Account with rentredi but apps are coming via Zillow
Contractor · Pensacola, FL · Member since 2017 · 308 posts · 154 votes
Account with rentredi but apps are coming via Zillow
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Attorney · 10451 Mill Run Cir #755 Owings Mills, MD 21117 · Member since 2024 · 302 posts · 113 votes
6dQuote from @Jeremy England:
I have a built to rent property. Full disclosure Im a builder and not first time landlord but definitely still inexperienced. We opened a pro account at rentedi and listed it. We also listed on Zillow separate from rentredi because why pay for syndication to it when I can list it for free with a Zillow account.
Well, now all the apps are coming in via Zillow. None have come via rent redi.
I'm noticing Zillow's rental application seems kind of light. Not much information. None of the apps I've received have had prior landlord contacts in them. Few have had any income documentation. I know Zillow charges for the credit and background and they can use It on multiple property applications. If I send them the rent redi application will they have to pay another fee?
For those of you using rendredi and/or Zillow.
What does that workflow look like for you.
@Jeremy England, one thing I’ve learned is that the platform matters less than having one clear screening process that you use the same way for everyone. If Zillow is where most of the leads are coming from, I would use it for exposure, but I would still decide ahead of time what information you need before making a final decision.
I would also keep the process very consistent. Same income requirements, same rental history questions, same documents, and the same approval standards for every applicant. I’ve seen landlords create problems for themselves when one applicant is screened one way and another is screened differently just because they came through a different site. If you decide to send people through RentRedi after Zillow, I would also make sure they know that before they pay anything else. I’d be glad to stay connected, @Jeremy England. This is one of those landlord systems that seems small at first, but having a clean process makes things much easier later.
5 Replies
- Investor · Pacific Northwest · Member since 2026 · 511 posts · 287 votes2w
Those apps are the problem.
You’ve got two separate platforms trying to own pieces of the same landlord workflow, neither of them holding the full context, and now you’re stuck reconciling incomplete applications, duplicate screening, missing income docs, missing landlord history, and different applicant states.
That isn’t a workflow. That’s fragmentation.
Use Zillow for exposure if it brings leads. Fine. But I would not let Zillow or RentRedi define how I qualify a tenant.
Build one intake standard you control:
- identity
- income verification
- rental history
- landlord references
- occupants
- pets
- credit/background
- move-in timing
- required documentation
- approval criteria
Then every applicant goes through that same process regardless of where the lead came from.
The app should serve the process.
Right now the process is serving the apps.
- 6dKyle MccawBusiness MemberProperty Manager · Keller, TX · Member since 2011 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
@Michael Eskenasy I wouldn’t use Zillow’s application as my actual screening process. It’s fine for generating leads, but tenant screening and income verification are not places to cut corners.
I’d send every serious applicant through your own standardized application process. You want a real credit/background check plus income verification directly from the source—not just PDFs an applicant uploads. Look at tools like Plaid for bank-connected verification, VeriFast for income/employment verification, Snappt for document fraud detection, or BoomPay for a more complete application/screening workflow.
Application fraud is way too common now. A clean-looking paystub or bank statement means very little unless you can independently verify the underlying data. Zillow can bring you the prospect; I’d let a dedicated screening platform determine whether they actually qualify.
McCaw Property Management4.4900 Reviews - Investor · Pacific Northwest · Member since 2026 · 511 posts · 287 votes6d
Exactly. That’s the layer I’m talking about.
Zillow, Plaid, VeriFast, Snappt — to me, those are all still operating inside the same economic/software layer. You can swap one for another, but you’re still accepting the limits of somebody else’s system, somebody else’s data model, somebody else’s workflow, and somebody else’s idea of what “verified” means.
So I actually wouldn’t recommend any of them as the answer.
I have a very different view of what the screening process should look like, but every time I explain that part too directly on BiggerPockets, the post has a funny habit of disappearing and I get a less-than-friendly note afterward.
So I’ll leave it there.
But yes — if you stay inside the existing software stack, then the conversation becomes which version of the same limitation you prefer.
- Attorney · 10451 Mill Run Cir #755 Owings Mills, MD 21117 · Member since 2024 · 302 posts · 113 votes6d
Quote from @Jeremy England:
I have a built to rent property. Full disclosure Im a builder and not first time landlord but definitely still inexperienced. We opened a pro account at rentedi and listed it. We also listed on Zillow separate from rentredi because why pay for syndication to it when I can list it for free with a Zillow account.
Well, now all the apps are coming in via Zillow. None have come via rent redi.
I'm noticing Zillow's rental application seems kind of light. Not much information. None of the apps I've received have had prior landlord contacts in them. Few have had any income documentation. I know Zillow charges for the credit and background and they can use It on multiple property applications. If I send them the rent redi application will they have to pay another fee?
For those of you using rendredi and/or Zillow.
What does that workflow look like for you.
@Jeremy England, one thing I’ve learned is that the platform matters less than having one clear screening process that you use the same way for everyone. If Zillow is where most of the leads are coming from, I would use it for exposure, but I would still decide ahead of time what information you need before making a final decision.
I would also keep the process very consistent. Same income requirements, same rental history questions, same documents, and the same approval standards for every applicant. I’ve seen landlords create problems for themselves when one applicant is screened one way and another is screened differently just because they came through a different site. If you decide to send people through RentRedi after Zillow, I would also make sure they know that before they pay anything else. I’d be glad to stay connected, @Jeremy England. This is one of those landlord systems that seems small at first, but having a clean process makes things much easier later.
- Real Estate Broker · Spokane WA · Member since 2019 · 6 posts · 2 votes1d
I used Zillow for a lot of years. I recently moved away from it. Like others, I found it to be a bit shallow, often missing some things (credit/or otherwise) that would have been really nice to know ahead of time.
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