Take applications online, review applicants against the same criteria every time, and turn the one you pick into a tenant, a lease, a prorated first month, and a deposit on the books.
Reflects Rentwelly's positioning; confirm the screening checks available on your plan inside the app.
The useful discipline is writing your criteria down before you meet anyone, then applying them in the same order to every applicant. That is what makes a decision defensible if it is ever questioned, and it is also just a better way to choose — it stops the most recent conversation from carrying more weight than the evidence.
What you are looking for is mostly consistency. Does stated income match the documents, does the rental history line up with the dates given, do the references exist and answer. Contradictions matter more than any individual figure.
One caution worth taking seriously: what you may consider, and what you must disclose, varies by state and city, and in some places quite sharply. Those rules bind you regardless of what any software lets you do, so check your local requirements before setting your criteria. Nothing here is legal advice.
Every applicant is attached to the unit being filled, with their documents and your notes in one place you can actually review later.
Consistency is the whole game in screening — for fairness and for making a decision you can defend. A recorded process beats a remembered one.
The approved applicant becomes a tenant with a lease, a prorated first month, and a deposit on the books. No copying data between tools.
A deposit is money you hold, not revenue you earned. It posts as a liability, so your balance sheet is honest from the first day of the tenancy.
Related: tenant management software, prorated rent calculator, and how to record security deposits.
Free for 14 days, no credit card. Take applications online and move your next tenant in cleanly.
Applicants apply online rather than on paper, and the application stays attached to the unit you are filling. You review applicants side by side, decide, and the approved applicant becomes a tenant and a lease without anyone re-typing names, dates, or rent amounts. Check the app for the screening checks currently available on your plan.
Because the vacancy is the expensive part. When the application, the lease, the first prorated month, and the deposit all live in one system, the day a tenant moves in is a few clicks rather than a re-entry project across three tools.
Consistency more than any single number: does stated income match what the documents show, does the rental history line up with the dates, and do the references exist. Also confirm what your state and city allow you to consider and ask — screening rules vary a lot by jurisdiction, and the rules bind you regardless of what any software permits.
You should apply the same written criteria to every applicant, in the same order, and keep a record of the decision. That is both fair-housing hygiene and simply better decision-making. Keeping applications on the record rather than in your inbox is what makes that reviewable later.
Both post to a real double-entry ledger — the deposit as a liability you are holding, not as income, and a mid-month start prorated properly. You can check the maths first with our free prorated rent calculator.
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