As a leasing agent, you're all too familiar with the hassle of finding and screening potential tenants. 

Sorting through stacks of traditional lease applications, waiting on background checks, and spending hours on the phone trying to verify rental history takes considerable time and resources you could be spending elsewhere.

In recent years, a slew of online tenant screening tools have emerged that dramatically reduce the time it takes to screen and verify potential renters. If you’re tired of wasting time and energy with the traditional tenant screening process and haven’t made the jump to online tenant screening, read on.  We’ll talk through the mechanics of online tenant screening and how switching to online screening can help save you time on administrative drudgery that you can reinvest in activities that actually matter.

Now, let’s dig into the online tenant screening process and tips on improving yours. 

The Traditional Tenant Screening Process

Generally, the traditional screening process involves several manual steps to determine a potential renters fit. These steps might include:

- Requesting a completed rental application
- Running a background check and credit report
-  Verifying income, employment, and personal information
- Interviewing the candidate (either in person or over the phone)
- Sending approval or rejection notices after all these steps 

Finding this information about a single tenant takes time and effort. However, if the tenant requests a multi-person living situation or has a long rental history, your workload can double.

In addition to the manual time and effort spent, a traditional screening process introduces the possibility of human error. For example, a data entry mistake could allow an unqualified renter to be approved, a careless storage system could allow sensitive applicant data to be exposed, or a missed email between team members could cause a delay in the screening process.  All of these issues related to human error and much of the wasted time can be solved by using an online tenant screening tool.  Let’s take a look at some other advantages of online tenant screening tools and five pro tips for agents looking to streamline their leasing process.

The Online Tenant Screening Process and Its Advantages

Online tenant screening tools and services streamline the screening process, reduce data security and accuracy risk due to human error, and eliminate an enormous portion of the wasted time in the tenant screening process. 

In addition, online tenant screening tools offer many advantages, like vacancy advertising, dramatically reduced employment, income, and rental history verification times, leasing team collaboration so you can share rental documentation with your whole team, and more. Some all-in-one leasing process platforms even offer these benefits in one convenient place, so you can easily find, vet, and approve tenants on the same site.

This is a great solution for leasing agents looking to move their process into the modern age and find renters more quickly and efficiently. You could spend half a day combing through printouts of potential renters’ credit reports looking for any irregularities. Or, you could use an online tenant screening platform to instantly scan, sort, and report on these same reports - providing you the same results in a fraction of the time.

The choice is clear!

5 Pro Tips for Agents

So we’ve established that online tenant screening is the way of the future, but what should you look for when choosing an online tenant screening tool?  Here are five tips when looking to add an online tenant screening tool to your application process.

1. Find a Tool that Allows You to Create Clear Ideal Renter Criteria

Most online tenant screening platforms will provide a generic rental application template, but if you have special renter criteria for your property, you need to ensure that the online tenant screening tool you choose has the ability to customize your application.  Once you create a clear policy or checklist that outlines your criteria for potential tenants, you will be able to build out an application that allows you to request that specific information. This will help you ensure you're screening applicants based on a consistent set of standards that are compliant with local laws and your business goals.

2. Find a Tool that Integrates with Your Other Technologies

Because there are so many different property listing, property management, online tenant screening, and other real estate rental tools, it can be difficult to manage all of the different accounts and applications.  Finding a tool that integrates with the other technologies you use on a regular basis will make your life much easier.

3. Find a Tool That Aggregates All of the Relevant Data in a Single Document

There are a lot of different pieces to rental application screening - application data, credit reporting, income verification, rental history, and more.  To save time, you’ll want to look for an online tenant screening tool that aggregates all of that data and stores it in one place for you to review easily - no more time wasted searching through stacks of paperwork or trying to find a file in your email.

4. Find a Tool That Keeps Records Secure

Most people don’t think about it, but one of the big problems with paper screening processes and even some online methods that rely on tools like email is the potential for disclosure of private applicant information.  When choosing an online screening tool, you should look for one that includes encryption to keep data safe and doesn’t rely on things like email for collecting, storing, and sharing sensitive information with your team. 

5. Find a Tool That Allows You to Collaborate

In addition to eliminating the need for unsecure methods of data-sharing like email, storing your application data in one centralized location allows everyone on your team to be able to access all available information for a given rental application.  If you or one of the other leasing agents is taking a day off, it’s easy for someone else to jump in and take over if anything needs to get done.

ANSWERED: How Online Tenant Screening Works

Like most things in life, tenant screening can be done the easy way or the hard way. Luckily, in this case, the easy way–using online tenant screening and leasing tools–is also the best way to help you avoid the risks and drawbacks of traditional tenant screening.

No more hours sorting through paper applications, squinting at poor handwriting, or waiting for past landlords to return your inquiries.

Instead, find all the information you need with just a few clicks of your ideal online screening tool, like Intellirent. Our leasing tools quickly provide credit, background, and application information so you can vet and complete verifications to make informed decisions about your renter and properties.

Ready to start saving time and screening tenants more effectively? Schedule your product today to start working smarter tomorrow.