Cozy is Gone — Avail Review for Landlords: What Replaced Cozy

If you came looking for Cozy, here is the short version: the standalone Cozy platform is gone. Cozy (Cozy.co) was acquired by CoStar Group — the company behind Apartments.com — and its rent-collection, application, and screening tools were folded into the Apartments.com landlord product, retiring the Cozy brand. The tool most landlords now reach for as a Cozy replacement is Avail, a separate all-in-one platform built for the same small, self-managing landlord. This independent review explains what happened, what Avail actually does, how its screening works and who controls it, and where a dedicated screening service serves you better. We are not affiliated with Cozy, Avail, Apartments.com, or Realtor.com — this is an editorial assessment for landlords deciding what to use now.

Two clarifications up front, because the ownership history is genuinely confusing and a lot of pages get it wrong. First, Cozy and Avail were separate companies that were never merged into each other — Cozy went to CoStar/Apartments.com, while Avail was later acquired by Move, Inc., the parent of Realtor.com. Avail did not absorb Cozy; it simply became the platform many former Cozy users switched to on their own because it fills the same gap. Second, software features and prices change frequently, so treat every specific in this review as a category description to verify on the provider’s own site, not a fixed fact.

Below, a short overview video summarizes the landscape; the sections that follow cover what happened to Cozy, what Avail is and does, how its screening model works, the honest pros and cons, who it fits, and how it compares with running your tenant screening through a dedicated, landlord-controlled service.

Cozy.co earned a loyal following among independent landlords for one reason: it made self-management genuinely free and simple. You could list a unit, take an online application, run a basic screening report, and collect rent without paying a monthly software bill. For a landlord with one to a handful of units, that was a compelling package, and Cozy grew to tens of thousands of users on the strength of it.

That is also what made it an acquisition target. In 2018, CoStar Group — the real-estate data company that owns Apartments.com — acquired Cozy. CoStar’s stated plan was to integrate Cozy’s rent-payment, online-application, and tenant-screening technology into the much larger Apartments.com audience. Over the following period, that is essentially what happened: the standalone Cozy experience was wound down, and its capabilities were absorbed into the Apartments.com landlord tools. If you type in the old Cozy address today, you are routed into the Apartments.com ecosystem rather than the product you remember.

For landlords, the practical effect is a changed landscape. The functionality Cozy offered largely still exists, but under a different product with a different structure, a different interface, and a company whose primary business is a large rental marketplace rather than a lightweight landlord toolkit. Some former Cozy users are happy to run their rentals through Apartments.com; many others went looking for something that felt more like the focused, landlord-first tool they lost. That search is why so much Cozy-related traffic now lands on reviews of Avail.

Avail is a property-management platform built for independent, do-it-yourself landlords — typically those managing a small portfolio rather than a large professional operation. Its pitch is the same one that made Cozy popular: instead of stitching together a listing site, an application form, a screening vendor, a rent-collection app, and a lease template from five different places, you run the whole rental lifecycle from one account. That focus on the small self-managing owner is exactly why it became the natural home for landlords displaced by Cozy’s retirement.

Avail is now owned by Move, Inc., the parent company behind Realtor.com, but it continues to operate as its own product aimed specifically at the do-it-yourself landlord. Like Cozy before it, Avail is generally offered on a free-to-start basis for the landlord, with revenue coming from a paid per-unit upgrade tier and from screening fees the applicant usually pays. That free tier is a big part of why it appeals to the budget-conscious owner who valued Cozy’s zero-cost model. As always, confirm the current cost structure on Avail’s site, because the boundary between the free and paid tiers shifts over time.

Rather than list every button, it is more useful to think in the categories a landlord actually needs, and treat the specifics as things to verify. Across the platform you will generally find the following:

Marketing and Listing Syndication

The syndication feature is one of the more genuinely time-saving parts of the platform. You build a listing once and it is distributed to a network of major rental-listing sites, so you are not re-entering the same details across half a dozen accounts. For a landlord filling a vacancy, wider distribution usually means more applicants and a faster lease-up. The exact set of partner sites changes, so check which ones reach renters in your specific market.

Online Applications and Rent Collection

Applications are digital and typically bundled with the screening authorization, which streamlines intake. Rent collection covers the essentials most small landlords want: online payment, automatic reminders that reduce the chase, and automated late fees. One practical caveat landlords mention is that the no-cost bank-transfer option can settle more slowly than an expedited transfer, so factor timing into your cash flow — faster payments have historically been part of the paid tier. If online rent is your main goal, our guide on how to collect rent online compares the trade-offs across methods.

Leases, Documents, Maintenance, and Accounting

Lease tools generally include state-specific templates and e-signature, with clone-and-autofill features that speed up renewals — historically a strength of Avail relative to more general platforms. The maintenance portal lets tenants submit and track requests and keeps a communication log, useful for documentation if a dispute ever arises. Accounting is present but on the lighter side, with fuller income-and-expense tracking on the paid tier. These are competent features for a small landlord, if lighter than what a dedicated enterprise property-management system offers.

Screening is the feature that matters most, because it is the decision that determines whether you spend the next year collecting rent or chasing it. Avail offers screening reports drawn through a credit-bureau partner, generally covering a credit report, a criminal-records search, and an eviction-history search, and sometimes identity verification and income insights. That report content is solid on paper. The mechanics of how it is ordered are where landlords should pay close attention.

The Applicant-Initiated Model

Avail’s default screening, like Cozy’s before it, is typically applicant-initiated: the renter authorizes and pays for their own report, and you view the results. This has a real upside — it costs the landlord nothing and keeps the authorization clean. But it also hands the timing of your most important decision to the applicant. If a renter delays, hesitates, or never completes the screening, your lease-up stalls, and on a competitive property a slow applicant can cost you a better one. A landlord-controlled model, by contrast, lets you run the report when you decide.

How Deep Does Platform Screening Go?

Bundled screening built into an all-in-one platform is convenient, but it is generally a standard package rather than a configurable, landlord-grade report. Depending on the plan, it may not include a full nationwide criminal database, the most detailed credit-file data, or comprehensive eviction history pulled from every state. For a light initial look that can be fine; for the applicant you are about to hand keys and a year-long lease, many landlords want more depth than a bundled add-on provides. Our best tenant screening service guide lays out what a landlord-grade report should contain.

What the Screening Does and Does Not Decide

A screening report surfaces the facts — a credit picture, a criminal record where legally reportable, prior eviction filings, and identity confirmation. It does not make the decision for you, and it does not guarantee completeness on every applicant. You still have to read the full report, apply consistent written criteria to every applicant to stay on the right side of fair-housing rules, and verify income separately if the tier you use does not include it. Our guides on how to screen tenants and red flags on a rental application cover how to read what a report shows you.

We are deliberately not quoting exact prices, because platform pricing changes and an outdated number helps no one. The shape of the pricing, however, is stable enough to describe:

• Free tier. The landlord generally pays nothing to list units, take applications, run basic screening, and collect rent by standard bank transfer. This is the core of the platform’s appeal and the closest thing to Cozy’s old zero-cost model.
• Paid per-unit tier. A premium plan — historically priced per unit per month — unlocks the more valuable extras: expedited or lower-fee payments, waived or reduced screening fees, custom applications and leases, clone-and-autofill, fuller accounting, and enhanced support. Whether it is worth it depends on how much you value those specific tools.
• Screening fee. The screening report itself carries a per-applicant fee that the renter usually pays under the applicant-initiated model, so it does not come out of the landlord’s pocket directly — unless you are on a plan that waives it.

Before you rely on any of this, check the current pricing and what each tier includes on Avail’s own site — that is the only source that stays accurate. When comparing the true cost of screening across options, our tenant screening cost guide breaks down what you are actually paying for.

Every platform is a set of trade-offs. Here is a fair accounting of what landlords consistently praise and what they consistently flag, kept general enough to stay accurate as the product evolves.

The right verdict depends entirely on the landlord. Avail is a strong fit for some and a poor one for others.

If your central need is not an all-in-one dashboard but simply running thorough, compliant screening reports whenever you choose, a broad platform is the wrong tool for that one job — a dedicated screening service is. That is the comparison the next section makes directly. If you are also weighing other named platforms, our TurboTenant review and Zillow Rental Manager review cover the closest alternatives, and property management vs. self-managing helps decide whether a platform is even the right path.

This is where an honest review has to draw a clear line. An all-in-one platform bundles screening as one feature among many; a dedicated screening service makes screening the entire product. For the decision that most determines whether a tenancy goes well, that focus matters.

The two are not mutually exclusive. Plenty of landlords use a broad platform like Avail for listing, leases, and rent collection while running the actual screening decision through a dedicated service they control — keeping the convenience of an all-in-one workflow while owning the report that carries the most weight. If you want to see how the specialist model stacks up against other named options, our best tenant screening service guide and our SmartMove comparison lay it out, and our look at whether Rental Beast screening is enough applies the same test to another bundled option.

Cozy is gone as a standalone product, retired after CoStar folded it into Apartments.com. If you loved Cozy for its simplicity and zero-cost model, Avail is the closest current match — a legitimate, popular, landlord-first platform for the independent owner who wants to self-manage a small portfolio without paying for property management. Its convenience and free-to-start pricing are real advantages, its lease tools are a genuine strength, its syndication and automation save time, and its screening report content is respectable. Judged as an all-in-one hub, it does the job Cozy used to do, and does it well.

The honest caveat is that being good at everything means being the specialist at nothing — and screening is the place where that matters most. The applicant-initiated model puts the timing of your most consequential decision in the renter’s hands, the bundled report may not go as deep as you need, and the FCRA responsibility never leaves yours. If you want a screening report that you initiate, that goes as deep as credit, nationwide criminal, eviction, and income verification, and that comes with direct support when you have to read a tricky report or handle an adverse-action notice, that is precisely what a dedicated screening service is built to do. Use the platform for the workflow, and run your screening decision through a service that treats it as the whole job.

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