Allow rental applications without seeing the home?

Question

I have my rental listed with zillow and I receive a lot of application requests without seeing the home. I typically do not allow applications without a tour first. Some people are out of state, but I feel you should always see it first to make sure the neighborhood and home is a perfect fit.

What situations would you allow applications without seeing the home in person?

Gail K. · Answer

What situations would you allow applications without seeing the home in person?

None (but I am a small time landlord).  Well, let me put it this way; I don't rent to folks who haven't seen the property first.  Learned my lesson years ago; had a young military couple moving from across the country.  All excited about having a place when they hit town.  Sent tons of pictures to them.  Once they showed up the husband liked the house; the wife suddenly decided nope; not new enough, didn't like the neighborhood although they had been there all of 1/2 hour (and it was actually a pretty quiet neighborhood with easy travel to the Fort he would be stationed at).  I just showed them the door and told them good luck.

Now if someone is coming from out of state and can't view the property in person I suggest they find a friend or relative who lives local to do the walk through for them.  This isn't too hard with military folks.

Eyeballing potential tenants goes both ways.  They get to see the property; I get to view them.

Gail

Cameron Tope · Answer

Hey Tyler,

We have had a lot of out of state folks. If they complete the application and all the reports come back okay then rent them the house!

We'll normally due video walk throughs for these folks to help.

Michael Plante · Answer

We require they complete an online application and background check before they can see the property They pay a service for background check NOT to us but the online service of $29.00

In before the flood of posts stating they would never pay before seeing the rental unit 😀

Ben Parrish · Answer

@Tyler Stephenson I have a tenant in my SFH who was moving back to the area after living out of state. They didn’t ever take a tour of the house & put in an application sight unseen. We, of course, screened them thoroughly & they were our most qualified applicants. Theyve been great tenants so far. Hope that helps.

Bjorn Ahlblad · Answer

We do it all the time. We don't show without our completed app. which is everything except credit and background. That we do last. The Zillow apps; credit and background checks are for the birds. Too much of the info is entered by the applicant!

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Tyler Stephenson My market is so hot right now for rentals that I’m will to try to rent a unit sight unseen. I have a unit that needs some work but from some comments I’ve made on Facebook I’ve had a couple of people approach me about if I have anything available.

Im going to send them the application and have a phone interview while the unit is being worked on. I figure if I can find a great tenant without having to go through the 30 people who will apply if I do have to put it on the open market I’m that much better off!

Theresa Harris · Answer

Are you having problems renting it?  Problem with sight unseen is if they back out.  Tell them there is a non-refundable deposit if they pass the background check.  Make it a significant amount of money in case they backout and you then have another month of vacancy.  To me it isn't worth it, but I do understand people who are moving to another area and don't have the money to go there and find a rental in person.

Scott M. · Answer

We do not limit our applications to those who have seen the home in person but we do limit those we will show the home to to those who have filled out an application or prequalification questionnaire at the very least.  To answer your question direct, COVID was a great example of a time when we only showed the home in person to people who not only filled out an application but put a deposit down and we prequalified them through to the end.  The last step was seeing the home in person and I don't think we had anyone walk away.  But it does take more then a zillow (or similar) request card to get a tour in this market.  As the market changes, so will that : )

Allow rental applications without seeing the home?

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