Where to Find a Free Rental Application Form

Before you can get a tenant into your property, they need to submit an application to lease or rent the unit. This is an important step, as it grants the property manager permission to check references, ensure that the tenant is reliable, and verify that they have the income to pay their rent. It can be tempting to search through the many thousand documents on the internet and grab the first rental application form that you find, but often that's not the best solution.

This article will discuss where to find a free rental application form on the internet, and what to avoid.

ONLINE APPLICATION

So Many Choices

A simple search for the term "Free rental application" will bring up millions of different results. It can be overwhelming to know which option to chose, where to start, and what sources provide reliable content. There are several things to consider when you're sifting through all the options:

What's the cost? For a rental application form, there is really no reason to pay for a document. There are an abundant selection of quality documents available for free. Paying (any price) seems unreasonable for such a general form. What's the source? Does the site look professional? Again, with so many choices, don't limit yourself to sites that provide garbage forms. There should be no misspellings or typos, clear and easy to read language, and the documents should be in a professional format. What's the catch? Does the site want an email address, membership, etc? Once you find a rental application form that you're comfortable with, you can use it for years to come just by making copies. This is an area of the real estate world that doesn't change much, and a document that works now will likely be fine 5 years from now. Recurring memberships and account sign ups aren't necessary for this either.

Where to Find Free Rental Application Forms

Regardless of the search engine that you're using, try to find a site that fits your needs. If you're searching for a template instead of a stock document, include the word 'template' in your search string. If you'd like a custom document, include the word 'custom' or 'customizable' in the search text to bring up more relevant results.

You may benefit from viewing the first several pages of results instead of the top search results, as they often require payment or membership of some sort in exchange for the documents that you're looking for. It might also help to find several different websites that provide good rental application forms and print the ones that you like. You could compare them side by side before deciding what to use for your rental.

Other Ideas

If you find a website that provides good documents or templates that you like, consider using other documents that they have available (if possible). This might be a good opportunity to get a rental checklist, lease agreement, or other rental forms while they're available.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has provided some insight in where you can find different forms, and what you should try to avoid in your search. The application isn't quite as critical as the lease agreement (though it's still very important), so don't stress if you don't find a document that fits all of your criteria right away. Keep looking! With a little persistence you'll find a solution that fits your needs and costs you nothing.

Where to Find a Free Rental Application Form

ONLINE APPLICATION