I've had my pre-screening automated for some time now, but I finally took a bit of time out of my long weekend to dial it in exactly where I want it. Now after somebody fills out my pre-screening questionnaire if they don't meet ALL of my basic screening criteria, they get an INSTANT "thanks but no thanks" email reply.

Now I'm rejecting for EACH of these: "too many animals" (I've programmed an exception around any kind of service/support animals.), "puppies" (same service/support exception applies), "insufficient income", "insufficient credit", "smokers", "poor rental history", and last but not least "if they're living in a hotel/motel" or "living with family" (I can turn this off and on as needed, but I don't rent to students or first time renters).

Great improvement and significant time savings, well done!

Now the email that the "pre-approved" recipients receive is personalized as well. It greets them by name and lets them know we'll be reaching out to (Telephone number here) to schedule their showing. It also directs them to my business facebook page where they can see more pictures and video walkthroughs.

That sounds great - you are a computer GENIUS!

Jason,

Sounds great!

How does this screen POOR RENTAL HISTORY?

BRAD

I think it's wonderful that you've made improvements to your screening process. But, in California and other States, the powers to be are making changes to "what" a landlord can "ask" or "do"! For example they have phasing out charging each applicant with a screening free. They site couples having to apply to 10 to 20 apartment before they are finally accepted. At a $35 to $50 fee per person per landlord, that's around $1000 per couple. Not affordable.

They want tenants to carry with them a universal credit report so a landlord can review -- of course many of this "credit reports" are phone an provided online for a fee.

Because in California there are around 1 attorney for ever 200 people, lawsuits for discrimination are common.

You "may" need to limit your screening online to just the very important "game" changers.

Brad & Roy. Jason set up a basic system like this for me (Many thanks, again, Jason)

It screens them based (mine does) on the information they give in a multiple-choice question.

Example: The question is "How many animals are in the household?" with options to choose __one ___two __three.

Same thing for how many people, etc.

If you don't allow animals & they choose one, they are rejected.

If you only allow one animal and they choose three, they are rejected.

One question is "what is your documented monthly income?" it is configured so that numbers need to be entered, and if it is less than a certain amount, they are rejected.

For rental history, you create questions like: How many times has your rent been late in the last twelve months. By giving them choices to choose 1-3, may indicate to them that just a 1 or 2 are OK (even if it's not)

Where do you currently live? ___Rental home ____ family/friend _____ jail

Of course, everything they say has to be verified later - but it works great to self-screen out many.

Roy, I LOVE when they lie to me! I'll take their money with a smile on my face. If they're upfront and honest, they'll immediately get rejected and will save themselves from paying a $45 application fee (per person of course). If they lie to me and I find out about it during screening, that's money in the bank.

It's far from flawless, but if they indicate they've paid rent late in the past two years, they'll get dq'd. I can't get accused of discrimination in any shape, form, or fashion because my program just does what it's told to do and rejects everybody equally.

When screening, I look for reasons to DENY not for reasons to approve. As soon as I find ANY reason to deny, I'm done and move on to the next.

I have toyed with the idea of responding to everyone who fills out the prequal form. My current thinking (and this could change) is I don't want to give annunciation to the folks who I reject. My fear is something in my response could be used against me.

Laura, I keep it generic and well within the bounds of the law. "Hello and thank you for your recent inquiry. Unfortunately the owner of this property won't permit us to rent to anybody that smokes or vapes.However we wish you the best of luck in your search!

If I don't reject them, they'll keep emailing/messaging me...usually getting more and more fussy each time I ignore them. Sometimes people will fill out the form more than once (I let them just for the shear entertainment value) and then pretend that they never received a reply from me. Because everything is automatic, I just tell them to refer to the email sent (and then copy/paste the timestamp it was sent). That always shuts them up.

Another vote for ghosting the DQs. Jason you still live in what is considered a RED state whereas MD and NY are BLUE. The tenants can and will sue for perceived discrimination as surely as they live and breathe. Only if I up against a wall will I give a written rejection.

I have a handy out in a lot of cases as I signed an exit agreement when I worked for the HA in Rochester agreeing not to participate in their programs. So no S8 for me.

I also have a database of rejects and keep all rejects as contacts on my rental cell phone (coded "R" for "Reject") so I know not to respond even if they keep contacting me.

Plus the more they repeat contact me it reaffirms that:

1. no other LL will rent to them, either

2. they move too frequently due to being bad tenants

Thank you Jason for sharing you continuing processes.

I am not very computer savvy currently.

When you say that it has an automated response, it appears, from some of your replies to others, that there may be specific responses sent, depending upon the reason for denial, is that correct?

If so, I am assuming that these are all programmed/automated in your system?

Do you get notified when someone has inquired and then rejected by your system?

If so, how do you get notified? Email?

" Because everything is automatic, I just tell them to refer to the email sent (and then copy/paste the timestamp it was sent). That always shuts them up."

When you tell them to just refer to the email sent, are you, at that point, typing out a reply to them, or is that also an automated response?

I have about 10 different email replies that I use based on the reason they're rejected. When somebody passes or fails, I'll get an email notification from myself as well. The failures come with a "swing and a miss" in the subject line along with the reason. So I don't stop what I'm doing to check it. I put more effort into their "approved" email so it comes off more professionally.

Jason,

Your online questionnaire is definitely clever in its design. It reminds me of being in college and taking a test that had trick questions in it.

I have a notification email indicating someone has filed out the pre qual. I have conditional formatting so all I have to do is pull up the google sheet, scroll to the bottom and if I see RED, next contestant please.

Takes about 2 min per applicant. Every few days I will copy and paste the results into my rejected database and code my rental cell phone with that rejected contact. Needless to say I say mostly a sea of red these days.

If the applicant is NOT red, I proceed by sending the link to the actual application.

JASON, I love what you've done here. Smart, time saver, really hassle free! Like 6X, I'm not the most computer saavy either. Wouldn't know where to start with setting this up.

I'll do some exploring, but will likely need some tutoring.

My pre screen process takes about 3 or 4 minutes per prospect - When I receive notice from a prospect - I use Zillow and CL - I review the response if I see any reason to reject. I note the prospects name and my reason for rejection on a excel spreadsheet. I do NOT issue rejection reasons.

If I see a valid reason from the prospect, such as income, I issue a quick copy/paste email with 12 yes/no or a brief statement pre screen questionnaire to the prospect.

If the questionnaire is returned - many are not - and completely filled out. I schedule a Walk Thru and additional screening information for final approval.

My last vacancy I had 44 inquires - Only 2 completely filled out the questionnaire - 1 walk thru who I rented to.

h tt p s : / /forms.gle/HeXfHkwMZMKFNzUS6

If anybody wants to take it for a test drive, please do. I've transferred this over to a junk email account that I don't actively monitor, so it won't be a bother in any way.

In order to see it in action, just make sure to provide a valid email address. For anyone that thinks my form is too long, I've had 186 people fill it out so far for this ONE vacancy, so it's a non-issue.

Jason, excellent work!

Technology certainly does help us avoid time-wasters. unfortunately, it has also CREATED the time-wasters to begin with, so I suppose in some ways we're just responding to something with technology that never existed before the "click I'm suuuuuuper interested" technology came online.

I'm still not getting a ton of pre-screen forms (12-15 per vacancy...nowhere near your 100+), so it's not worth my time programming around those... yet. If I do get there, I may borrow your idea.

The idea for me, as always, has been to sift through the obviously unqualified as quickly as possible. Income too low, unacceptable current living conditions (hotel, etc), and number of pets are quick, no brainers. There is zero reason to spend anything more than a few seconds on those, and your system does one better because you spend ZERO second on those.

As you say, let the liars get through. We'll catch them on the full application, and get paid for it!

Thank you Jason.

That is a lengthy prescreen. It seems more like an application. I really like it though. I am kind of surprised that people would fill out such a lengthy prescreen. I would guess that the ones that do would be the most qualified.

If I may ask, I did notice that you ask the age of the children. Is that legal?