Apply to as many homes as you like: you only commit when you sign a lease. Your checks (identity, income, screening) are done once and reused across applications while they are valid.
Start
Press Apply on a listing. Before you start shows what you will provide and which items this landlord requires, and repeats the listing's Equal housing statement. Press Start application. If you already have a draft for this home, you go straight to the first unfinished step. Your progress saves at each step (Save draft).
The eight steps
- Personal info: your name and email come from your profile and are locked, because they appear on documents you sign. Change them in your profile if needed. Add your phone, date of birth, the last four digits of your Social Security number (stored encrypted; never shown to the landlord) and your current address.
- Identity: if the landlord requires it, press Verify identity now for a photo ID and selfie check, then come back. See Verify your identity.
- Household: the people who will live with you. Add at least one row; if you will live alone, add yourself. Tick Co-applicant for someone applying with you and give their email: when you press Continue they get an email with a link to start their own application for the same home, linked to yours, and the row shows Invited. Each co-applicant completes their own checks; the landlord sees the applications side by side.
- Residential history: your past addresses, dates and landlords.
- Employment & income: connect your bank to verify income quickly, or enter your income by hand. The page shows your total income and how it compares to the rent.
- Credit + background check: press Run screening to run your report. The report belongs to you, cannot be edited by anyone, and is reused for other applications until it expires (Re-screen runs a fresh one). Then tick both authorizations and type your full legal name to let this landlord see it.
- Documents: upload the files the landlord asked for under Your files (pay stubs, a photo of your ID, a bank statement, a reference letter; PDF, Word or photos), and list anything else by name with a link. The landlord sees every file with your application, and you can add more from the status page after you submit.
- Review + submit: check the Required by this landlord list, tick the two confirmations and press Submit application.
Submitting the application is free. Identity, income and screening checks each cost a small fee, shown before you pay, and you pay for each only once while it is valid.
If the landlord requires a check you have not completed, Submit application stays disabled and the page tells you which. Other unfinished sections do not stop you.
After you submit
The landlord is told at once that you applied. They see your contact details, the move-in date and term you want, and your verified results (identity, income, credit and background), not figures you typed. Anything else they need, they will ask you for.
Open the application status page to follow it: Submitted, Under review, Screening, Conditionally approved, Approved, Denied, Withdrawn or Lease created, with a timeline. When the landlord decides, their decision and any note they wrote appear there. You are emailed when the landlord approves, approves on conditions (their note says what the conditions are) or turns the application down, with any note they wrote. If you are approved, the lease arrives later as a message in your Inbox and under Lease documents.
The status page's All applications button lists every application you have made (in the renter view, also Long-term rentals › My applications: My applications). To withdraw one, open its status page and use Withdraw while it is still being reviewed.
Your verified checks are on My verifications with the dates they are valid through.
Next: Sign your lease.