Do you request applications prior to showing your rentals?

Question

JD Martin · Answer

Easy answer: use open houses. Don't do specific appointments unless unavoidable. People are flaky and peter out all the time. Example: my last vacancy we took more than 100 phone calls in a week. We had 3 open houses and showed the house to about 35 people. We had a handful of people complete applications and an ultimate renter from that group. I'd guess that's about a 10-15% application rate from original inquiries, though to be fair it rented so fast that a number of those people never had a chance to submit an application. Nevertheless, that's a fairly typical experience. Everyone wants a property, but only a handful of people ever follow through on anything. When you get tired of running to the property for 50% no-shows, you'll go the open house route, and then you don't have to worry about taking applications first. Besides, a lot of people who submit applications might not like the house once they see it, and then you've wasted a lot of time in review.

David Stefanovic · Answer

I try to screen each prospective tenant over the phone by asking a few questions to see if they meet my basic requirements prior to showing them the rental. Once they see the rental and are interested, I have them fill out an application. Overall, this approach has worked for me.

Russell Brazil · Answer

Show the property to anyone who wants to see it. Group showings together so you are not wasting your time.  If you refuse to show the property or accept an application, you are setting yourself up for a fair housing complaint. It would not be acceptable practice in most places to require an application before seeing a property...in fact if I were a renter and someone asked for an application before I saw a property...I would assume they were trying to steal my identity and did not actually own the property in question.

Fred Dray · Answer

Open house is the way to go.  However, if you want to help ensure those that arrive for open house are viable prospects, you may want to send them a qualifications check list or have a link to one.

I would assume you would have e-mailed the applications for perspective tenants to fill out before arriving, so e-mail them a check list.  This contains all your qualifications, income = 3 x monthly rent, no evictions, no credit issues, no co-signers, no pets, no smoking or whatever your requirements are.   Have a "yes" box and "no" box after each qualification.  Also have instructions that say "Sorry, if you checked a "no" box, you do not qualifiy.  Also, a disclaimer "Qualification are applied equally to each applicant."

I get swamped with calls for my listings as well, so I understand your desire to limit showings.   While asking questions over the phone does eliminate some perspective tenants from viewing the unit, I've found that quite a few will lie (especially about credit), thinking they can use charm/pleading to convince me to make an exception for them.

Thomas Swindell · Answer

Thanks to all of you for your responses above. We ended up doing an open house yesterday, had five groups of people show up with a couple good prospective tenants. I'm doing another group showing tonight after work. Definitely priced right, lots of traffic, just have to find the right tenant!

Tom Ott · Answer

Hello Thomas,

When you speak with the tenants prior to the showing (either by phone or email) I would suggest you get some basic questions of the way. Ask them if they are working, if they have a criminal background, etc.

Although I cannot tell you what to do, I personally like to take applications with me to house showings. After they see it, I ask them if they are interested in applying. I will have them fill it out on the spot if they liked. Then I go from there with the application.

Hopefully this helped you.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

George P. · Answer

we changed our process a bit and added the requirements right in the ad...  said,  no section 8, income must be 3300, no evictions...  boy,  did that cut the number of calls!!  now,  it's a joy to pick up the phone and talk to them because they have pre screened themselves.

Account Closed · Answer

I agree with @Russell Brazil.  Please tell me you are not thinking of charging an application fee and then not let some of the people see the property.

Kevin Harrison · Answer

I would never fill out an application until I know that I wanted the home, but then again I'm very careful when it comes to putting down my personal information. I imagine that you will lose a lot of prospective tenants this way, not because they are lazy but because they wouldn't want to give out their information.

Could you imagine trying to find a place to rent if every place you wanted to see made you do this? You would spend half your time filling out paperwork for something you might not even like. I would think that this system would only work in an area with a crazy amount of demand such as swanky downtown LA or DC apartments.

Tom Ott · Answer

That sounds awesome! It sounds like you are doing the right thing! Make sure to keep up the momentum. I'm sure you'll get someone in there.

Do you request applications prior to showing your rentals?

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