A Letter from our CEO: We built Cosign because the system kept saying no when the answer should have been yes.

Before starting Cosign, I spent years in property management and eventually transitioned into asset management, overseeing thousands of units and homes across the country.

Every week, leasing teams submitted applicant denial reports. I reviewed them closely, and what I kept seeing was friction in the traditional screening process. The overwhelming majority of denials came down to credit challenges, thin files, income timing, or unconventional financial profiles. Because these renters simply didn’t fit neatly into a screening model built for someone else, they were constantly disqualified as being too risky.

We never lost sight of who this impacts most: the renters themselves.

Behind every application is someone trying to find stability, move forward, and secure a place they can call home. Too often, they’re met with a system that doesn’t reflect their full story, and the answer is “no” without context or recourse. 

We needed to change that dynamic, to give both renters and operators a path forward rooted in trust, dignity, and expanded housing choice.

That's why we built Cosign, a platform designed to expand housing access while giving owners and operators the tools to approve more residents with confidence.

Cosign supports renters who fall just outside traditional qualification criteria: students, retirees, international residents, self-employed professionals, recent graduates, and anyone with a thin or imperfect credit file. These are families and individuals building real lives, amazing wives and husbands, grandparents, and families with children who deserve a place to play and grow. Yet they are too often overlooked by default underwriting and outdated screening methods that fail to capture the full picture of who they are.

Since launching in early 2024, our focus has been clear: remove friction from the leasing process for both renters and housing providers. 

We've worked closely with stakeholders across the industry because we know that any technology touching housing affects renters, owners, operators, associations, and advocates. Cosign is one of the few solutions genuinely embraced across the board, because it creates access where it's needed most while preserving compliance and protecting financial outcomes.

We're proud to be building alongside many of the NMHC Top 50 owners and in collaboration with some of the largest apartment and renters' associations in the country. 

We’ve spent the time listening, building, and learning, and now, with this new site, we’re excited to share more of who we are and where we’re headed.

With gratitude 

Zach Schofel

Co-Founder, Cosign 

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