What the best way, and is there a timeline to respond to applicants who see rental ads posted online?

Has anyone had issues with applicants flagging the mgr or LL for not responding to their inquiry in a timely manner, or not at all, on certain website for rental ads?

Is there a specific time period to respond to an applicant's email? Can you wait a week to gather a group of applicants then respond to all of them on the same day? What is protocol in setting up appointments, is it 1st come 1st serve?

I haven't had the pleasure of any experience with this issue, but I am aware that an applicant who doesn't receive ANY reply might conclude that he has been excluded from consideration without any reason being given. If such exclusion has violated any rights that he may think that he has, then he is free to complain about such a violation.

I am not aware of any timeline for response, but a LL should be reasonable. I would consider 10 days for a telephone, online, or even a US Mail inquiry. If you are concerned, then you might respond that your response has been received and is being processed before replying.

I take a dim view of subterfuges like failing to respond to undesirable applicants in order to get rid of them. In fact, I take a dim view of the frequent dishonesty of landlords who try to exploit the system without adequate reasons. It is useful to point out how the White House Tenant Bill of Rights specifically has called out Landlords that use such subterfuges to get rid of tenants for unjust causes in order to circumvent extant laws, particularly in order to raise rents beyond legal norms. For such reasons, the White House is advocating that tenants have access to attorney advice to be able to cope with landlords on a equal footing.

Moshe,

Here in California there are around 1 attorney for every 250 people! Meaning that if you do not respond to a applicant who provided you with an completed application in a reasonable time frame, you COULD be accused of favoritism, discrimination or making them loose another rental because yours was nicer so they wasted time applying to your first.

So if you Don't have the time to process and respond to an add for a rental, then to protect yourself, you should state in your ad, "Applicants who apply may not be contacted for several days"!

There are no applicants at this time. Only inquiries, without providing any information. Simply put, we typically do not do business on weekends, wondered if there is a time limit to respond to those responding to our ad to see it or get an application.

Thanks Robert, we wondered if we should put in our ad our work days and hours so people understand we too desire our time off and do not work 23/7.

Moshe, sounds very accusatory.

I think it really comes down to WHY you aren't responding to them at all. It's your business model to do it the way you want as long as it's legal but honestly, I hear from MANY people (that are looking for a rental) that they never (or rarely) hear back from landlords and are very appreciative when I reach out.

Some, I understand why they don't reach out I guess. Others, I have no idea. I put in my ads what the property "rules" are (as far as any restrictions or whatever like "no pets" or "room for off street parking for ONE vehicle max"... things like that. When they come back in their inquiry and have pets then I only give them the canned response (when I have a minute) that they don't qualify for the property due to (whatever it is that they said they have... 4 cars, dogs, etc).

I also sometimes will only post to a certain site that automatically sends out a pre-screener. That site does post to other sites BUT when it comes back as an inquiry (regardless of what site they saw it on) it funnels back through this particular site and they receive the pre-screener. If they do not respond to the pre-screener then I don't contact them.

As long as you are FAIR and treat ALL of them the same way, you are less likely to be seen as discriminatory. However, that doesn't mean you aren't.

It simply comes down to time management, that is why we thought to ask these questions. We have other jobs, and toher rentals.

In CA, since the rules for tenant/LL are biased towards the tenant, and continue to change by the hour, we were not sure if there is a legal requirement to response in a specific time period. Obviously, we are not going to wait, or hold a prospective tenant up, but want to make sure we have responded according to any new guidelines we currently may not be aware of.

We were curious, if there were any LL's who encountered bad experiences with not responding to an inquiry by a prospective tenant on these online rental websites.

I am guessing you are talking about zillow.

I cut and paste a canned response into every response I get and I attach the application I want them to fill out and the pet policy. This eliminates most of the dumb questions. What's the rent? What is the pet policy? Can I see the place? Send me an application? etc.

As far as responding goes, I respond as soon as I can but usually within 12 hours. I have a full time job.

In my canned response, I usually say I am showing the property on Sunday at 10 AM, let me know if that works for you.

That throws the ball back in their court. If I tell everyone the same thing and everyone is given the same opportunity and everyone has access to the application it can't get much fairer than that. If they want to make a different time arrangement they can call during business hours and set up a different time.

I take a dim view of landlords who are so risk averse, or scared of the law, or prospect fearful that they let prospective bad tenants bully them into unnecessary responses. Run your business. Don't let prospects or tenants run it.

I do take a dim view of true discrimination (race, sexual orientation, gender, etc). I find that most (not all) landlords are business people. They have no desire to discriminate except against bad tenants.

I know I personally don't care if you are black, white, or green. Don't care if you are gay, straight, or in between.

I don't care how many tats you have.

I do care if you don't have good references, have poor credit, or have past evictions.

Run your business.

Annony: Providing information in your ad to answer most frequently asked questions a prospect would ask is invaluable and a time saver for them.

Prospects answering your most frequent questions to themby way of a prescreening set of quesions via form is invaluable and a ime saver for you Develop questions to give you insight into he type of tenant they will be: cooperative, on time payments, sufficient income, etc. Search Mr. LL for prescreening questions from others in the past.

some here myself included send prospects a rental inquiry form, which many never fill out, so you weed some out right off the bat. Some will provide answers you DQ, such as smoking or not enough job/ rental history. I usually batch the rejects together and send a form email that lists all of the reasons they are all not qualified. So the prospect might not know why they were not picked but they know that they were not. Many here do not reply at all.

When I hand out an application i include a separate sheet with the required necessary information which along with the application must be submitted. At the bottom I advise the applicant that I don’t chase after missing documents.

You snooze you loose.

Anon,

Jonny beat me to it. Why are you waiting?

Wait a week?? Good prospects will be long gone.

Online reviews are everything. Yellp, Facebook, BBB, and other sites allow people to complain about your slow or non-response.

Look up your online reviews. Might be surprised.

Our Facebook page DOES show our average response time.

We spend a lot of money to attract good prospects. We respond as quick as possible. Not at 2 am but first thing in the morning. Saturday? Sure!

Copy/paste basic info to apply at our website.

All by text, never by phone- takes too long.

Good people are out looking at your competition and do not wait.

Bad prospects will pester you and eat up more of your time.

LLing is a 24/7 business because people are ALWAYS shopping for homes.

No you do not have to work 24/7 but your systems can, or at least respond ASAP.

Weekends are our busiest time.

Hire a virtual assistant for $2 per hour to answer calls when you don’t want to.

Post great photos and a video walkthru on YouTube so they can SEE and READ about your prop. Have an online app and paper apps at the house so they can easily apply.

Showings: we do not spend A MINUTE on folks until they have submitted and paid our application. We do a quickie screening and give a lockbox code to applicants who appear promising while we deep screen.

Note: in CA you cannot give them access with a key or they can squat.

We get the good residents while other LLs are slow to respond or have to make appointments 3 days away.

I know that many landlords ignore applicants who are obviously not qualified. It seems to be a favorite way of dealing with emotional support animals. I don't think it is the best way, but I know that it is commonly done.

If the OP's only worry is being reported for not responding, then the best option is to put restricted operating hours into the ad. Then make yourself a canned response that goes out to every one, giving further instructions. Or maybe a response that says "Be patient, there will be a delay in processing your request. We are working as fast as we can" that only goes out tot the obvious losers.

If someone is asking me for additional info and they don't provide me with a phone number - they will not hear back from me. That is my policy.

Someone might want to claim fair housing issues - but the truth is an incomplete request doesn't warrant me putting forth much more effort than the person who incompletely filled out an information request.