Send them this:

Yes, it is still available. I can show it anytime, but could you fill me in on the following? 1. Desired move-in date. 2. Household income. 3. Number of people. 4. Describe animals. 5. Credit score of each adult. 6. How long on the jobs.

Thanks.

UNO -

Set up open house showings at certain times. I do once a week on Saturday between 11:00 am and 12:30 pm. Half of those calling will not show up or are not qualified, so it's a waste of time to set specific appointments.

I have them answer a pre-qualification form using google forms. It asks several questions. If you only have 1 house it might not be worth it to go to the trouble but as Tim (CA) said you should ask these questions to prevent wasting your time and their time and money.

Have a list of your qualifying standards:

Applicant must net 3x the rent. The rent is $1500 then their paychecks must be $4500 a month.

Credit score must be above 650

No smoking

No evictions

No felonies within the last 10 years

basically whatever is important to you.

What is your animal policy? 2 max. No big dogs. Fixed only. No puppies. Figure it out. if you need help let us know.

Ask the questions when you have them on the phone, or email.

What is your total net monthly income? It's $4000. I'm sorry we require 3x net and you would not qualify. Best wishes in your home hunt.

What is your credit score? It's bad maybe 600. Sorry we require a 650 FICO score. Best wishes in your home hunt.

Do you smoke, vape, or hookah? I only smoke outside. I am sorry we do not allow smoking. Best wishes in your house search.

How many humans will be living in the house? 8. I am sorry it is a 2 bedroom home and we only allow a max of 2 people per bedroom. Best wishes in your home search.

How many ANIMALS (not pets) will be living with you? 4 cats, 6 dogs. I am sorry we only allow a maximum of 2. Best of wishes

You get the idea.

I believe it was Jason(VA) who said

LOOK FOR A REASON TO DENY, NOT REASONS TO ACCEPT.

You want a good, compliant, cooperative tenant. Not someone who is going to cause you grief. An empty house is better than a bad tenant.

As RB says, screen X3.

Tenants lie like crazy, specially about their animals.

Remember you are handing keys over to a very expensive asset to perfect strangers. That will take the fear out of asking them financial information. I ask for 3 months of bank statements per applicant. That verifies a whole lot of things for you.

At the top of this page you will see a spot where you can search previous post. You really need to learn about the ESA and service animals and laws. In most cases these claims are scams and the tenants will not meet other qualifications. Deny them on other qualifications and not the animals.

If you have lots of potential applicants set up a viewing time. Either do an open house, or else schedule everyone the same day 15 minutes apart.

Text back would you like to make an appointment to view? They don't get the appointment until after they respond to you. That will get rid of half of them because they won't follow through.

If you are doing this by text and not by phone, you can thin them out by putting in things like "bring a paystub or bank statement"

About the service dogs, I respond:

Absolutely. I am happy to accept service dogs. But remind me when you fill out the application because I talk to so many people I won't remember.

Then you have your hint to screen extra hard if they apply and if everything is legit and they are well qualified, you accept them.

I have an application called The Request For A Reasonable Accommodation of a Serve Animal or Emotional Support Animal. You are only allowed to ask a couple of questions about the service animal, but in addition I ask if the person who needs the service animal will be a full time resident.

For emotional support I say "attach the required ESA paperwork" and do not tell them what it is because if the ESA is legit, they know what paperwork.

I live in a World where every phone call could be The Housing Department trying to catch me discriminating against some protected class. Therefore I have to let "everyone" have a "look-see". I've come up with this simple plan:

1) The rental house has to be fully insured, secured and have neighbors looking to make sure no-one tries to break in.

2) I take down the name, date, time and phone number of every caller.

3) I give out all of the same basic information to everyone.

4) Before I give someone the address to do a drive by, I ask a few questions. If I get a bad/wrong answer, I refuse to continue. Examples they own a dog who's killed many.

5) I conduct two open House showings per week. I give appointments, 10 minutes apart.

In my market I get a LOT of responses to my ads but 98% of them are deadbeats, drama and drugs.

2% are actually responsible renters with a good track record and stable.

My prequal screens out about 96% of the baddies. They don't get a tour to my masked street address ads. Some of them become overtly hostile when I politely turn them down due to smoking, etc. thus confirming my decision not to rent to them. With the exact street address masked, they can't do any acts of retribution.

The thing that pops out tome is TWO service dogs. Real service dogs are generally trained to help the owner in whatever way they need help. A legitimate one would be fine.

What does the second one do that the first can't? BIG red flag - just trying to avoid "pet" deposit & "pet" rent.

You mayn't ask what there disability is, but you may - and need to - ask what service the dog is trained to do.

Then a reasonable accommodation request.

I agree that two service animals sounds off. Possibly using the term service in place of ESA. That's misrepresentation to me.

All my non-contact list calls go to voicemail. That has saved me so much time and effort. I have a small, clunky website that I direct them to. There they can see if I have anything open as well as get some of the minimum qualifications that I have.

When I did not have a website I just changed my voicemail to say what I had available. Like "We have a 2 bed 1 bath townhouse available. If this interests you leave a msg or text for additional info."

I do lockbox tours. But I also have them fill out an application (online) before I let them in. They also send a pic of their DL or state picture ID.

Online is easy and fairly cheap. There are places to do it for free if you don't get a lot of traffic. This weeds out some from the start. Then I can do a fast check on them to see if they have evictions, drug cases, etc. That weeds out the majority, and I still didn't have to listen to the sob story, or get asked if I take Section 8, or if 37 pitbulls is too many.

Lots of great advice here. You have to decide how you wish to proceed. The Mr. Landlord Boot Camp is well worth the money spent. I have been doing this since 2001 and it amazed me how much I didn't know or realize what could be done when I went two years ago. It is a step up for sure.

Also don't be shy about what you need. If you go to the bank for a loan or a dealership for a car they are going to check you out first. You have a house, make sure you protect that investment as much as you can.

As mentioned on this site many times:

I’m not sure how long you’ve been a landlord—based on your post, probably not very long. Selecting the tenant is the most critical part of being a landlord. Get it right and you win; get it wrong and it becomes a nightmare.

SCREEN. SCREEN. SCREEN.

Bonanza NC suggestions is a good place to start. Do not rush to rent.

A highly qualified resident is like having gold in the bank. A bad tenant is going to cost you dearly. So, what is the difference?