No Property Manager Required – Zillow Rental Manager App (and website)

I actually did not see this coming.

The entire process of placing your property for lease (rent) , managing applicants (including background checks – more on that down below) and creating leases was all handled by an app (zillow property manager). The website and app are free for landlords. Tenants pay a one time fee for applying for multiple rentals.

The Listing and Handling Applicants

Providing a listing was straightforward – enter your property address and fill out details about the rent, number of tenants, pets or no pets, included utilities etc. Took me a whole 5 minutes to do this.

Once the listing is live

You will get a notification for each INTERESTED party. A potential tenant can express interest by requesting a tour of the property.

Once an applicant expresses interest, you – the landlord can click a button (INVITE to fill out a TENANT APPLICATION).

Should you have them fill out an application BEFORE showing them the property?

Several prospects will insist on seeing the property BEFORE the application is filled out.

I would highly recommend avoiding that. The application includes a CREDIT check and a BACKGROUND check (more on that below) that will help you decide if you even want to entertain this prospect.

The Credit Check

This is a standard credit check along with a score. The report contains whether or not this tenant has any debt, whether they pay their bills on time etc.

Can the applicant BEAT the employment history check?

Although they are requested to fill out their current or past employer, the applicant’s employment history is not validated. If they fill this information out, you can check with the HR / employee’s manager yourself.

The income is also self reported – it is not automatically validated against any source.

The Background Check – Criminal Check (The only real downside to the app)

The app does not do a DEEP background check and does not go back enough years (I do not know the exact number of years it goes back, but it did not go back 13 years – I had to perform check on).

We had a fairly aggressive individual apply. He kept hounding me and my wife about how much he loved the property ( and even offered to pay a whole year’s rent upfront in cash).

We did a separate, PAID, background check (several online sites – whitepages.com for example, provide this service).

Our PAID background check showed a clear criminal record, including a couple of felonies! Although these were from 12-13 years prior, it was still a deal breaker for us.

The important point here is that the zillow rental manager app (or website) did not do a deep enough background check.

Invite to Move in and Ongoing Rent  Management

Once you are satisfied and have met with your prospective tenant, you can INVITE them to move in. What this does is narrow down your search and prepares the applicant to receive a leasing agreement.

Lease Creation

This was clearly a winning proposition. Through an intuitive wizard, one is led through a series of typical questions that are part of most leases (you also have the option to upload an existing lease if you would rather use your own).

Through the wizard you can specify the lease terms, late payment terms and also rulebooks/guides/ HOA / condo association rules if there are any.

Once the wizard finishes, you can share the draft or the finalized version with your tenant.

Actual Rent Payments

Zillow Payments will allow your tenant to pay through the same portal that they signed the lease through. In addition, it will send monthly reminders for upcoming months.

Summary

With just the automated lease creation tool, this tool would have been a winner in my books. Add to that the entire, well thought out process (from listing to background check to actual leasing to rent reminders), and it is truly a time saver.