I know a lot of people on here prescreen. It’s a huge time saver. Another post on here really got me thinking about the potential drawbacks of it. Who do you not show to based on your prescreening? For me it is evictions, income and parking spots.Paying the rent is non-negotiable and I can’t grow more city parking spaces. Pets is a no too. Everyone else gets a group showing. Is that the protocol?

I do lock box showings, so really the only folks I DON'T want wandering thru my places are those with serious criminal pasts, which I can look up quickly and for free on MO Case.net. The reason is increased risk of vandalism, theft, and/or squatting. I deal with that via strategies I've posted here many times before.

I also weed out:

1) Insufficient Income.

2) Move-in date too far in the future. I get some requests with an "Earliest Possible Move In Date" of 3 months in the future.

3) Negative attitude towards current land lord. My questions asks "Reason for moving?", and some folks trash talk their current land lord.

4) Currently homeless or living in extended stay hotel.

The idea is a) saving time while b) minimizing risk and c) achieve optimal exposure.

"Who do you not show to based on your prescreening?"

I do prescreening over phone, takes less than one minute if they don't qualify

1) every adult to not have evictions, bk, foreclosure or repo

2) at adult one adult to have 720 fico

3) sufficient income

4) pets satisfy

I'll add:

-no smoking

-"I have cash" types

-1 yr on the job minimum

- too many applicants for #Br

- Rental history not bouncing around from place to place.

Can someone share their prescreening questions? I am creating a pre screening questionaire with google forms, and wondering what others ask specifically.

I ask the following:

1) Basic info like e-mail, cell, name, birthday

2) Any criminal charges?

3) Do you smoke?

4) Source of income and amount

5) Job tenure

6) Characterize your credit (good, fair or poor)

7) How many vehicles

8) Current rent, address & tenure

9) Why they're moving

10) If they've ever been evicted

11) Names and ages of proposed applicants

12) Animals?

13) When you're looking to move

14) I provide an area for short explanations or questions not covered.

I use a series of yes/no, multiple choice and short answer. Takes them about 5 minutes to complete. I send it in one of three ways; email to zillow responses, text to craigslist responders, messenger for FB. I start with a standard descriptive script with the address and basic information on the unit with a link to the form. This is extemely efficient and effective at capturing what I need to determine if I'm showing.

Thanks GKARL. That is very helpful information. When you implemented the pre-screening questionnaire, did you notice a drop off in the number of people who respond to your ad? Did the pre-screening form add to the time to fill? I can definitely see how it would help to weed out undesirable potential renters, just wondering what happened to the time to fill....