As a property owner, one of the concerns that you face is handing over the responsibility to your property manager to find a tenant that you will never meet. At RL, our leasing department has a fine-tuned process to finding a qualified tenant for your property.
Advertising
Our screening process begins with our advertising. Our listings are very detailed with what a potential renter needs to know regarding what the property has to offer as well as what we require from them as renter. Our goal is to provide a clear picture from the beginning of the process.
Pre-screening questions/ scheduling a showing
Our prescreening questions are selected to weed out prospective tenants that will and will not qualify for our properties. These questions are answered from potential tenants who are attempting to schedule a showing. From the questions we ask, we’re able to select whether or not we would want to move forward with scheduling a showing with them. Our questions include the following:
• What is your potential move-in date?-We require that a tenant moves in 30 days from the approval date. A red flag for us is when a perspective needs to move in right away.
• Do you have any pets?-Some of our properties allow certain pets while others don’t allow pets at all. If a perspective doesn’t read the listing correctly, we’re able to identify a future potential problem and address it by cancelling the showing and suggesting other listings to them.
• Have you or a household member been convicted of a felony?-Certain felony convictions are automatic denials for us.
• Do you owe any money to utility companies, previous landlords and/or property manager?-We deny any applicant who has outstanding balances in these areas as this is a red flag for us.
• Do you currently have an active (non-discharged) bankruptcy?-All bankruptcies must be discharged for us to consider your application as a whole.
• Do you have any evictions or eviction filings in the last 5 years?-We require all evictions and eviction filings to be at least 5 years or older.
• What is your credit score?- Your credit score will need to be a 640 or higher.
Application Process
In most cases, our application process is usually completed in two or three business days. Most of the information needed to process the application is found in the credit, criminal and eviction reports we run when the application arrives. We verify income requirements using the paystubs applicants are required to provide to fill out the application. We also conduct verification of rental history for the last four years. Depending on the property agreement, all applicant information is shared with our clients.
Our goal is to find tenants with good tenant habits. If applicants are able to meet our standards, it’s a very good chance they’ll respect the property and lease agreement.
