Profiting off an application - 30 bucks

[Charlie Moore]

My showing manager takes a cut from all the application he receives

Is that a legal agreement?

Basically, the application costs 30.00 - it costs 10-15.00 to run all the checks.. and then he takes the remaining 15.00

[Anna Sagatelova]

If your showing manager's tenant screening process is SIMPLY to run the background check and have some cutoffs based on debts/credit/criminal/evictions... then it could be seen as wrong to take the additional fee "for profit"

However, any agent worth their salt (or your leasing placement fee) will ABSOLUTELY do far more work. For our management company, the screening report is just the beginning. We do a lot more verification, checking all application data against the background check, calling landlord references, verifying income, etc etc etc. And yes, our application fee per person is more than the cost to screen each applicant. The remaining goes to cost of the rest of the process - we aren't doing this screening for free.

And this is not paid for by the leasing fee. We can screen 10+ applicants and not approve any of them for move in on our criteria. We don't earn the leasing fee until a tenant moves in. Our leasing fee reimburses us for our marketing and showing efforts, and ultimately for successfully negotiating a lease and getting a tenant moved in.

Check your local laws to see what limits there are and how to calculate the acceptable "cost" of the rest of the work.