Innago, Cozy, other FREE PM software, what's the catch?

Question

Hey all, was wondering what everyone's thoughts and/or experience has been with these free property and landlord management softwares. I'm a little hesitant and feel like there is a catch given that they are free, such as selling our data or using it for other purposes that much of us would not like. I don't have too many properties, 10 units, and they barely break even so very price sensitive due to local rent control and covet moratorium issues. Would love to hear any thoughts or experience with these platforms. To note, I do not care for any tenants being able to make auto payments or anything of that nature really. Given that I do not want to deal with those creative tenants that may not pay eventually and have to go through an eviction, so they're free lawyers or tenant advocates will advice them to use and make a digital payment, which would make things a lot worse in trying to reimburse them since if you receive or accept payment it automatically usually voids your active notice or eviction case and you have to start over.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Most of the softwares are free with limited services, hoping you will upgrade for better features. I use professional software that is expensive, but I have tested some of the others. TenantCloud was pretty robust for free and it gets better if you upgrade to the paid version. It's pretty inexpensive considering the time-saving features it includes.Here are some things to consider: Most investors don't need software until they have 5-10 rentals. All you need is a single place to track tenant information, payment history, maintenance, and a few other things. You can easily do this on a spreadsheet and it will take less time to track than it would to find and learn a new software. If the software is not simplifying your life or making you more accurate, you shouldn't use it.Software does have extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports. But do you really need that for your one rental? There's no perfect software out there. Every system you try will have flaws or you'll salivate over a feature that shows up in other software. Some common names you'll see thrown around a lot: Stessa, Apartments.com, RentRedi, TenantCloud, Innago, RentManager, Avail, Rentec Direct, Doorloop, etc. I recommend you search for each of those apps online and see what they offer, how much they charge, etc. Make a simple spreadsheet or written list with the features of each and see which ones appeal to you most. Try to narrow it down to your top 3-4. Once you have a short list, get an account with each one and run them through the wringer to see how they really function. Do one task at a time in each app so you can compare apples to apples. Load a property with pictures and details.Market that property.See what your marketing looks like from the public's perspective.Submit a fake application to see how easy the process is. Run a credit/screening report on yourself. Enter a maintenance request, assign a vendor, attach a fake invoice. Enter charges to the tenant's ledger. Enter recurring charges and automatic late fees. Sign documents electronically. Run owner reports. After testing a few apps, one of them should stand out for you. Choose that one and use it. No system is perfect, so don't waste your time chasing after the next shiny object. You should only have to change when your current software has a flaw or lacking feature that is causing you to spend too much work on a work-around. Then you can consider researching and finding something that meets your needs better.

Tommy Parker · Answer

Well for me Innago has worked really well. My portfolio isn't massive and maybe that's the only con with Innago there but I have 40 units and it's been working great for me. I integrate it with Quickbooks for accounting. Other than that it's been great and highly suggest. It really is free.

Jonathan Taylor Smith · Answer

Before moving to a paid PM software system, I made use of Cozy for a few years. It was fine but lacked some features I wanted. And if I recall correctly, you can block a tenant from being able to make payments online. Not sure if they sold data or not. But I know they made money from tenant screening and rent payments - so maybe that's the "catch"?

Jake Andronico · Answer

@Justine M.Nobody seems to talk about Turbotenant, but it's by far my favorite after trying 4 different platforms (Cozy.co, Apartments.com (bought Cozy), Avail.co, and Turbotenant). I've gotten positive feedback from almost any tenant without even bringing it up. It is worth much more than the $9 or a so per month IMO. The "catch" is they'll draw you in for free and then monetize in other ways. Extremely common practice in most SaaS businesses. I decided to go for the paid version up front and do not regret it in the slightest. Best of luck to you!

Scott Trench · Answer

I think there are a lot of good points and a lot of good options out there. I use RentRedi, which is not free. But, it is free with a BiggerPockets Pro Membership and I think the featureset is excellent. I've gone ahead and give you a complimentary Pro Membership that you can use until July 31st. That should let you test the RentRedi product and see if it is for you.

Tim Miller · Answer

Cozy is now Apartments.com and most of these software are not really free. They'll make their money up on selling other services, like credit checks, back ground checks or they charge for ACH. Now mostly you can have the tenant pay for this and hence, it's free for you to use. As for tenants making payments in the middle of an eviction or any other dispute. You can control this, you can set the service to only accept full rental payments or partial or accept future payments. You can even turn the payment option off on a tenant. We've been using Innago for a few years now and haven't had any issues.