An apartment rental application competes for the applicant's attention with three other landlords, and the ones who lose good applicants almost always lose them to time rather than to price. The process that wins them is not more thorough, it is faster and more transparent. This page is the timeline, for a landlord letting a unit in a competitive market.
Before: publish the criteria
Income threshold, references required and anything else you will apply. Publishing them filters out applicants who cannot meet them, which saves everybody a step, and in a growing number of jurisdictions disclosure of screening criteria is required anyway. It also disciplines you, because a criterion you were willing to publish is one you are willing to apply consistently.
At application: state the timescale
Tell every applicant when they will hear and what happens next. Two to five working days is a normal commitment for an ordinary application. The commitment matters more than the number: an applicant who knows they will hear on Thursday waits until Thursday, and an applicant who hears nothing assumes the answer is no by Tuesday.
During: verify in parallel, not in series
Contact the landlord reference and the employer at the same time, and start any screening report at the same time as both. Sequential verification is what turns a two-day decision into a week, because each step waits for somebody else's schedule. The order only matters if one result would make the others unnecessary.
After: tell everybody, including the unsuccessful
Promptly, and where a consumer report contributed to a refusal, with the notice that names the agency and the right to dispute. Beyond the obligation, this is the part applicants talk about. In a market where you will advertise again next year, being the landlord who replies is worth more than it costs.
Questions people ask about apartment rental application
How many applications should I collect?
Enough to fill the unit. Collecting more than you need and holding them is how applicants are left waiting on a decision that was already made.
Is it fair to decide first-come?
It is easy to defend because it is not a judgement. Whatever order you use, use the same one every time and be able to say what it was.
Should I hold a backup applicant?
With their agreement, and tell them that is what you are doing. Holding somebody silently in reserve is the practice that generates the most complaints.