Holding deposit

[Daniel Alegre]

So we found a prospective tenant that we like but she is going on vacation and i will not have time to get her underlease before she leaves. Is there some type of retainer agreement where she leaves a deposit and if after she gets back from vacation decides not to rent from us that we can keep the deposit? if she backs out after her vacation i will have to start the search again and i will lose another months rent.

[Account Closed]

Agree with @Nancy Curran  You can just email her the lease (if you've already vetted her) and have her scan the signature page and email it back to you.  I did this all the time with people relocating and renting sight-unseen from other states/countries.

Or do it the old fashioned way with a fax.  You can get an e-fax account and when she faxes it,  it just comes to you in an email.

But, I'd tell her you're going to keep showing it until you get a signed lease.  That's what I did.  Gets them off their backsides in a hurry, if they really want it.

It was amazing to me how often I'd get someone looking at an apartment, they'd take the application with them, then come back in a week and say they want it and looked completely shocked when I told them it was already rented.