New Landlords. Holding Fee vs Deposit? General Advice.

[Mike C.]

We think we have a strongly qualified respondent wanting to rent our SFH (newly refinished). We are (plan to be) using NTN SecureLease. It does the application online and we're planning to get Checkpoint Premium screening, then send the lease online also.

The respondent has a wife and several kids, no pets. They seem very down to earth and stable after a total of a couple hours of phone communications so far, as well as in their internet presence. They are coming from across the country (military officer, PCS) and doing this "sight unseen", except for us sending them more than a hundred detailed photos of the place and a writeup describing each room and the exterior features.

The level of commitment seems real, the dates set, but of course no amount of good feelings is a businesslike substitute for locking it down legally and financially, then we'll take down our ad and notify other respondents.

Now that the house is "shown", we plan to start the app and screen process today. We plan to prorate the second month's rent per the awesome info in BP (Thanks!!).

Question: After screening, can the lease be signed and the deposit collected a few weeks before intended move-in? Or is it better to just collect a holding fee now, then sign lease and convert holding fee to deposit when we do the pre-move-in walk-through? Details of why, if any, would be most welcome -- trying to learn.

Any other comments or advice will be appreciated.