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Home Insider Blogs Bill Gray's Blog Incomplete Rental Applications Cost Landlords Profit
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Jan 19
2010

Incomplete Rental Applications Cost Landlords Profit

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Posted by: Bill Gray on Jan 19, 2010 05:18

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Financially, many landlords are shooting themselves in the foot. The application process is normally the first place they do so. Incomplete and inaccurate rental applications cost landlords much needed profit. Nearly 50% of the applications I review are either missing information or are illegible.

Sloppy applications speak negatively about the prospects filling them out, but they say even more about the landlord or property manager who accepts them.  When a landlord accepts an incomplete or illegible application, he or she is telling the applicant, “I don’t care.” Think about what seeds an “I don’t care” attitude plants in the applicant’s head.

If the landlord is not serious about the application and the information which may or may not be in it, what else is he lax with? If he is not serious about the application process, is he serious about the rent being due on the 1st of the month? If the landlord is unprofessional during the application process, is he serious about the prospective tenant taking good care of his rental unit?

The application has several important purposes, all of which rely on it being completed legibly.

Much of the information requested in an application is needed to sufficiently screen the tenant. When I see a sloppy application, my first thought is that the landlord is cutting corners in the screening of potential tenants. By the way, the reason I am called upon to look at the application and file is because the landlord is owed money by the very applicant who submitted a sloppy application. Now, he is turning to me for advice on collecting it. I firmly believe there is a direct correlation between the application/screening process and tenants who leave the property owing an average of $3,500.

The rental application should contain a space for at least one emergency contact.  Completing this section should always be a requirement.  Nobody wants to envision a situation where you need to contact someone in case of an emergency, but if you do, you will have the contact information to do so.

The property manager who is eager to rent seldom considers the last purpose of the rental application. The information on the application is invaluable in the collection process when the tenant is either evicted or abandons the property and the lease. In that case, an incomplete or illegible application makes collecting the debt difficult, if not impossible.

Require that your applicants complete the application in its entirety and legibly.  Doing so will decrease debt and increase profit.

Also see my article, “Don’t Miss an Important Component to Screening New Tenants!

Email me your tenant screening or tenant debt questions.

Bill Gray

Bill@thelandlorddoctor.com

www.thelandlorddoctor.com

Copywrite 2010


Comments (2)Add Comment
2672
written by Daisy Nguyen, January 19, 2010
Bill: SOOOO TRUE! So many times, when my sites have had an issue arise with a tenant, we go back to the application and lease to see if we clearly communicated the expectations & rules. Something as simple as - communicating the late fees, penalities, lease terminations, etc. can turn into a big deal, and the first thing people will say is, "I didn't know." And they would be right, if all the information was not clearly documented, & communicated.
1681
written by Sara Morrill, January 19, 2010
Absolutely. I just had a conversation with a potential client yesterday, the gem of which was his question: "So basically all of your information relies on my ability to collect correct information from my potential tenant. How am I supposed to do that? These people can't write legibly, they don't remember where they lived before, etc..." and my jaw nearly hit the floor. He apparently had never considered using any form of additional documentation (photo ID much?) or even asking his applicants to verify the information on their rental applications!

I mean it's not to say that everyone with sloppy handwriting is going to be a bad tenant, but there's definitely a correlation between the amount of work a landlord/manager puts into qualifying those applicants and the amount of mess the tenant leaves in his or her wake. Thanks for the reminder!
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