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We use a prescreening questionnaire on our listings, which is connected to our automated scheduling system. The questionnaire is presented to all inquiries via email, and they must answer the questions successfully, else no showing is allowed. I love technology.
Among the many responses, I got an one liner asking to see the place. There is zero information about the person except for some initials. Compare to other applicants who give full name and a little self intro, this one kind of gives me the creeps. Can I just ignore this inquirer?
There is zero info on this person so I don't think I am not discriminating against anything...
Is seems like you are discriminating. Sounds like you are worried someone with a foreign sounding or ethnic name may apply. Just show it to them, have them call you, and let them all know that they have to pass a background check. Follow your state guidelines on credit scores, eviction records, income level, etc.
Is seems like you are discriminating. Sounds like you are worried someone with a foreign sounding or ethnic name may apply. Just show it to them, have them call you, and let them all know that they have to pass a background check. Follow your state guidelines on credit scores, eviction records, income level, etc.
There is absolutely nothing discriminating about not responding to a random inquiry or really anything else that OP listed. OP was never given ANY information, identifying the individuals race, age, income, sexuality, or any other critical components to factor in a case of discriminatory. So this is completely ridicules and is coming out of nowhere.
OP can send an application to the individual, but I'm guessing that if they didn't spend more than 10 minuets to write why they want or ask any questions about the rental they probably won't be filling out a full and well written rental application very quickly in which time I'm sure plenty of qualified and truly interested applicants will fill it out before you even remember the one sentence inquiries.
A good rule of thumb for all renters is to act serious if you are serious. Even simply asking for an application is more informative and believable that you're seriously inquiring versus simply saying "is the house still for rent?" because the landlord may have 2-3 other renters actually willing to work with the landlord and started on the process. This is after all the adult world and landlords are not just giving rentals out to anyone, you need to prove that you're worth their trust and willing to take responsibility for THEIR property as THEY see fit. That means taking the time to show you're not going to waste the landlords time and that requires asking questions and being assertive, not trying to do the least amount of work and expecting the biggest reward out of it.
My advice to OP; if you have an application ready to go, send it to all interested parties and wait until their completed and background checks are clear before you continue with anyone. Have your standards set as your able according to your rental laws and in the future possibly try to have a set marketing stratagy if you want to better your applicant pool (for instance, I know people who advertise rentals through church, school, or hobby functions which helps getting steady and easy to verify applicants). Otherwise if you don't have a good feeling or feel that the applicant isn't giving you enough info and doesn't try to follow up then don't worry about it.
I think everyone blowing off an applicant just because they didn't give you a bunch of info in their very first email is wrong.
YOU are also just a random person on the internet and they shouldn't go handing out ANYTHING significant to you. They have dealt with people too lazy to take down ads for units rented a month ago. They may not have any particular questions. They may want to make sure you are a human before they spend more than 10 seconds writing an email about a unit. They may not be big into emails.
If they start giving me something that smells like a scam, that's one thing. But someone quickly asking if it's still available or when can they view it isn't suspicious and certainly isn't worth blowing them off over. People are searching through multiple sites and tons of possible apartments, they need to quickly weed out the people too lazy to return an email (if you don't even return an email to rent the place, how bad is the response going to be when they need something fixed?).
There are all sorts of things to avoid applicants over, but brief initial emails isn't one of them. If you can afford to blow off everyone who isn't so desperate that they don't bend over backward for the privilege of speaking to you, more power to you.
I get what you are saying LL, but initials is just distant - as if the person doesn't care. If they don't care, why are they bothering to email at all?
"Hi LL! I'm CC. Are you interested in viewing the property?"
I would be looking for a scam because the lack of a simple name would lead me to think this person is simply phishing for a reply from me.
I use a different email for craigslist that does not show my name because there are so many scammers out there. Applicants are dealing with scammers just like you are. Very basic things to protect themselves are more than reasonable.
Again, if landlords on here can afford to simply blow off applicants because their initial email wasn't up to their unpublished, secret standard, good for them.
Among the many responses, I got an one liner asking to see the place. There is zero information about the person except for some initials. Compare to other applicants who give full name and a little self intro, this one kind of gives me the creeps. Can I just ignore this inquirer?
There is zero info on this person so I don't think I am not discriminating against anything...
You are not required to show the property to anyone inquiring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertFisher
The reason I am cautious is, I have encountered one of those "I want to send you a deposit to hold the place" scams. I don't want to be in touch with scammers because I am often slow to detect this kind of thing.
Yeah I get those too. I just trash it.
Ok, what you need is a WRITTEN minimum requirement policy. Basically this states ( to applicants ) the minimum standards you will accept.
Here is what i normally do if i get a inquiry. Provided they gave a phone number
I call and speak to the inquiry. This gives me a feel for the person. Then and I send a qualifier questionnaire. It has the typical questions as to income, debt, amount of people who will be living there, smoker or vape, pets, criminal record, evictions etc. if no number I email back a questionnaire and ask them to give one to each person over 18 who will be applying.
So the ones who do not fill out the questionnaire completely i decline. I used to call, chase them for answers to questions..now..I dont bother. If you can’t fill out a questionnaire completely I’m not chasing you.
Is seems like you are discriminating. Sounds like you are worried someone with a foreign sounding or ethnic name may apply. Just show it to them, have them call you, and let them all know that they have to pass a background check. Follow your state guidelines on credit scores, eviction records, income level, etc.
Initials are “foreign sounding”? Take your outrage culture and go away.
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