Prosepective landlord sent rental application as attachment via email. How Do I sign it?

[Electrician4you]

Originally Posted by corbryant

I know this thread is a few years old, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents.


If anyone is sending you a lease application via email, and wanting you to email it back then they are probably someone you should run away from as fast as possible. If they are local, hand them the application in person. You don't email anything that has your bank account number or social on it. Email is not secure in any way, shape, or form and you should always assume your emails are being intercepted by shady folks on the other side of the globe. I don't even recommend faxing such things these days, as a large majority of the fax numbers in use now are not true landline faxes, and are just services that accepts the fax, and then email it to the recipient on your behalf. Again, unsecure.


I am the Technology Manager for a large property management company here in DFW and even when we were a very small firm we would never ask for an app via email. To be honest, it's not entirely legal to do so. We use services such as DocuSign to issue the lease and allow you to sign it securely. Those leases are stored in DocuSign's secure cloud, in an encrypted format. This means your social and personal info are not going back and forth across unsecure channels. In fact, they never leave DocuSign's secure server.

Trust me, you don't want to deal with ID theft of this nature. Once your social AND identifying information is exposed, it's out there, and requires constant monitoring, until you die.

You’re absolutely right. Unfortunately your SS number and personal info is all over the place. All those data breaches you hear about......I won’t even put my SS number on any form that asks for it uness it’s a government form that’s needed. I mean WHY does my dentist have a spot for it on their forms when you become a client. Or those health clinics.


Now I do email initial applications for tenants to fill out because I don’t want to carry around a stack of applications or I can have the application ready fill it out right there on my iPad. Most choose to scan and email it back some choose to fill it out right there. Then I get them a Smartmove link where they finish the application. . I print the email out and the application/results I use a TransUnion SmartMove account so all I get is the info of the tenant. I don’t need the SS number or bank accounts to start a legal procedure. With today’s issues with id theft I completely understand why people are not wanting to disclose their SS. Hell I have ID theft protection for both myself and my wife

[FIREin2016]

Old School. Print, sign, deliver via hand or USPS

Newer School: Print, scan, take a picture (use camscanner to get a PDF...), email back.

Even newer School: Electronically sign the PDF. Add a signature field with Adobe, NitroPro or similar.

Be careful about sending sensitive data through email. SSN, Maiden name, DL License number, etc.