Using rental applications in DoorLoop starts with your company-level settings. What you configure here will be the default for your rental applications unless you override a section at the property level.

Using these settings, you’ll be able to customize many aspects of your rental application including which information is mandatory and any additional requirements you might need that are outside of the standard categories.

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To access the main company default Rental Applications settings, click Settings on the main menu . Then under the Property Settings section, click Rental Applications.

Clicking this will bring up the Rental Applications settings window. There will be quite a few sections and categories that need to be filled out to create a robust rental application.

Before setting up the contents of your rental application, it is important to select an Application Fee Plan that works best for your business. This is basically what you will charge the prospect for filling out your rental application.

To set up the Applications Fees, you will need to have a verified company address entered. If you've already done this, read on.

On the Rental Applications window, in the Application Fees section, you'll have three options for the Applications Fees:

You will also need to click the box labeled "I accept the DoorLoop and TransUnion Terms and Conditions." to use Rental Applications.

Property managers typically use this when a state or local law caps how much applicants can be charged for a rental application, but the actual cost of screening and processing exceeds that cap — contributing the difference lets you stay compliant with the fee limit while still covering your full costs.

To enable this feature, enter the amount that the applicant will pay, and then toggle on the option labeled "Contribute towards application fees." The amount that will be contributed by you, as the property manager, will be automatically filled in under Manager Contribution. This amount will be automatically taken from the Merchant Account associated with the property after the applicant pays their portion.

You will also have the option to request an income verification report from your applicants. This is an additional $10.00 fee that is charged to the applicant. This helps verify tenant income using bank connections, payroll providers, or uploaded documents to confirm they meet the 3x rent rule. For more information about the income verification feature, read: Income Verification for Rentals: How to Confidently Confirm an Applicant Can Afford the Rent.

The first page of your rental application will show a brief summary of what the applicant can expect when filling out the rental application. This includes any documents they may need beforehand and how long it will take to fill out. If you have any specific instructions for your applicants, this is where you'd include them as well. This is what will be shown on the first page of the rental application.

(You can also add instructions to each page of the application separately.)

Below are the contents of what you want to include in your rental application. This is the information that you want to collect from the prospect to help you determine if they are good fit for your rental.

Add instructions (optional) for this section. This section will ask for general information about the applicant, such as their name, contact information, demographics, ID numbers, etc. As mentioned above, you now have the option to make certain fields required or not. For instance, not everyone has a Drivers License, so now you have the option to have your applicants skip these sections if necessary. You will notice that some sections cannot be deselected because they are required.

Add instructions (optional) for this section. This section asks about the applicant's current residential situation. Here they'll enter their current address, when they started living at that location, and more. You will notice that some sections cannot be deselected because they are required.

Add optional instructions for this section. This section has your applicants tell you where they are working now, and their employment status. Here you can add fields for when they started, when they ended, a current supervisor, and more. You will notice that some sections cannot be deselected because they are required.

The rest of the sections on the rental application are optional, though they do help gather more information about your applicants. You can choose to turn any of these sections on or off, and can even make these sections required if necessary.

If you have additional questions you would like to ask the applicant that isn't part of any of the categories above, you can add them here. If you enable this section, we do provide some sample questions you can ask, but you can modify these to fit your needs. Use the + Add Another link to add more questions and the Trash Can icon to remove questions. You can even change the Question Type.

This is another section that isn't required but can be helpful. Here, you can request that applicants upload certain documents if they're necessary as part of your rental process. For instance, you might want a copy of their driver's license, a recent pay stub, or more. Here, you can add those items and mark them as whether or not they're mandatory to continue.
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Pay special attention to the option "Allow applicants to upload missing documents later (Recommended)." This option allows your prospects to skip uploading the necessary documents if they don't have them yet, and then continue with the rental application to the end. This keeps the prospect from having to exit the rental application and possibly not completing it at a later date.

While not necessary, you may want to include this section as part of your rental applications. This is where you would add information such as whether or not application fees are non-refundable, and disclaimers, requirements, policies and procedures, and more.

When rental applications are completed by your prospect, you'll want to assign a user on your account that will be notified each time. This way, they can review each rental application that comes in without delay.

This section lets you assign Users within your organization who will be notified whenever a new application is received. This could be you, an assistant, or someone in the office. You can assign multiple Users to receive these notifications as well.

This will be where the general link for the rental application will be. This is a link for an application that isn't specific to any property. If you need a property-specific rental application link, you'll need to grab that from the property.

Property Level Applications - If you enable this setting by toggling on "Prospects can apply without selecting a specific unit," your prospects will be able to apply for the general property without needing to select a specific unit.

(For instructions on how to send a property only rental application, read: Send a Property Only Rental Application to a Prospect).

Customize what your rental application looks like by adding logos, background images, choosing a color, and a theme. You can also change what the Company Name shows as well as that the application url subdomain will be.

Once you've reviewed and configured each section, click Save, or Save & Preview to see your changes before finalizing them.