Communicating sensitive screening standards to applicants

[Daniel Alfandre]

Hi All.  I'm preparing the application for my first rental and have a question: Is it good practice to communicate some of the more sensitive screening standards to the applicants (i.e., as stated on the application) such as "our screening standards include no evictions or serious criminal history."  Or is it better to just let them answer those questions on the application and decline them if their answers reveal otherwise?

[Scott M.]

It is 100% best to lay out your screening criteria, even right in the ad.  I mean, not all of it as you won't have enough room to talk about the home but the basics should be in your ad and you should have the criteria documented and send to everyone prior to pre-screening.  if online, even give the URL in the ad so they can see.

This is to help people self screen out and save you time.  Its not like they can say yes, I make 3x rent and you will never find out lol. Everything in the criteria is fact based so they can't fake it for long.  Let them screen themselves out and save you loads of time.