@Grant Shipman so you are being a bit stiff with your approach. I understand it has to be able to be written down. Here are some thoughts. 1) request the last three places they have lived. If they complain they don't have a rental history tell them living in the college dorm and living at home is adequate. After you get that information verify it. Talk to as many people as possible and find out their character, if they pay bills and are dependable. I certainly don't want to penalize the kid just out of college over someone who has lived in a different place each of the past five years.
2) request past employment and call them. I have found that how people were at work is a good indicator of how they will be to live with. Someone who misses shifts or calls in sick whenever there is a great powder day would not make the cut. Someone who is dependable and reliable as an employee will typically make a great tenant.
3) Lose the whole 4x rent for SD in exchange for income. It's a smoke screen at best. People without income don't make good tenants in the long term. The exception would be someone moving to the area without a job but in a field that is in high demand (nursing) if they have savings. I don't drain the savings by asking for a high SD. If they are good people you will not likely have a problem.
4) If you are having a problem filling you property you are asking too much for rent. Lower rents and you will get better quality people.
5) Avoid the "interview" requirement. You will have a lot of time to interact with them. Learn to ask open ended questions and let them talk. Ask things like, "What are you looking for in your new living situation?" Learn to pre-screen people with a few basic questions for the phone or email to weed-out tire kickers and deadbeats looking for a handout. Most people are going to want to view the property, so use that time to gauge them as people. Again ask them open ended questions about their prior living situations and their employment.
6) Have written criteria about what a tenant must have. For example, 3x income or must not badmouth previous landlord even if they were a bad landlord. Remember, the tenants selected them as a landlord so it shows a lack of personal responsibility for getting themselves in that situation.
7) Reverse your order of screening. If you ask them upfront if they have had evictions, criminal history or lousy credit and they lie you will find out. Most will be straight and tell you if they have issues. At that point, let them know they won't work and move on. They will have a story and want to tell you the story. Once they launch into that I usually tell them that they are probably great people but our attorney tells use we have to be consistent to protect us from fair housing violation claims . You are wasting a lot of time if you show the property and then find out they have an eviction.
8) It seems like from your process description you don't have an application. You need to get an application. They need to fill that out. The application should give you permission to verify the information on it and to run their credit.
9) Typical process would be something like this. 1) Advertise (everywhere you can and like a mad man) 2) take calls, emails and text inquiries (most want to see the property). 3) pre-screen applicants via phone, email or text (use the same questions for all inquires in order to be consistent and protect against fair housing claims). 4)Those that pass phone screening set appointments to see the property. 5) Prospects view property and go through your informal questioning 6) if applicants like the property and want to rent it, have them complete an application and pay the application fee. 7) applicants complete the application and pay the fee, THEN you screen the information on the application. 8) run credit criminal and eviction check. If they have passed to this point rent the property to them.
