Rental Best Practices: Processing Rental Applications PROFESSIONALLY

Many rental mandates contain a clause like the following . . .

“The Agent cannot be held liable to the Landlord (provided that the Tenant has been correctly screened and placed by the Agent) for any liabilities, such as the Tenant not paying Rental, vacating the Premises before the Lease Agreement expires, and the like.”

Turning this clause around . . .

“The Agent cannot may be held liable to the Landlord (provided that if the Tenant has not been correctly screened and placed by the Agent) for any liabilities, such as the Tenant not paying Rental, vacating the Premises before the Lease Agreement expires, and the like.”.

Is your Rental Application processes thorough? If a Landlord tried to hold you liable for any liabilities mentioned above, would you be in a position to provide documented evidence that you DID in fact screen the tenant thoroughly?

Most importantly, do you have a papertrail that shows . . .

• the checks that were done, and
• the outcome of those checks, and
• your recommendation to the owner (including information to support your recommendation), as well as
• their written approval of the application and instructions to proceed with concluding a lease agreement

In my opinion Rental Best Practice requires that Rental Professionals have a Rental Screening Protocol and that every activity, and the results are documented.

Here’s some screenshots of the Rental Processing Protocol & Procedure that I have developed to give you an idea of the an example of what I’m talking about . . .

It’s easy to use and documents each and every step of the process, with notes, to protect the Business Owner, Principal and all Team Members.

One of the challenges that Rental Team members face on a daily basis is that they are required to carry out their tasks meticulously, and in compliance with a horde of legislation, which continuously being interrupted. Under these real circumstances it’s really easy to miss, or forget, something, which may later ‘bite you in the bum’.

There’s not need to run that risk when you have a written procedure to keep you on track, despite the distractions, and ensure that you do the right thing – each and every time!

Another common ‘gap’ is that Landlords are often not provided with the information that they require to make a decision on the recommendation that you put to them.

Is it really fair to expect a Landlord to approve an application based on a simple telephone conversation?

I think not!

How would you feel if you were the Landlord? Would you deem this to be ‘professional’?

Remember, this is the rental of one of your biggest assets we’re talking about – with very serious (and potentially hugely costly!) – potential consequences if you end up with a bad tenant!

Would you be comfortable taking that decision based on a verbal discussion with a ‘professional’?

Doesn’t the Landlord deserve to be provided with all the relevant facts on which to base their decision?

Do you provide your Landlords with the information that they need to make an informed decision?

Here’s a screenshot of part of a Screening Report template with the information that I suggest a Rental Professional should be providing to their Landlord/s to empower them to make an informed decision . . .

Isn’t that the sort of information and service that you’d expect from a ‘Professional’ service provider?

To help you, I have done the hard work and put together a set of editable document templates to help you and/or your Team.

This DocPack include the following editable, Word templates that can be re-branded and edited for your specific requirements:

• Compliant & Best Practice Procedure, or Checklist, on how to evaluate rental applications
• 3 Pre-written Landlord Communication Templates, including:
  • notifying landlord/s of receipt of an application
  • a screening report template for keeping landlord’s updated, and
  • a template for drafting a rental application recommendation to landlord/s
• 5 Pre-written Templates for Communicating with Applicants, including:
  • acknowledgement of receipt of an application
  • communications regarding incomplete applications
  • progress updates regarding the procession of the application
  • notification of successful applications, and
  • informing unsuccessful applications

To get the most out of these documents, it’s advisable to take the Rental Applications 102 course, which is available for individual access, or as a Team package.

** IMPORTANT: Rental Leaders Focus Group and Rental Professional Members Get 25% OFF the advertised pricing below**