Responding to a Rental Inquiry

[Stephanie Gledhill]

Does anyone have a canned response that they use to reply to tenant inquiries or do you speak to them personally? Aren't you basically asking them the questions on the application like how many people are going to live in the house? Why are you moving? Do you meet the minimum income requirements? etc.... 

Do you make them pay the fee for the application before showing it to them? I'm using Avail and it's $55 to process the application. 

[Ned J.]

I have all me rental requirements (3x rent for income, credit score above 600, no evictions etc etc) in my listing as well as all the property details- it covers 99% of the info a tenant would need...... but I still get asked the same questions.....instead of screaming at them "ITS IN THE LISTING"...... I just reply with a canned message that the details on the unit are listed in the online listing..... specific questions can be answer at the open house on X date ( I only do group open house style showings, NOT individual)... still get the same generic questions that can be answered if they actually read the listing

I don't take applications until they show up at the open house. I don't want to deal with applications for people that haven't even seen it in person and have a true interest in the unit.