How to get applications back from tenants?

[Jeff Vlk]

I had a showing the other day at my first rental property and i had 3 couples come by that seemed very excited about the property; they all took applications. How do i go about getting the application back from them? Do i have them fill it out at the showing (people probably dont walk around with their old landlords phone numbers and old addresses)? Or do i let them take it home and scan it back to me or meet them somewhere?

-thanks

Jeff

[Nick Baldo]

Jeff, 

A good idea is to include 2-3 ways for your prospective tenants to return their applications. The most convenient for everybody is to submit the scanned application through email. However, some prospects are still not comfortable with the process of scanning, saving and emailing a document. You should include an option to mail the application. If you have an office, you can allow tenants to mail the application or drop it off in person. If you do not have an office, you might consider renting a Post Office (PO) Box for your real estate correspondence. Not only can this help with the application process...but for receiving rent as well. 

An advanced strategy is to make your application process completely digital. You can use services like Podio or Survey Monkey to create an online survey. This allows you to send a link to your prospective tenants to fill the application out online. The services mentioned above are free. As you scale your business, you may use a property management software such as buildium or appfolio. These services have digital application management built in. 

Hope this helps. Let me know if you would like further detail on the digital application strategy mentioned above...it has worked wonders for simplifying our vacancy filling process.