradeline to TransUnion. Depending on the scoring model of the bureau or the financial party, such as FICO2, FICO Score 9, VantageScore, etc., they may include this tradeline in their calculation of a renter's credit score.
What site do banks use for credit score? ›There are three main companies that collect credit data and create credit reports and scores, these are called Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs), they are: TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax.
How does avail com make money? ›Rent Collections and Payments
Avail charges a $2.50 fee per bank transfer, and a 3.5% processing fee for debit & credit card transactions.
About this app
What is Avail? Avail is a job opportunities market place for Heavy Goods Vehicle drivers, designed to give the. power back to the drivers. It connects drivers directly to hauliers.
How do I know if an app is legit? ›
Google the name of the developer to find out information about them. This will give you a sense of whether they are reputable or not. Sometimes, a counterfeit app may have the same developer name as its original counterparts, with one or two letters changed to trick users into believing they are the real deal.
Can you get denied a loan with good credit? ›Even if your credit history is OK, and you have made all your monthly payments on time, you may have your loan application denied if your debt-to-income ratio (the sum of all your debts divided by your monthly income) is too high.
Can you be denied for credit? ›Payment history is the most important factor of your credit score, which makes it essential to pay every bill on time. Late or missed payments have a significant negative impact on your credit score and can be the reason you're denied.
Does getting denied hurt credit? ›But getting denied doesn't directly hurt your credit scores. Instead, applying may lower your credit scores—usually by just a few points, according to credit-scoring company FICO®—because applying for a credit card will trigger a hard inquiry.
How do I use avail? ›1. If you avail yourself of an offer or an opportunity, you accept the offer or make use of the opportunity. Guests should feel at liberty to avail themselves of your facilities.
What does 1st avail mean? ›“First avail” means that you have confirmed your availability, but the Casting Director cannot book you right away. You are not booked unless you accept an offer for work and receive details. So when you are on first avail, you are not officially booked and are still able to look for other work.
What is the difference between on hold and on avail? ›If a performer has been put on “hold,” the producer has engaged the performer and a cancellation fee is due if the producer cancels the engagement. A cancellation fee would not be paid when a performer is placed on an “avail” and not used. These terms are not always used properly.
What is the difference between pin and avail check? ›Hooray! Now what does that mean, exactly? 'Pin' is a reference to pinning your headshot to a cork board (or whatever,) and 'avail' is shorthand for 'keep yourself available.
What does it mean when a casting director pins you? ›Answer: After an audition, you may get a phone call from your agent with the news that the casting office has “put a pin in you.” What this means is that the casting office has recommended you as a potential hire to the production team. This does not mean you've booked the job, just that you're a finalist.
How do you know if you did well in an audition? ›How do you know if an audition went well? You can usually tell that an audition went well if the casting team spends a lot of time interacting with you in the room. They might ask you to try a scene a different way (see #2 below) or sing another song.
Is Cozi really free? ›
The free version of Cozi offers a shared calendar, lists, and recipes the whole family can access and update. Cozi Gold is the ad-free version of Cozi which also includes premium features and VIP customer support.
How much does Cozi cost? ›Enjoy a 100% ad-free experience. Get access to all the premium features + VIP customer support. All for $29.99 per year (that's only $2.50 per month). Get started today!
How does cozy work? ›Apartments.com, formerly Cozy is a property management platform that allows you to list, lease, find, and rent properties online. It offers a virtual search tool that links advertisers with millions of potential tenants, ensuring that your property is rented at a high rate of return.
Is Innago really free? ›Pricing. Innago helps landlords find suitable tenants, efficiently collect rent online, and more. There is no cost to get set up, no monthly fee, and no contract, making it a great choice for those looking to save on rental property management.
Is Turbo tenant legitimate? ›Yes, we are legit – there are no TurboTenant scams here!