Overview
Screening applicants can be stressful. Will this potential tenant cause trouble? Will they pay their rent? Luckily, DoorLoop has a built-in rental application feature that you can configure to meet your needs.
To simplify and automate your property management work, prospective tenants (called Prospects in DoorLoop) can submit rental applications through DoorLoop. After configuring your application settings and posting your rental application links, you won’t have to get involved until you are notified that it’s time to review an application.
This means prospects will submit and pay for an application complete with a TransUnion SmartMove background check request, all without you having to do anything manually!
This background check includes Credit, Criminal, and Eviction History reports, which are part of TransUnion's SmartCheck Plus package shown here.
The Steps
Step 1 - Configure company-level rental application settings
Like many things in DoorLoop, you can configure rental application settings at the company level, and have all your properties use these default settings.
Step 2 - Configure property-level rental application settings
When you’re ready for your prospects to submit rental applications online, you’ll need to turn on this feature for each property you want to receive them. Property level rental application settings are also where you set how much to charge for the application, decide whether you want to request TransUnion SmartMove reports and set rental application information unique to the property.
Step 3 - Make Sure Your Units' Addresses are Verified
For a unit to show up on your rental application, you'll need to make sure that the property address for those units is verified and correct. When looking through the Units list (Rentals > Units), Units that show "Open" under the column "Open for Applications" are good, while those that show up as "Property Address Not Valid" should be double-checked for their validity.
Step 4 - Test your rental applications
Once your property rental applications are configured and turned on, you can actually test out and review the application yourself. This way you’ll know exactly what your prospects will see!
Step 5 - Send the rental application to your applicants
When you’re satisfied with your rental application, use this article to learn how to get the link to your prospects so they can fill it out.
You can email or text the link to your prospects, or post the link on your website. Whatever you like!
Step 6 - Get notified when rental applications are received
When your prospects submit a rental application, you can configure your settings to notify you via email. Then you can log in to DoorLoop and review the application and request the TransUnion SmartMove reports if you use those.
This article explains how to find and review submitted applications, and this one explains how you request TransUnion SmartMove reports.
Tip: When someone submits a rental application, this adds them as a Prospect in DoorLoop. If you decide to approve their application and create a lease for them in DoorLoop, adding this prospect to the new lease turns them into a Tenant.
Things to Consider
TransUnion (“TU”) is no longer providing local county or state criminal details in the following states:
As of November 29th, 2023, criminal records are available to return in:
Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida,
Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan,
Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West
Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Criminal records are not available to return in:
Alabama, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South
Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.
For clarification purposes, TransUnion will still be providing Most Wanted, OFAC and Sex Offender results in all states/counties where such information is lawfully allowed to be considered.
FAQ
What if the prospect submitted and paid for their rental application, but entered incorrect information and now TransUnion can't verify their identity?
Good news! You can have the prospect submit the rental application again with their correct information. They will not have to pay again, but they should check their information carefully this time.
How do I charge a prospect a different amount than what I’ve set to charge for my property rental applications?
If you decide to do so, you can charge a different amount for a specific prospect's rental application.
Next Steps