Several landlords have asked, “Should I charge an application fee?” My answer astonishes some. It is simply YES.

Three reasons why:

1.     Application fees start the filtering process
If an applicant is unwilling to pay an application fee, you may have a difficult time collecting rent.  You are in charge, it is your asset, and you make the rules.

2.     Covers your costs
Screening prospective tenants cost you time and money.  Recover as much money as possible.  If you have to screen 4 tenants to find the right one, it will cost about $100.  Don’t go in the hole $100.  Collect the application fee upfront.

3.     Being consistent on application fees reduces discrimination lawsuits
Charging differing prices and not charging at all on some applicants, opens you up for a lawsuit.  Charge a consistent fee.  Even if you feel sorry for someone. Please don’t misunderstand me.  I am not being cold hearted.  Attorneys look for inconsistencies like this to create a discrimination lawsuit.

If you have any questions or comments, please email me.

Sincerely,

Troy Boldt

Renting Authority
888-674-9181

tboldt@RentingAuthority.com

www.RentingAuthority.com

Welcome back!

Please read this.  I never want this to happen to you.
Take this short illegal discrimination quiz.  See if you are inadvertently discriminating.
Have you ever done the following?

1. Told an applicant there is not an opening because you did not want to rent to that person, when there really is an opening.
2. Advertised in such a manner that indicates a preference base on group characteristics, such as skin color or sex.
3. Set restrictive standards for certain applicants and not others, such as higher income.
4. Refusing to reasonably accommodate the needs of disabled clients, such as hearing dog, sight dog, or other service animals
5. Had different sets of late payment penalties for different tenants.

The Fair Housing Acts prohibit landlords from taking any of the above actions based on race, religion, or any other protected category.

Consistently using a standard application protects you from costly lawsuits.

Using Renting Authority’s rental application and tenant screening process help you avoid discrimination lawsuits.  They are a great tool that you now have access to.

Don’t worry, Renting Authority provides you with the best rental applications at no cost.

Follow this link and customize your rental applications today.  Select print application or email application.

www.toolbox.rentingauthority.com
Sample application
http://www.rentingauthority.com/videodemo/genericapp.html

Email an application to yourself

http://www.rentingauthority.com/videodemo/genericapp.html

Have a great day,

Troy Boldt

888-674-9181
tboldt@rentingauthority.com
www.rentingauthority.com

Join the forum discussion on this post - (8) Posts

Finding apartments has become an online endeavor!

Over 90% of applicants say they look online first when apartment shopping.

But you’re a landlord not a webmaster.  That is exactly why Renting Authority’s website builder is one of our hottest products.  It is so simple and the end product is professional.  All this is FREE with your upgraded membership.

Your website includes:

• Pictures and descriptions of your rental
• You can include multiple rentals on one website
• Easy tools to manage and change your web site in seconds
• Links to online rental application and online rent pay
• Web sites allow you to stay in communication with current tenants (address book)
• Show your apartment to possible applicants online first.  Saves you time and money.

Create your own website in about 15 minutes with Renting Authority.  This benefit alone is worth more than the cost of the upgrading your membership.  Let’s break down the cost of building your own website without Renting Authority. 

Cost without Renting Authority

Web designers charge between $500 to $800 to create a website for you.  Then you pay an average hosting fee of $19.95 per month.   If you want to make changes to your website, you have to pay a webmaster for the changes.  Average hourly charge is $55.  Most charge a minimal of 1 hour.  So each time you need to change a listing, it costs you around $55.  With Renting Authority, you can make your own changes.  It is easy to do and you have support.

Oh yeah, Renting Authority’s websites have a couple of feature you will not get anywhere else.  Online rental applications.  This is not just a PDF that applicants download and fill out.  It is a real electronic application.  The applicant fills it out online, pays an application fee online, and then Renting Authority automatically process the background and credit reports.  Sorry, but no webmaster can create that for you.

One more thing, you can accept online rent payments with your website.  Very cool.  Send your tenants to your website and they can pay by check or credit card online.  The best part about online rent pay is you don’t pay any processing fees.  That’s right.  The tenants pay a small convenience fee when paying rent online.

Sign up Today!

View Demo Site

View the Website Creation demo to see how easy it is to set up your own website.

If you have any questions about online rent pay or any of our products, please click the customer support button

Sincerely,

Troy Boldt

 888-674-9181

www.rentingauthority.com

tboldt@rentingauthority.com

The better and more information you have, the better decisions you make.  It’s really that simple.  The problem is getting good information for issues you have now!

Forum

Renting Authority has a solution.  We created an Independent Landlord Forum and Blog. The Forum is an on going discussion of issues that landlords deal with on a day to day basis.

You can read questions other landlords have and see how they have dealt with them.  Not only do you get our expert advice, but the advice of thousands of other landlords working in the trenches.  This is one of the most powerful resources you have as a landlord.  The best part of the forum and blog, it cost you nothing.

Here are some of the topics discussed today:

• Lease Agreement
  • Can the tenant break the lease agreement?
  • Room Mate Lease Agreement Problems
  • New lease questions
  • What are landlord’s liabilities if landlord breaks the lease?
• Background and Credit reports
  • Renting to someone who is in bankruptcy
  • Moneys up front
  • Names on lease agreement
• Landlord Advice
• Tenant Trouble
  • Feuding Tenants
  • House in a bad Neighborhood

  (more…)

Join the forum discussion on this post - (2281) Posts

My mentor Perry Marshall, sent me an excellent article about doing what is most important in business.  I am inserting part of his article to introduce you to this concept.

A few years ago, John Carlton told me this story about his edgy writing career with copywriting legend Gary Halbert:

   “I think the term Operation Moneysuck is a term that makes people chuckle. But to be honest, it is the most deadly serious thing for any businessman to learn. The earlier you learn it, the better you are going to be. The more you take it to heart, the more profitable your business is going to be. 

   “I’ll tell you quickly how this story happened. When I sat in a office with Gary Halbert, we were supposed to go over a bunch of ads that we were going to write. We had a lot of business so we were going to call some clients. We had some hours to do this. 

   “Just as we sat down, his secretary came in and said, “OMG, your landlord is on the phone and he is really pissed about something.” The copier just broke, the computer just went down and there were 15 fires that were going on essentially. 

   “I thought to myself, “That is it. We are not going to get down to any business here because we have to stop and take care of these little emergencies, but how.” Halbert really surprised me and said, “Calm down, back up, get out of the room, close the door, locked it and not another word of explanation.” Then he came back and said let’s get busy. And, we worked for the next three hours, got a lot of business done and brought in a lot of money. 

   “When we opened the door later, we found the problems had solved themselves and the ones that hadn’t weren’t that important anyway.

So right about then, what I really got jammed into my head was what Operation Moneysuck was about.

What is your number one job as a landlord or property manager? 

  (more…)

I had nearly identical conversations with two new landlords this week.  The conversations went roughly like this.

I found someone to rent my house.  I just need them to sign the lease. I am not sure if I want to spend the money on running a credit and background check.  I don’t want to change the applicant an application fee and scare them off either.

What do you suggest?

Of course, I suggested they run background and credit checks.  You might say, you suggest that because Renting Authority makes money from background and credit checks.  That is true, but it is a necessity.  When the economy is unstable, you must stick with the basics.

• Have applicant fill out and sign a complete rental application.
• Run background and credit reports
• Do employment and rental verification.
• Have applicant sign a rental lease agreement.

Here’s another strange occurrence.  Unfortunately, I keep hearing stories like this more and more. 

  (more…)

Employment verification is an extremely important step in the tenant screening process.  Generally, a renter needs a good job so he or she can pay the rent.  Let me give you a list of things to inquire about.

One of the most important things is to pay attention to is: who and how the business phone is answered.  Why, because some people will give you a friend to call and pretend they are the employer.  The phone should be answered with a business name.

Ask for the applicant’s supervisor or boss.  This information should have been provided by the applicant on the application. 

Ask the following questions:

• How long has the applicant been employed there?
• Is he or she currently employed there?
• Is the job full time, part time or temporary?
• How many hours a week does he or she work?
• Verify the monthly income.  (Employers do not always give out this information.)
• Does their job future look good?

Make sure to do good employment verification.  If you do not have the time to do it yourself, Renting Authority can help you. 

This is how you run an Employment Report:

• Log into the Property Owner’s Toolbox
• Select Past Rental and Employment Reports. 
• Click the box for Employment Report
• Fill in the needed information and we take care of the rest.

You receive your Employment Report in 24-48hrs  

The Cost is only:

$6 for Employment Verification

$6 for Rental History Verification

Only $4 each with your upgraded membership

Up grade your membership now

Click here to view a sample Employment Report

Login and order you Employment Reports now

To your success,

Troy

Renting Authority

tboldt@rentingauthority.com

888-674-9181

Rental history verification is an extremely important step in the tenant screening process.  If a person was a good renter in the past, chances are they will continue this pattern.  The reverse is also true.

Rental history verification is very straight forward.  You speak with the previous landlord and find out what type of a tenant the applicant is.

Ask the following questions:

• Length of time rented?
• Did any problems occur while renting?  If yes explain
• How many times were they late paying rent?
• Do they know why person is leaving?
• Do they have pets?
• Are they breaking the lease?
• Would you rent to them again?

Make sure to do good rental history verification.  If you do not have the time to do it yourself, Renting Authority can help you.  This is how you do it:

• Log into the Property Owner’s Toolbox
• Select Past Rental and Employment Reports. 
• Click the boxes for Rental History Report,
• Fill in the needed information and we take care of the rest.

You receive your Rental History Report in 24-48hrs  

The Cost is only:

$6 for Employment Verification

$6 for Rental History Verification

Only $4 each with your upgraded membership

Up grade your membership now

If you have any questions, please email or call.

Here is a sample report of what the report looks like: 

Click here for sample report

Click here to login and order rental history reports now

To your success,

Troy Boldt

Renting Authority

tboldt@rentingauthority.com

888-674-9181

Landlord Extorted for $12,000

Consistently using a standard application can protect you from costly lawsuits. Let me give you an example why. Let’s say you need to rent an apartment. You have 5 individuals come by and look at the apartment. You choose applicant number four. It sounds like he has a great job and is clean cut. A few weeks later you get a phone call from applicant #2’s attorney. He claims that you discriminated against his client because she is a Mexican and has two children. The lawyer goes on to state that he will settle for $12,000 or he will take it to federal court and sue you for $55,000.

    Unfortunately, you have no documentation from the applicants. You have nothing standardized like an application or credit and background report to support your decision. The attorney knows this and knows he can win a settlement.

    Your insurance company will settle for $12,000 because they know the expense of going to court and the probability of loosing. They know you have no documentation and are very exposed. If you really want to protect yourself, please do the following.

    Using a standard application and running a background and credit check for all prospective tenants can greatly help limit discrimination lawsuits. Lawsuits are very expensive and time consuming. Store the application, either electronically, or a hard copy in a secure filing cabinet. Run a background and credit check

Who wants to get sued? None of us, so please take every precaution. Prevention is the best medicine.

Have a great day,

Troy Boldt  

www.rentingauthority.com

Mr. Boldt, we used your Renting Authority Tenant Screening process for our most recent rental and we had great success with it.  Thanks so much!

Jen

Lowell, MA