When looking for qualified renters, property managers often feel like they are on a dating show searching for the perfect match. Is this renter honest? Will this renter commit to the long-term? Is this renter financially stable? Is this a real renter or a scam artist? You get the point. And, while renting and relationships are very different, both require due diligence to ensure the best possible outcomes. Effective tenant screening starts early and requires a robust process throughout. Rently’s Rental Screening is the perfect matchmaker between single-family property managers and excellent tenants because it offers industry-leading fraud detection, 3-in-1 screenings to accelerated approval process, and automated features that enhance the leasing experience.
Finding Reliable Renters
Rental property homes are a serious investment, and it’s critical for operators to find renters with the financial stability to meet monthly payment obligations. Avoiding the drama and cost ( $5,000 per instance!) of evictions is paramount.
However, identifying the best possible renters is often a real challenge. Recent rental housing surveys report that 78% of property managers do not have an application process that flags bad applicants, and 75% of landlords blame inaccurate screening reports for that leasing challenge.
To compound those deficiencies, scammers abound and continue to improvise. Or, otherwise honest prospects optimistically extend themselves beyond their budgets. Especially during difficult economic times, rental prospects are inclined to hide financial strains. Likewise, property managers feel pressure to lower standards to fill vacancies.
In all of these cases, a comprehensive and accurate application helps property managers assess and minimize risks.
In addition to the challenges related to qualifying financial profiles, 69% of property managers also report that their application process is very time-consuming, with leasing staff often spending between 4-10 hours on rental paperwork. Beyond that, 72% of property managers also noted the extra time and attention required to make sure that their rental forms meet the guidelines of the Fair Housing Act (FHA).
A streamlined and secure screening saves managers time while ensuring that all regulatory requirements are met.
Finally, property managers face the operational challenge of integrating their rental application process into their leasing lifecycle to create a frictionless experience for renters and themselves. It should not be complicated or stressful for prospects to apply to rent a property. Similarly, it should be easy for managers to collect applications and identify quality residents. The smoother the process, the better the experience for everyone involved.
A fast and easy rental screening process accelerates renter move-in schedules and fills vacancies quickly.
The rental application challenges presented above – collecting accurate financial data, streamlining staff workflows, and easily integrating into leasing operations – are all successfully addressed by Rently’s Rental Screening – the fastest and most accurate tenant screening tool for single-family property managers.
Rently Rental Screening Reduces Fraud
Most property managers experience some type of rental application fraud, and it is a persistent hazard of leasing. In 2018, Transunion commissioned a survey of single-family and multifamily property managers that showed that 97% of property managers had experienced tenant application fraud.
Property managers who use paper applications often worry about renters presenting counterfeit documents, since bank statements and paycheck stubs can be easily altered to misrepresent information. Bringing leasing forms online and automating the verification process goes a long way to remedy this issue. Unfortunately, even with the digitization of information, the potential for fraud remains.
Trends show that most rental applications are submitted online, and, as a result, data is collected quickly. However, property managers must still verify the identity of the person submitting the data, and then also verify that the data they have collected is indeed accurate.
Property managers must also identify and prevent fraud as early as possible, avoiding the unfortunate situation of detecting fraud after a tenant has moved in.
Rently Rental Screening is a powerful leasing tool to proactively combat fraud, scams and protect investments.
Rently Rental Screening Verifies Identity
Beginning as early as the property tour, Rently provides property managers with instant verification of a rental prospect’s identity.
When arriving for a property self tour, renters are asked to scan their driver’s license and send a selfie photograph. Using a combination of sophisticated AI, facial recognition, and personally identifiable information (gathered using Persona software), Rently can instantly confirm the renter’s identity and securely store that data so it is immediately added to the Rently Rental Screening if submitted after a tour.
Rently Rental Screening Verifies Income
Similarly, Rently Rental Screening quickly (in less than an hour!) provides property managers with verification of a prospect’s income, without the need for any manual document uploads.
Rental prospects simply add their bank account information to Rently Rental Screening and an automated income report (from Plaid, a financial data conduit) is sent to the property manager’s portal. Since property managers report that income verification usually takes up between 60-70% of the entire application process, streamlining just this one step with the Rently’s Rental Screening greatly accelerates the entire screening process.
Rently Rental Screening Verifies Credit
In addition to fast and reliable ID and income verifications, Rently Rental Screening empowers property managers by simultaneously providing them with the most accurate credit data available from TransUnion.
In contrast to other credit verification tools on the market, Rently Rental Screening uses TransUnion’s ResidentScore 4.0, a credit model specific to rental housing. ResidentScore4.0 is the most accurate prediction of the likelihood that a renter will be evicted or “skip” out of their rental unit without paying within 12 months.
ResidentScore 4.0 is 4% more predictive than its previous version, and outperforms standard credit models by 16%. Using ResidentScore 4.0, Rently’s Rental Screening can render a decision in 60 seconds or less, so property managers can detect high-risk renters at the time of application.
As an added benefit, because all credit approvals/denials are processed through TransUnion, property managers who use Rently Rental Screening can direct all disputes to TransUnion. This saves time and provides them with a liability shield regarding the rental guidelines established by the Fair Housing Act.
In sum, the early, accurate, and comprehensive screenings offered by Rently are powerful tools to catch fraud and minimize leasing risk.
Rently Rental Screening Optimizes Operations
Leasing staff everywhere will tell you that vetting rental prospects is one of their most important responsibilities, and, interestingly, 84% of leasing professionals qualify rental applications themselves.
As mentioned above, the renter screening process takes anywhere between 4-10 hours per rental application. This is valuable staff time all spent on one leasing task!
By combining three critical renter screenings – ID, Income, and Credit – into one automated process, Rently’s Rental Screening eliminates the hassle that comes when property managers must verify renter information with various third-party service providers.
Also, because it is an automated form that requires all data to be included before processing, Rently Rental Screening ensures that property managers don’t have to track down missing information after an application has been submitted. Rently Rental screening provides a complete set of renter screening data and ensures that no applications ever get lost.
Rently Rental Screening Integrates Easily
All of the security and workflow benefits of Rently’s Rental Screening mentioned above can be quickly implemented because our application easily integrates with property management platforms.
Rently’s Rental Screening is a “plug-and-play” add-on to existing property management platforms, and also an integrated feature of Rently’s comprehensive smart leasing platform.
Property managers can easily add the Rently Rental Screening to any existing system. Rently’s Rental Screening is “platform-agnostic” and uses webhooks to send data. This is an ideal solution for enterprise clients who are not satisfied with the basic rental screening solutions that come with their platforms, but who, for other reasons, cannot switch platforms. Thanks to its robust features, the Rently’s Rental Screening far exceeds the capabilities of most screening solutions on the market today and substantially enhances most current property management platforms.
Ideally, a property manager will use the Rently Rental Screening as part of the Rently touring and smart home platform. This is the best way to optimize not just the screening process, but the entire leasing lifecycle!
Rently Rental Screening Accelerates the Leasing Lifecycle
Rently Rental Screening expedites the renter screening step so that managers accelerate move-ins, which lowers vacancy rates and increases NOI.
From the Rently platform, Rental Screenings are collected, viewed and managed from the same desktop portal as property listings, tours, and device information. Imagine a “one-stop shop” from lead-to-lease!
Having rental screening integrated into Rently’s comprehensive smart leasing platform is functionally the best way to accelerate the entire leasing lifecycle.
Rently Rental Screening empowers managers to do their best due diligence. This translates into increased NOI because finding the best possible renters usually results in less evictions, saving thousands of dollars in lost revenue and leasing time.
Rently Rental Screening Creates a Positive Renter Experience
Rently strives to provide renters with a positive experience at every step in the leasing lifecycle. Rently Rental Screening saves them time and money.
For instance, by using the Rently iQual(™) feature on the Rently Listings site to identify properties they are actually qualified to rent, renters do not waste time touring and paying application fees to properties they cannot afford.
Later, when renters submit a Rental Screening, they save time because their form is pre-filled up to 30% with information already provided during their pre-tour identity verification (driver’s license and credit card information). As a result, renters only submit their information once and do not have to repeat the effort.
Renters can review and track all of their screening forms via a dashboard on the Rently app.
Rently Rental Screening also saves renters money because one form (and fee) can be used for multiple homes under the same management company. Similarly, Rently Rental Screening allows multiple roommates to apply with a single form, for a single fee.
Finally, Rently Rental Screening creates a positive renter experience by not negatively impacting their credit history. Rently Screening only requires a “soft pull” of a renter’s credit history, for a specific rental application. There is no record of the inquiry on their permanent credit report.
Conclusion
Thanks to Rently’s Rental Screening, single–family property managers can easily find their “perfect renter match” and lease confidently, knowing that the relationship will be a positive one.
Rently Rental Screening reduces the drama of residential property leasing by helping managers avoid potential fraud. And, by automating and combining 3 screening steps into one, Rently’s Rental Screening becomes a powerful leasing accelerator.
When combined with Rently’s smart leasing platform, Rently Rental Screening optimizes the entire leasing lifecycle by offering managers a single platform – with a single login – to manage all of their tours, applications, and smart home devices.
For more information about Rently’s Rental Screening, please schedule a demo.
