rental steps questions

[Sergio Aguinaga]

Hello, I have some questions about the process for having the property rented out, so here we go:

1. How do you make sure they pay the water bill? I already plan to have it included in the lease and agreed upon but doesn't the water bill follow the owner of the home? Can they still change it to have the bill under their name?

2. For those of you who still do applications in paper, how do you collect the application fee and photo ID? When showing the unit, I will give them the application, but how do I collect the application back? It seems like I'd waste too much time going back to the property to collect every single application. The workaround is that they can just scan it and email it along with their photo ID but I need to collect the application fee before I process their application. So what's the best way to handle this? 

Note: I am aware of online applications like cozy that makes sure they fill out and pay their background/credit check but the applications for those types of software doesn't cover everything I want to ask and Brandon suggested paper applications is the way to go so it being my first rental I'll follow his advice on that but I just need a robust way of doing it.

3. If an applicant gets denied because you think they're dirty or for any reason, and they do qualify for all your criteria, then how do you deny them?

Any help is appreciated, thanks (: