Screening Multiple Applicants and Rejections

[Christopher Gilbert]

Historically I have always screened tenants one at a time (mainly because the applications tend to come in every day or two) and have chosen the first qualified.  This method has worked well for me, never have to worry about any legal issues with rejecting tenants and have never had a property sit empty for more than a week. 

I know that ideally you would have a pool of tenants to pick from and choose the best one but how do you handle the rejection notices to people that meet all of your criteria without getting into legal issues or getting a bad reputation for being an application fee troll? 

Especially in a hot market where even great applicants have to apply to many different places and can spend hundreds in application fees.