How to Best Choose Tenant from Multiple Qualified Applicants (apartments, leasing, rental property)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is a great suggestion. I'll try to do it this way. Only thing is that the property is out of state, so when I am looking for a tenant, I tend to want to do an open house where applicants will usually fill out the forms and get it back to me the same day so I don't waste time. However, telling them to mail back the application to me may be an option or get them to write the time on their checks when they apply (processing fee).[/quote]
If I were going to do showings only over a specific weekend (which is what usually happens in my case anyway) I would still only do it my appointment. I post on Craigslist and when I get responses, I send each the exact same email immediately back with my criteria list and they should let me know if they still want to see the place. 90% never respond back -- helps me screen out the unqualified. If they do, I make the appointment. When they are there I do tell them, if they want the place, that another applicant also wants the place but who knows what their background check turn up so I will email them the app -- if the other applicant's check is not ok then I will work on their app by doing a background verification; so they need to complete and scan and return by it email. I charge them $35 they must pay me by Paypal but only if I actually run the credit check and I never work more than one applicant at a time. So if my favorite completes and returns the app (in the email I tell them 24 hours to return the application or I need to move on to the next person) I quickly run the background and if that person checks out I phone them to tell them and give them another couple of days to come by and sign the lease and give me the deposit. I email them a copy of the lease to review and ask them to bring it, printed and signed to meet me. You could have them FedEx it to you -- at your expense. The security deposit must be either money order or certified check. In the meantime, I stay in contact with #2 (and sometimes #3) letting them know I do have a pending tenant but they have not submitted security deposit yet so it is not a completed deal yet... do they want me to let them know. They always say yes.
BTW, I always price my rent about 10-15% BELOW market. I long ago decided desperate people will overpay for housing. People with solid backgrounds know they can have a choice. These are the tenants I want and I am more than happy to get less monthly rent from tenants I am less likely to have to take legal action against -- or who will trash my place. I always check references and always talk to former landlords. Hope this helps!
Do you have a Fair Housing law handbook? If not, you need to read one. First qualified applicant is who gets the rental. So the first person who turned in an application who ended up being qualified according to your policies (which are equally extended to all applicants) is the one you choose. Vibes, however accurate, can land you in court for discrimination.
Every landlord should understand the laws of landlord/tenant and Fair Housing as they apply to them before they start being a landlord. Some states also have laws that "add" to the Federal Fair Housing laws and a good rule of thumb is always follow the law that most protects the applicant.
Say you put your unit up for rent and you get multiple suitable applicants (ie. everything checks out, they are all perfect tenents etc etc.)
How do you choose which applicant gets the unit? Knowing full well the laws which doesn't allow a landlord to discriminate between applicants based on multiple criteria (race, sex, marital status etc), how do you ensure you make a fair choice and what would you tell the remaining applicants why they were rejected to make sure you don't get sued.
Just trying not to get wrongfully sued here ....
We have same requirment. When a uniot becomes available and we start accepting applications, each is logged in order of receipt. Application 1 is reveiwed and if the person does not meet the rental requirments, they get a letter saying why they were rejected along with any enclosures required by law. We go to the next and so on until an aplication is accepted. That person is offerd the place. If they accept, all the remaining aplication are notified that the unit was rented to an aplicat who appied before them. That is not a rejection so no explination is required. If that person doen;t want the place, we go to the nexted logged apllication.
if we did like you are doing and basing a decision on other items, we must explain why we rejected their aplication. That can open up a huge liability. We don;t use anything but the order of applying and the rental requirments in making a decision. It sounds like you will need to explain all rejections because you are making decissions on all the applications as a pool.
Amen and thank you for this! Around here it seems common for propsective landlord to take concurrent multiple applications (& fees) from multiple applicants. Really gets my goat!
We belong to the Puget Sound (Seattle area) Rental Housing Association. We run full credit checks, criminal background checks, eviction records and check with past landlords. Find out if 3-day or 10-day notices have ever been posted (late rent or utilities) Any one of these things including credit scores lower than 620 can be a reject. The key is to set a 'standard' at which you will rent to someone and hold that standard for all and the FIRST application you receive that meets the standard - rent to them. I strongly recommend you find a local association like RHA - they have all the legal agreements and are AWESOME at providing assistance in using their legal forms and have quite a network of sources for everything a landlord needs.
We show properties to more than one person at a time, and take applications as they come in the door all the time. It's no big deal to keep track of who came in first; the date is on the application they signed plus I have a log of everyone that I show a property too, if only on my electronic Outlook calendar it's still a good diary of my day. Names & numbers, address of properties shown on the time of day I was there.
I feel it would be much to time consuming and possible detrimental to decline applications because odds are, several will not qualify once you get the credit report back. To show one person a property, wait until you get their credit report or salary verification and rental Hx before showing or accepting another app is overkill. Perhaps if you had dozens of people at a time wanting to turn them in however we usually just have a few at a time.
Do you have a Fair Housing law handbook? If not, you need to read one. First qualified applicant is who gets the rental. So the first person who turned in an application who ended up being qualified according to your policies (which are equally extended to all applicants) is the one you choose. Vibes, however accurate, can land you in court for discrimination.
Every landlord should understand the laws of landlord/tenant and Fair Housing as they apply to them before they start being a landlord. Some states also have laws that "add" to the Federal Fair Housing laws and a good rule of thumb is always follow the law that most protects the applicant.
Is renting to the first qualified applicant an actual Fair Housing law or is it just a guideline you (and others?) are recommending to avoid any issues of discrimination?
Is renting to the first qualified applicant an actual Fair Housing law or is it just a guideline you (and others?) are recommending to avoid any issues of discrimination?
It is actual law...... LL's should always date and timestamp each application and limit applications they are willing to take. Last time I had a home for lease I had 148 inquiries. That's why I am very selective about who I give apps to and try to give apps only to people I have screened to make sure they understand the qualifications. I believe it is outright fraud to accept application fees unless the LL actually performs a background check. There are property management companies and LL's who give everyone apps and take app fees. they are making money on the applications.
It is actual law...... LL's should always date and timestamp each application and limit applications they are willing to take. Last time I had a home for lease I had 148 inquiries. That's why I am very selective about who I give apps to and try to give apps only to people I have screened to make sure they understand the qualifications. I believe it is outright fraud to accept application fees unless the LL actually performs a background check. There are property management companies and LL's who give everyone apps and take app fees. they are making money on the applications.
Is this a Texas law? (not the part about taking application fees over and above actual expenses) Specifically, is it a Texas or US law that mandates that the first qualified applicant has to be given the first option to lease? If it is a law, can you cite the law or ordinance? I hear a lot of people say this but I was not able to find any actual basis for it. The way I understand the Fair Housing law is you cannot use any of the protected classes as a basis for the decision but it doesn't mandate a method to achieve that. To avoid any charge of discrimination, many people do use the 'first qualified applicant wins' argument as that certainly does not base the decision on a protected class. However, I don't think it is required. You may have to defend why you chose Applicant A over Applicant B (if Applicant B is in a protected class) but if you have a method that does not base your decision on a protected class, you should be OK.
All of the above is just my opinion and any reader should not feel what was stated is actually true.
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
7,646 posts, read 9,943,762 times
Reputation: 16464
I'm confused too. I just reread the FH Act and I can find no reference to first in line. Can someone please post where this is, or if it is state specific.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
