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Rental Workflow Guide

Rental Workflow Guide

A step-by-step guide to using Rentalot for your typical rental workflow — from first contact with a prospect to lease signing.

Overview

The core Rentalot workflow looks like this:

  1. Send pre-screening link to a prospect (new or existing contact)
  2. Prospect completes pre-screening — Rentalot auto-creates their contact record
  3. Review and approve/deny the submission on the contact details page
  4. Follow the contact checklist — schedule showings, send follow-ups, track progress

Each step is explained below.

Every agent gets a sharable pre-screening URL. You can send it to prospects via email, WhatsApp, text — whatever works.

  • Go to Properties and expand any listing — the workflow share links are listed there
  • Or go to Workflows and click the Copy Link button on your pre-screening template
  • For a specific property, use the property-scoped link which pre-fills the property context

Who to send it to

  • New prospects who haven’t interacted with you yet — they’ll fill in their name, email, and phone during the flow
  • Existing contacts — you can generate a personalized link from their contact page that pre-fills their identity

What happens on the prospect’s end

The prospect sees a conversational questionnaire that collects:

  • Personal info (name, email, phone)
  • Budget and move-in timeline
  • Household details (occupants, pets, vehicles)
  • Employment and income
  • Rental history

The flow is mobile-friendly and takes 3–5 minutes. Voice input is also available if you’ve enabled it.

Step 2: Prospect Completes Pre-Screening

When a prospect finishes the questionnaire with valid contact info (email or phone), Rentalot automatically:

  1. Creates a contact record with all the information they provided
  2. Stores the full submission — viewable on the contact’s detail page
  3. Runs qualification scoring based on your configured thresholds (such as income ratio and credit score)
  4. Shows matching properties to the prospect (if enabled in your workflow settings)
  5. Sends you a notification so you know there’s a new submission to review

No manual data entry needed. The contact appears in your Contacts list immediately.

Step 3: Review the Submission

Go to Contacts and find the new prospect. Their detail page shows:

Submission review

  • Click on the pre-screening submission to see all their answers
  • Use the Approve / Deny buttons to record your decision
  • Add internal notes (visible only to you) with any context

What to look for

  • Qualification score — automatically calculated from your thresholds
  • Income-to-rent ratio — does their stated income meet your minimum?
  • Move-in timeline — does it align with your availability?
  • Red flags — eviction history, incomplete answers, mismatched information

Approving or denying is optional but helps you track pipeline status. If Notify prospect on review is on in Settings > Notifications, the prospect gets an email with your decision.

Step 4: Follow the Contact Checklist

Each contact has a checklist on their detail page to guide you through the remaining steps:

Typical next steps after approval

  1. Schedule a showing: ask the management chat (“schedule a showing for [contact] at [property]”). The showing appears on Events. See Showings.
  2. Send a booking link: email the prospect a link to pick a showing time. Requires a Scheduling URL or Cal.com, a connected email account, and Send booking link emails turned on in Settings > Notifications.
  3. Follow up after the showing: click Send Nudge on the contact’s page and choose Post-showing follow-up (Pro+) or Check-in (idle prospect) (Starter+).
  4. Send application link: share your rental application when you’re ready to move forward
  5. Track status: update the contact status as they progress (Prospect → Scheduled → Applicant → Renter)

Follow-ups

Send follow-ups by hand with Send Nudge on any contact’s page. It emails the prospect from your connected account. See Follow-ups & Nudges.

Coming soon: automatic showing reminders, post-showing follow-ups, and idle-prospect nudges.

Tips

  • Use the Management Chat for quick actions — “draft an email to John about the Oak St apartment” or “show me contacts who completed pre-screening this week”
  • Connect your email early. It lets you reply to prospects, send booking links, and send nudges from the dashboard.
  • Connect your calendar — two-way sync means showings created in Rentalot appear on your calendar and vice versa
  • Enable voice — prospects can complete pre-screening by voice instead of typing, which improves completion rates
  • Property Blast — use the blast page to let prospects browse all your listings and express interest in bulk
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