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:
- Send pre-screening link to a prospect (new or existing contact)
- Prospect completes pre-screening — Rentalot auto-creates their contact record
- Review and approve/deny the submission on the contact details page
- Follow the contact checklist — schedule showings, send follow-ups, track progress
Each step is explained below.
Step 1: Send a Pre-Screening Link
Every agent gets a sharable pre-screening URL. You can send it to prospects via email, WhatsApp, text — whatever works.
Finding your link
- 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:
- Creates a contact record with all the information they provided
- Stores the full submission — viewable on the contact’s detail page
- Runs qualification scoring based on your configured thresholds (income ratio, credit, rental history)
- Shows matching properties to the prospect (if enabled in your workflow settings)
- 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 and triggers appropriate follow-up automations.
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
- Schedule a showing — use the management chat (“schedule a showing for [contact] at [property]”) or create one manually from Events
- Send a booking link — email the prospect a link to pick a showing time (requires calendar integration)
- Follow up after showing — Rentalot can auto-send a post-showing follow-up via the nudge engine
- Send application link — share your rental application when you’re ready to move forward
- Track status — update the contact status as they progress (Prospect → Scheduled → Applicant → Renter)
Automated follow-ups
If you’ve enabled nudges in Settings, Rentalot automatically:
- Sends a showing reminder before the appointment
- Sends a post-showing follow-up after a completed showing
- Nudges idle prospects who haven’t responded in a while
- Reminds prospects with incomplete pre-screenings to finish
You can also manually send nudges from any contact’s page using the Send Nudge button.
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 enables auto-send for follow-ups and lets you send directly 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