Accepting Tenant Application?

Question

How does a landlord accept tenant application? Does a landlord want user to just submit application directly and screen them later ? or does a landlord want to screen(non-formal, not credit report/background check) the tenant first before accepting application

Wouldn't the landlord want to accept as many application as possible?

can someone answer if landlord would want to received as many application as possible? Or would landlord prefer to only those he really want them to apply apply?

Answer 1

A smart landlord has standard minimum approval criteria. Any application that meets that minimum criteria is automatically approved.

When I was a landlord, my criteria was as follows:

1. 1 year employment history
2. Credit score of 580
3. No evictions in 3 years
4. Rent no more than 35% of gross income
5. No felony convictions for 10 years.
6. No sex offenders, regardless of time since conviction.

Any application that met that criteria was automatically approved. Most of those criteria were negotiable within reason. An eviction due to a job loss wasn't a problem but one for trashing a place was. Item 5 was workable with strong character references depending upon the circumstances. Item 6 was cast in stone unless it was for pandering or prostitution and was at least 10 years old.