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trutknoxs t1_jbfv9pr wrote

My golden nugget is to put together a renter portfolio to submit with every single inquiry you make for potential apartments. In mine I include an introductory letter addressing the most common rental app questions (who am I, what am I about, who’s living with me, how long have we lived together, and why do I want the unit), my resume, 3 personal references, and my entire rental history summarized (addresses, time frames, names of landlords, phone number/email of landlords, names and contact info of previous roommates).

Yes this is extreme, but the market feels so competitive that I try to make it as easy as possible for prospective landlords to asses me as a renter and make a decision. That way nobody’s wasting anyone’s time. I’ve missed out on a lot of units just because another prospect got their rental app in first or had their references ready first.

Best case scenario, they look at the portfolio and think “wow they’re on their shit!”. Worst case scenario, they don’t even look at it and I continue searching.

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throwoutthebath802 t1_jbj13kk wrote

Landlord here - this is spot on. You go right to the top of the list if you respond this way.

We're not trying to be jerks about it, but it goes like this: we put an ad up on craigslist and get 100 responses in 8 hours. Half of them just say "Hey, when can I come see it?". The rest provide some info. A few provide detailed info like the reply above. We don't even answer the others.

We're going to need all of this information. You know you're going to have to provide it. We won't show our apartments unless we have this information first. We won't displace and inconvenience our current tenants to show an apartment to someone who just wants to see what it looks like.

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