Question about pre-screening tenants

[David Cam]

Hello I just recently bought my first investment property which is a higher-end condo and I have a question regarding the prescreening process. I've already posted the listing on several sites and I seem to be getting quite a large response from people and everyone keeps asking the same question when can I see the property. I've been replying back to people and asking them to fill out a prescreening which is a dozen questions and then send them back to me by email and almost everybody has not responded back. My question is.... is this normal? Or are these people just flaking off? Do you guys generally show the place first and do a prescreening at the property or over the phone.....am I doing something wrong? It seems strange that people would even bother responding to my ad and then drop off as soon as I send them as prescreen.

[Mark Caiazza]

@David Cam I think your list of questions is too long. The quality tenants you are after don't want to waste their time telling you their life story before they even see the property. I'd recommend cutting it down to around 5 questions that focus on the things that you NEED to know (income, pets, move-in date, how many tenants, reason for moving, and contact info). I'm assuming you will accomplish a credit & background check if they actually apply, so If there's something that will automatically disqualify them, just say it in your pre-screening email instead of make them answer a question about it. For example...

"A full credit and background check will be accomplished on all applicants over the age of 18. At this time, we are not renting to applicants with prior evictions, bankruptcy, or history of late payments."

These are probably unnecessary questions or they are covered in the lease/terms:
2. How long do you want to rent for? 
5. How long have you been living at your current residence? 
8. Have you already given your current landlord notice?
9. Please tell me about your job (each adult). Details are useful.
10. If you are offered the unit, do you have the deposit (1st & last months rent) immediately available?
13. Do you smoke?

These are covered when you do the background check:
11. Have you ever been evicted before?
12. Do you have any delinquent accounts or passed due bills?
14. Do you have any violent felonies?

Hope this help you get some more responses, good luck!