In my auto response to enquiries on OpenRent, I ask applicants to call my LL number and state explicitly that we do not pursue any enquiry unless they call me first. That immediately filters out those who cannot follow simple instructions and/or expect me to run around after them.
When they call, I ask them specifically
- If I do a credit check, will I find anything?
- Do you have any outstanding loans you are paying off? If so, how much and how often and what’s the balance?
- Do you have any dependents who will not be living with you? If so, what are your financial obligations to them?
- Are you still in touch with your LL from the property before the one you’re currently in. A reference from a former LL is worth something. A current LL reference is virtually worthless if they are a terrible tenant the LL desperately wants to move out.
- What’s your monthly income? It’s amazing how often people don’t actually know, despite filling it in while applying on OpenRent. And it amazes me how often they exaggerate it too.
- Are you happy to provide 6 months of bank statements? No one has ever objected to this, but if they did it would disqualify them immediately. If they’re happy, then I ask them how many bank accounts they have e.g. savings, joint account and whether they can provide them for each one. I very often see statements where people have money in/out from another account they haven’t admitted to.
Only if I feel that the applicant meets my criteria do I then offer a viewing. About a third of applicants don’t make it past this phone call so, along with my auto-reply, I’ve eliminated nearly all of those who would have wasted my time with a viewing.
At the end of the phone conversation I have a load of information. If at any subsequent point anything they provide contradicts what they initially told me, we have a conversation about it and, more often than not, that puts them out of the game because it’s all about trust and if they undermine that, they jeopardise their application.