The Landlord’s Ultimate Guide to Rental Applications

The Landlord’s Ultimate Guide to Rental Applications

The rental application is one of the most important tools in a landlord’s arsenal. Having a solid, well-formatted, and easy-to-read rental application can help you attract qualified tenants who will be a good fit for your property. It also will help establish you as a responsible landlord from day one, which can help keep your relationship with your tenants positive and productive. Using a free software platform like Turbo Tenant can be a great way to set up an online rental form that makes it easy to attract and evaluate applicants for your rental. Here’s everything you’d ever want to know about how to set up that form successfully.

Personal information

One of the first things you’ll want to collect from your tenants is some basic personal information. Knowing their first and last name, phone number, date of birth, and current address will not only help you contact them, but will also help you run a background check on the tenants. This is a vital step in the application process, since knowing someone’s credit score and criminal history can help you make an informed decision about whether or not you’re comfortable renting to them. In traditional paper applications, this type of information can be hard to read or even left out, but in an online rental form, you can require that these fields are completed before an applicant can submit their application.

Move-in dates

Another detail that is helpful to know when evaluating tenant applicants is when they would like to move into your property. While this isn’t always a dealbreaker, it does help to know how soon you can fill your rental. Keep in mind that every month your unit sits unoccupied is a month without profits, so the sooner a tenant is able to rent out your property, the sooner you’ll be able to start making money again.

Monthly income

Knowing how much a tenant makes each month is pivotal if you want to have peace of mind that your tenant will always be able to pay their rent. While their credit score can tell you information about their personal financial habits, it may not uncover whether or not they actually have enough monthly income to reliably cover their rent. There are a variety of factors that may cause a tenant to keep renting, and the income to rent ratio is one important aspect of this.

Pets and smoking

Some landlords may be willing to compromise on these issues for the right tenant, while others consider pets or smoking non-starters. Other landlords may want to establish weight requirements for pets like dogs, or only limit the amount of pets allowed in each unit. Whatever your preference, an online rental application from a software platform like Turbo Tenant can help you weed out applicants who aren’t a good match for you automatically. Keeping tenants who require a dog or smoking in order to rent your property out of the pool entirely can be a great way to save you time and energy investing in a tenant who ultimately won’t be a good fit.

Landlord references and document validation

Keeping all of the accompanying documentation that comes with applying for a rental straight is one of the most tedious parts of traditional paper rental applications. Thankfully, online solutions like Turbo Tenant keep all of these documents organized and in one location for easy reference. From references from previous landlords to important identification documents like driver’s licenses and pay stubs, an online rental portal can allow applicants to easily attach these documents to their application so everything is in one place. The result is a complete package every time you get a new applicant.

There are many details that you’ll want to gather as you accept rental applicants. Having all the above information is vital if you want to make a good decision about who will rent your property. When you use a platform like Turbo Tenant, you can he sure that you collect everything you need to find the perfect tenant.

 

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