Tenants filling out applications

[Sam Leon]

Just curious about other landlords on application forms.

I found that for applicants who are truly interested in renting, they would ask for an application form and proceed to fill out right there, right then.

Of those who didn't ask for an application form, or those who took one but say "we'll discuss it and let you know..." I never had one that came back.

Everyone I eventually rented to expressed immediate interest and applied right the way. I never had one who had to think about it.

What about you guys?

[Kimberly T.]

I've had some of both (filled out immediately versus bringing it back later). Seems to depend on how much interest there is in the rental. If there are several families/couples/people looking at the unit at the same time (I generally schedule a couple showings at a time so that if one is a no-show, it's not a waste of our time to show up), they feel the pressure to hurry and apply to try to lock it up.

We had one evening once where I had about 6-8 appointments set up between 5:30 and 6:30, then we got a call from someone who'd just driven by and seen the "for rent" sign and wanted to see it, so we ended up with quite a few people going through and looking at it. The couple who'd called was first planning to think it over, but when they saw how many other people were coming to look at it, they hurried up and applied. They've been great tenants. The last time we had a unit up for rent, we got multiple apps on the first day (again, multiple showings at once), and rented to one of them. Also been great tenants.

I think part of the factor of whether they apply on the spot versus bringing the app back later is whether or not they've been looking at other units already, and/or whether they've applied anywhere else. If they've already been shopping around, they know our unit is a pretty good deal (assuming it meets all their needs), so they want to apply on the spot, especially if they see other people interested in it.