Streamlining the Rental Application Process BY PAUL WILLIS
Special from the National Apartment Association
T
he practice of screening residents has been part of the apartment landscape for decades. But as tech continues to create previously unattainable efficiencies, it has become increasingly clear that many traditional screening methods are in major need of a refresh. Application fraud is on the rise, and fraudsters are becoming more adept at circumventing the system. Most savvy apartment operators already have moved on from requiring onsite associates to manually verify a prospective resident’s income and employment history, which in itself helps to combat fraud. “In the past, we could receive a credit report from a bureau, but our teams always had to perform a manual ID verification, paystub verification and employment verification,” says Amy Weissberger, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Morgan Properties. “Many of those pieces are becoming more automated as technology evolves. Some self-service triggers during the application process are where screening
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Apartment News
tools have really improved to help us to deter fraudulent applicants.” By increasing the sophistication of screening methods, operators are mitigating risk, providing better experiences for prospects and reducing the strain on hardworking associates. As a look ahead to the 2022 Apartmentalize session, “To the Next Level: Upping Your Resident Screening Game,” here are some of the ways screening innovations are helping multifamily teams and how they could continue to evolve.
Optimized verification methods— but ID first
Synthetic ID—in which someone uses pieces of real and fabricated information to create an identity—is on the rise. Well aware of this trend and other potential identity scams, Morgan Properties makes automated ID verification the first step of the application process. This requires prospects to take a selfie-style photo from several different angles, and Morgan’s screening solution uses facial recognition soft-
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June 2022
ware to match the photos to the prospect’s actual ID. “We’re aiming to combat fraud from the get-go,” says Weissberger, who will be one of the panelists in the “Upping Your Resident Screening Game” session. She notes that Morgan Properties deters identity fraud at the beginning of the leasing application and then deters income fraud later on as part of the screening process. “What we’re trying to do is deter someone from even starting the application if they’re not who they say they are.”
Automated income verification
If an applicant clears the ID hurdle, Morgan Properties next concentrates on income verification. Approximately 30% to 40% of the time, the company’s income verification software automatically verifies the prospect’s employment, Weissberger says. In other instances, it will require the future residents to verify their pay stubs or bank statements Streamlining — continued on page 18
