If you’re a real estate investor, landlord, property manager, or rental property owner, you know that staying organized is key to success. That’s why you need the right software to help you manage your properties. 

So, should you use Innago or Apartments.com (formerly Cozy)? Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons of each, along with an overview of another popular rental property management software – Stessa – so you can decide which is best for you.

Innago overview

Innago can be used for residential properties, commercial buildings, and student housing.

Pricing

Innago provides free software for finding tenants, collecting rent online, and more. There is no cost to set up, no monthly cost, and no contract. Innago charges tenants for screening and online rent payments. However, landlords can choose to pay for these services themselves.

Software features

• Innago posts vacancy listings to various listing sites.
• Creating a listing for a property is easy with the step-by-step guide. Landlords can add property details and policies, upload images and videos, and publish to selected rental listing websites. Landlords can get insight into applicants’ financial history, including open accounts, payment history, credit history, collections, inquiries, and more.
• Landlords can access criminal records from all 50 states, as well as the national sex offender registry.
• With Innago, landlords can tap into one of the largest eviction databases in the country, covering all 50 states plus Washington, D.C.
• Custom tenant applications can be built.
• Lease templates make it easy to get the right document with the correct information for your property, including rental amounts, move-in dates, and pet addendums.
• Innago provides cloud-based file storage that allows users to upload, share, and manage documents securely and easily.
• Tenants receive automatic reminders and notifications when rent is due, with a convenient payment button within the email.
• Tenants can pay rent online using their checking or savings account, debit/credit card, or mobile device, and landlords can receive the funds within one business day.
• Every tenant can submit a maintenance request by selecting the appropriate category, stating the problem, and attaching photos and/or videos.
• Landlords can respond to maintenance requests from the Innago app, track updates, and inform tenants of timeline changes.

Apartments.com (formerly Cozy) overview

Cozy, which is now part of the Apartments.com family, lets landlords manage all aspects of their rental properties from one platform. 

Pricing

The Apartments.com website offers free tools to help you manage your property. This includes listing a vacant property, accepting rent applications, screening tenants, generating and signing a lease, collecting rent payments online, tracking and organizing expenses, and receiving and managing maintenance requests.

Apartments.com charges people to list their homes for rent, charges prospective tenants to apply for a rental, and collects a fee when rent is paid with a debit or credit card.

Software features

• After listing a home for rent on Apartments.com, the property is automatically placed on 5 of the most popular websites on the Apartments.com network. This includes ForRent.com, Apartment Finder, ApartmentHomeLiving, and Apartamentos.com.
• Landlords can get more people to see their property by purchasing a premium listing. This will put their property higher in search results, and they can also upload videos of the property.
• Applicants verify their identities and pay for tenant screening, with reports running as “soft inquiries” to ensure that credit isn’t affected.
• Credit reports are created by TransUnion and show an applicant’s total debt, credit payment history, employment, and address history.
• Criminal and eviction reports are generated by searching national databases and county records.
• Landlords can create a lease document using the Apartments.com online wizard. 
• Lease forms are customized based on property location with help from industry and local jurisdiction experts.
• Digital signatures allow you to sign leases online and store them in a safe place. You can access them whenever you need to.
• Tenants can set up recurring payments online.
• Rent payments are free for tenants who use an Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer, while tenants using a debit or credit card pay a small fee.
• Landlords receive payments directly into their bank accounts each month.
• Tenants can make maintenance requests online and include photos and videos.
• An online portal keeps tenants up to date about maintenance. 
• Landlords can track receipts, images, and notes to provide a clear record.

Innago vs. Apartments.com

Here’s a breakdown to help you decide which platform is right for you.

Listings

Innago makes it easy for landlords to list their vacant rental properties. Landlords can enter information, upload photos and videos, and publish to listing sites with just a few clicks. Innago provides a dedicated listing URL, so landlords can manage all their listings from one place. The changes will automatically be implemented on all selected listing sites. 

When you add a listing to Apartments.com, it will automatically post to 5 other websites. In addition, landlords who want more exposure for a vacant property can pay for a premium listing with increased search result placement, a larger ad, and videos of the property.

Tenant screening

Innago tenant screening provides insight into open accounts, payment history, credit score, and more. Credit checks are soft pulls, so they won’t affect the applicant’s credit score. All reports include tenant judgments, unlawful detainers, failure to pay rent, writs, and warrants of eviction. Innago’s custom application builder allows landlords to build a tenant application from scratch.

Apartments.com uses TransUnion to check criminal and eviction records and credit scores. Applicants can verify their identities and pay for the screening. The reports will not affect people’s credit scores. Comprehensive tenant screening reports from Apartments.com include employment and address history, total reported debt breakdown, and in-depth credit account payment history.

Leasing

Innago lets landlords create custom lease templates. The company’s digital signature partner, HelloSign, provides convenience and security. Sign and store as many leases and other documents as you like, and easily upload and share so tenants can access necessary paperwork and disclosures, or keep a sensitive file private for your records.

Apartments.com’s online wizard helps landlords create a state-compliant lease agreement. The wizard takes landlords through a step-by-step process, and the lease forms have been expert-reviewed. The forms are customized for locale, and digital signatures are used to execute all documents. 

Online rent collection

Innago allows tenants to pay rent online. They can use any payment method, including a checking or savings account or a debit/credit card. Landlords can manually enter payments received. Funds are sent to a landlord’s bank account in one business day, free of charge.

Apartments.com lets tenants pay rent online. They can set up a schedule to run each month. Apartments.com also lets landlords see how much rent each tenant has paid, if any tenants are past due, and when they are supposed to pay next.

Financial reporting

Landlords can enter information using Innago, such as payers, payment amounts, payment categories, and accounts. Innago also provides performance reports. These reports include data on bank deposits, rent roll, and more. The software also supports multiple businesses, individuals, and bank accounts.

Landlords can use Apartments.com to track expenses for each property. They can assign them to specific Schedule E tax categories and upload and attach receipts and images to store everything online. The expense entry template includes fields for vendor and payment date, amount, and IRS expense category, as well as a section for adding notes about the expense.

Tax management

Innago users can export all financial records into Excel and other financial programs. The software also integrates with QuickBooks web accounts, directly recording rental payments, custom invoices, and expenses into your QuickBooks account. 

Landlords and property managers who use Apartments.com for tax management can download expenses based on the calendar year or a custom date range. They can also include receipt images in the download as a backup. Expense reports are generated in a CSV and PDF format following Schedule E.

Stessa vs. Innago vs. Apartments.com

Some owners of small property portfolios may not need all the features of Innago and Apartments.com. 

That’s why Stessa, a Roofstock company, created an easy-to-use financial management system. With Stessa, real estate investors can track property performance, finances, and paperwork in one place. 

Stessa has also expanded its feature coverage to include tenant applications and screening, publishing vacancies, eSigning (with the paid plan), rent collection, landlord banking services, and document storage. Its iOS and Android mobile apps keep you connected to your portfolio on the go and offer automated receipt scanning that’s particularly helpful around tax time.

Just sign up for a free account and enter some basic information about your properties, and you’re good to go. Stessa allows you to:

• Organize and categorize transactions automatically from connected bank, lender, credit card, and property management accounts.
• Get 24/7 visibility into your portfolio’s performance.
• Generate income statements, net cash flow reports, balance sheets, and more.
• Connect to your property management software for a complete portfolio summary.
• Collect rent through ACH payments – free for property owners and tenants.
• Publish a vacancy for rent and syndicate it out across a variety of websites for maximum exposure to high quality tenants.
• Use Stessa’s tenant screening tool and free rental applications.
• Open an FDIC-insured high-yield bank account* for each property and seamlessly integrate them with Stessa’s financial tracking features.
• Add an unlimited number of properties.
• Invite other investors with different access levels.
• Access a suite of tax resources created in partnership with The Real Estate CPA.
• Upload your own document, tag it for digital signatures, and send to tenants, vendors, partners, etc. 

To learn more about Stessa, visit the website here.

*Stessa is not a bank. Stessa is a financial technology company.Terms and conditions, features and pricing are subject to change. This article, and the Stessa Blog in general, is intended for informational and educational purposes only, and is not investment, tax, financial planning, financial, legal, or real estate advice.