What has been everyone's experience lately with getting people to fill out a prescreen.

In the past I would have some inquiries not fill out a prescreen but most would. Now it seems the opposite. I will have some that fill out a Turbo Tenant or Zillow prescreen but most won't. As far as getting them to fill out my prescreen, it seems absolutely impossible.

That said, we have had a large amount of transplants coming here from blue states and they still are. We have also had, and still are having, a large amount of apartments being built here.

I am not sure how to handle this situation. I want to just sell the house rather then rent to the lower level of renters. The good ones are staying in place. I have prompted them to fill out a prescreen in my ad, my replies to them on the internet, through emails if I get their email address on Turbo Tenant, and even through text. I have ended up mostly doing prescreen through text as that seems to be the best way to get them to do it but it eats up a lot of time.

Has anyone else been experiencing this?

What is your solution?

How would you handle it?

My solution is to not pre-screen.

I started advertising one vacancy July 1 and another Aug 1 and so far I've had 157 fill out my pre-screener questionnaire. That number is lower than what I've seen in the past, but that's because people are staying put because their mom and pop landlord's are too timid to raise the rent.

The key is harassment...err...consistency rather. Within one minute of getting in touch, they get a personalized, detailed email telling them exactly what to do. If they don't do it, they get another personalized email 36, 48, and 72 hours later, each different from the last.

The emails stop after 72 hours of the initial contact or as soon as they fill out my form. Everything is 100% hands off with no input required from me.

I started advertising one vacancy July 1 and another Aug 1 and so far I've had 157 fill out my pre-screener questionnaire. That number is lower than what I've seen in the past, but that's because people are staying put because their mom and pop landlord's are too timid to raise the rent.

The key is harassment...err...consistency rather. Within one minute of getting in touch, they get a personalized, detailed email telling them exactly what to do. If they don't do it, they get another personalized email 36, 48, and 72 hours later, each different from the last.

The emails stop after 72 hours of the initial contact or as soon as they fill out my form. Everything is 100% hands off with no input required from me.

I have very few who will complete the pre-screener. I've been advertising a couple of apartments for about a week and out of 70 inquiries, four have completed prescreening and one of those looks good. I don't know if I'll land the good one though as they typically have a broad array of choices. There is no rental shortage for good tenants.

Perhaps it is that they are self prescreening. They see your questions and know that they won't qualify based on what you are asking so they don't even bother. I would consider that a win if that is what is happening.

I do not "Word" things as "Pre-screen". In a way this may be considered discriminatory. At least in California it is. For example you ask does this person own a dog? You did not ask if the dog was a service dog. You did not ask if the dog will live in the rental, or is staying with a sibling--shared ownership. Or if their dog is made of chocolate. You just assumed and did not process this applicant.

Bonanza, that is one of the reasons I don't pre-screen.