Avail vs. Cozy comparison which Is right for you

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 and cozy vs avail comparison chart

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 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, regardless of your number of units. You can upgrade your account to Unlimited Plus for $7/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.