How the Application Process Works

Danielle, I sure appreciate you visiting with the people online here to go over the Rob Brooks Realty application process. You're the queen of the application process; you know it all. So let's first talk about how they get here, and it starts with the advertising, right? Tell us a little bit about the advertising that we put out.

We do a couple of things. We have a professional photographer who goes through and takes pictures of all the properties—the rooms, outside, inside, everything like that—to show on our MLS listing that goes out to all the other websites. We also do a 3D virtual tour so they can kind of immerse themselves and walk through the house that way, as well as a video walk-through tour where somebody basically just walks around with the camera and shows what each room looks like. All of that is done by a professional, someone who knows what they're doing with that camera.

3D tours have definitely become more important, especially since COVID. There aren't as many people who want to physically enter a property and walk with somebody they don't know, or a crowd if it was like an open house-style showing. They'd rather be able to just do it from a distance and see the property. It's definitely cut our in-person showings down a lot. There was already a trend moving towards people renting or even buying property sight unseen, especially with a lot of military clients, and then the whole COVID thing almost normalized it. People are willing to do that if they have the proper technology with 3D tours and things. We know that not all companies do 3D tours on rentals, but we find it extremely beneficial to our owners, especially considering the amount of military that we have moving into this area. They're moving from overseas sometimes, or across the country, so having the option of not having to be here in person and wait until the very last second, especially in the market right now, to find a place to rent is a huge help. This allows us to get better quality applicants and tenants in the door because they can do it from a distance. It makes sense.

So, we get a property online, and it hits all the websites with the 3D tours, the videos, the professional photos, and then you start getting calls or emails. A lot, actually—probably 20ish per day on each property, just phone calls, not including emails.

When they call or email, that's one of the first opportunities we have to vet that tenant. We'll talk about how there are three different things that we do to vet the tenant, three different times, and this is the first moment. They're wanting to know certain things about the property, but you're wanting to know certain things about them. What kind of questions are you asking?

Kind of general things, like why they're moving to the area. That's a big reason to kind of get a gauge for what reasoning they're having to move and see if they're going to be long-term or short-term tenants; some owners prefer different aspects of that, and properties need a different basis. We also ask if they have pets or not, and we just make a conversation to get to know them, where they work, things like that.

You're asking all these questions, and it takes time to ask them and to convey the information. How much time are you spending on each phone call or email?

Five to ten minutes at a minimum, depending on how long the conversation goes with each person. Some people are much more talkative than others. As all these calls are coming in, I start doing the math in my head—10 minutes per call, with 20 calls—it's a lot of time to sift through all these calls. Definitely.

It's a job to just field these phone calls and things, and thank you for doing such a good job.

So now, as these phone calls or emails come in, you do these initial talks with them, and then what's the next step? They either do or they don't want to look at the property. If they do, then what does that look like?

If they do want to see the property in person, then we will schedule it. We arrange for a time that works for both my schedule and theirs, and we will go together and see the property and let them walk through and kind of see and touch everything and see what they think. At that time, I typically stand there, and while they're looking around at the property, I'm watching them. That's the other vetting process we were talking about, where you kind of see what they look like and see if they're going to be good tenants for that property. Are they responsible? How do they keep their vehicle? That might give a clue as to how they keep the house.

Okay, so that's the second part of the vetting process. What comes next after that? They say, "Okay, we like it," whether they've seen it or not. They say, "We like it, we want to make an application." What does that look like?

We give them the online application. We'll send them to the website; they apply online, nice and easy. They attach all their documents that they have to show: proof of income, photo ID. If they have pets, we make sure they're licensed—all of those kinds of things that we like to see everybody have. And then we start processing it for background and credit checks, everything like that.

If they have everything right there, perfect, that's great. We'll send it straight to the owner and let them see if they're interested in them as a future potential tenant. And if they're ready to go, it probably takes about 30 minutes or so to complete the application. Then it'll send it to us to review, and there's an online system somewhere in between that sends it back to them to approve that we're going to do a credit background check and things like that, so they get a couple of chances to discuss that. That sounds good.

So then you approach the owner. You say, "We have an application." You present the information, and hopefully it's a yes, and then we've got our person, and we go with our day, and we get them to sign a lease, and everybody's happy.

You process the lease; it's done by electronic signatures, so nobody has to show up anywhere. How long does it generally take to get the lease ready for electronic signature?

Probably 30 minutes or so. Our process kind of helps put everything together. The only thing that is probably a little bit more time-consuming is making sure that each individual property has all of the additional addendums that are needed. So, if there's an HOA for the property, we've got that. If they have pets, we've got that. If there's a pool, there's one for liability, or hurricanes in Florida, and those kinds of things. In some cases, it might take a little bit of back and forth between the different parties to make sure everybody is agreeable to all the terms on the lease, so it might take maybe a day or so from application to acceptance, and then the lease is able to be sent out. Typically within two to three days max, we've gone from start to finish if we can help it.

Well, Danielle, I sure appreciate all the work that you do in getting great tenants into the Rob Brooks Realty properties. Thank you for watching. I'm Rob, this is Danielle of Rob Brooks Realty, and have a nice day.