Rental Application Instructions

Edinson Property Management does business in accordance with Federal, State and Local Fair Housing laws. We verify each application for credit history, rental history, income verification, criminal reports, and eviction search. Factors such as your desired move-in date, pets and your willingness to provide timely required documentation to our staff may also be considered in the application decision.

IN ORDER TO PROCESS YOUR APPLICATION, YOU MUST PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING ITEMS:

  1. Completed Application - We must have a separate completed application for anyone 18+ years old that will be living at the property. Please make sure to complete all fields as we only process fully completed applications.
  2. A copy of a State issued Photo ID. (Driver’s License, Passport, Military ID)
  3. Proof of income for all Applicants - Applicants must provide verification of legal income sufficient to meet the income requirements. Examples of verification include, but are not limited to, last two paycheck stubs, payroll report from employer for at least the two most recent pay periods, current proof of government income (such as Social Security, disability, welfare, etc.), proof of retirement income, liquid assets (savings/bank account, stocks), proof of spousal and/or child support, or any other legal verifiable income. Verification of more than two pay periods may be required if the income is not consistent. If the Applicant is hired but has not received a paystub yet, an employment letter from the employer detailing wage/salary, position and start date is required.

    Self-employed Applicants must provide a copy of the previous year’s tax return if applying in Q1 or Q2 of the year. In Q3 and Q4, Applicant must also provide documentation of the current year’s financial performance in addition to last year’s tax return. Gross income is calculated as total income before taxes less child/spousal support, debt service, payroll garnishments for loans, taxes, child/spousal support, etc. Tax free income is divided by .85 to account for the difference in taxed and non-taxed income such as social security, disability or state support.
  4. $75 non-refundable Application Fee per Applicant. We can send out a PayPal Invoice electronically and it will have a $3.50 processing fee. Payment can also be brought to our office in the form of Money Order. No Cash Payments are allowed. PLEASE NOTE, SINCE WE INCUR COSTS TO PROCESS AND SCREEN EACH APPLICATION, APPLICATION FEES ARE NON-REFUNDABLE.

APPLICATION POLICIES

  • You must be willing to start the lease within 30 days of applying if the property is vacant at the time of application. If property is not available until a future date, you must be willing to start a lease within 15 days of the availability date. Please check with our team if this is a concern.
  • A complete Lease Application includes all four items listed above. Only fully completed Lease Applications will be processed. An incomplete Lease Application will not be considered. Please attach all documents to your Lease Application.
  • Our application process generally takes three to four business days from the day you provide us a complete Lease Application and all required documents. If there are multiple Applicants, it can sometimes take longer, but our goal is to get you a decision within three to four business days. We make no guarantee as to the time it will take to process your application. The time required varies based on the responsiveness of your Landlords for Rental Verifications and Employers for Employment Verifications as well as other business demands.
  • We will only send out Employment Verifications via email or fax. We do not send out to third-party employment verification systems such as WorkNumber and iVerify. Applicant will need to pay for those separately and provide us with that information from their employer or the third party employment verification system used by their Employer.
  • We must fully process a Rental Verification, so please make sure to provide working phone numbers for your current and previous Landlords. When possible, it is a good idea to let them know we will be contacting them in advance. If you cannot provide contact information for your former Landlords, we cannot consider that history and your application score may be affected.
  • There are times when a company would like to rent a property in the company name. In those instances, we will require an individual to also be on the Residential Lease as a Tenant or as a Guarantor. This may be a principal of the company or the employee who is living at the property. The person who is responsible for the Residential Lease must qualify by our conventional scoring criteria. We require that each Guarantor pay the Application Fee for a criminal background check as part of the Leaes Application.
  • Be honest and truthful in your Lease Application and answer all questions. Any falsification of facts or withholding of information requested on the application is cause for denial. 
  • If you have not seen the property, your application may be subordinated to other Applicants who have seen the property. We strongly encourage you to view the property prior to applying.
  • Please note, if your application is approved, Edinson Property Management needs a minimum of 1-2 business days to prepare the property prior to your move in.
  • Pets - Please check the listing to confirm if pets will be considered, and the number of pets allowed, type and weight restrictions per property.  No pets will be considered without a Pet Application. You must submit Pet Applications through https://edinsonmanagement.petscreening.com Please note that PetScreener.com fees apply. You MUST submit current vaccination records, photos and your Renter's Insurance Policy number in order to have your animal considered. The information you submit to Petscreening.com will provide a score of 1 through 5 Paws. Animals meeting a minimum score of 3 out of 5, with all documents uploaded and meeting the weight and type restrictions will be approved.

APPLICATION SCORING - CONVENTIONAL

CREDIT RATINGS

  1. 775+FICO score
  2. 700-774 FICO score
  3. No Score or 600-699 FICO score
  4. 599-550 FICO score
  5. ≤ 549

*Open (non-discharged) bankruptcy may be cause for automatic denial of the Lease Application.*

RENT/INCOME RATIO (THIS IS A HOUSEHOLD MEASUREMENT, ALL APPLICANTS’ INCOME IS COMBINED FOR SCORING)

  1. Verifiable rent to income ratio is 20% and less OR assets in bank accounts and investment accounts total six times the total rent for the lease term.
  2. Verifiable rent to income ratio is 27% and 21% OR assets in bank accounts and investment accounts total four and a half times the total rent for the lease term.
  3. Verifiable rent to income ratio is 32%-28%
  4. Verifiable rent to income ratio is 33%+

When an Applicant presents child support as a source of income, we need to be able to verify the income to consider it part of the Applicant's Income. Acceptable forms of proof are court orders and notarized statements with proven receipt of the funds. (bank statements showing regular deposits).

Non Court-Ordered Support:


Provide verification including proven receipt of funds and a notarized statement. We will count the lesser amount of support OR 20% of the application income. (Example- If the application income is $4,000/month and the notarized statement states that the support is $1,000/month, we will only count $800 toward the monthly income because it is the lesser of the two amounts.)

Court Ordered Support:


Child support income can be taken into consideration if it is verified as court ordered. If a court order states that the Applicant is receiving $1,000/month in income, all $1,000 will be counted because it is court ordered.

**All rent to income ratios are rounded to the nearest whole percent. Temporary or seasonal income will not be considered. Income without sufficient documentation (e.g. paystubs, statements, letter of hire) will not be considered. If Applicant is starting a new job, paystubs are not necessary but an employment letter detailing wage, start date and position will serve as the documentation.

LANDLORD HISTORY

  • Ideal: No eviction record, no more than 1 late rent/mortgage payment record in 3 years, or last three years of address history is in a home owned by Applicant
  • Average: Two late rent/mortgage payment records in 3 years or no leasing history (with non-family or friend landlords)
  • Poor: Three or more late rent/mortgage payment records in 3 years

Current Landlords will be asked to rate your cleanliness and general upkeep of your rental property during your tenancy.

* Three years of address history must be verifiable. Lack of verifiable address history may result in Lease Application denial at the discretion of Edinson Property Management.

**Your application is automatically denied if you have an eviction record in the past 10 years, Negative Landlord Reference regarding property damage or outstanding balance due, Outstanding Landlord Collection or Judgement, or Mortgage is currently past due.

***When a Roommates wish to apply for a lease, each person must fill out the a Lease Application and each Applicant must meet the requirements listed in the Tenant Selection Criteria. The rent to income ratio will be calculated using a percentage of the rent (For example, If there are two people residing in the unit, the ratio will be calculated using one half of the rent to calculate the ratio.) Approval of the application as a whole will be at the discretion of Edinson Property Management.

CRIMINAL HISTORY

Criminal history is given an individual assessment and is either considered qualified or unqualified based on those facts separate from financial matters. In order to fully consider your criminal history, please provide any information you feel is necessary to understand the context of your convictions. Examples of information you may want to provide for consideration include the circumstances surrounding the criminal conduct, your age at the time of the conduct and evidence of rehabilitation. As we evaluate an Applicant’s criminal history, special attention is paid to possession, assault and violent and sexual offenses. We base our decisions related to criminal history on our business concern for the safety of other residents and our staff. Only convictions are considered, arrests without conviction are not considered when evaluating an application. Convictions for the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs (no matter how long since the conviction) will result in application denial.

SCORING DECISION

  • ≤ 6 = approved with one-month security deposit
  • 7 - 8 = high risk, if no more than one category is scored at highest possible score then a co-signer or higher deposit may be required to be approved. Co-signers live in the United States AND must score ≤1 on credit AND 1 on landlord history AND have verifiable gross income at least four times the rent after subtracting debt service and the amount of rent. Whether a higher deposit or co-signer (or both) is required is at the discretion of Edinson Property Management.
  • 9 or higher = Declined

If you are applying with multiple people, we the average scores each of each individual to get a score for the whole application. If your application score is not a whole number, it will be rounded to the next whole number. (e.g. average score is 3.33 then the score is rounded to 4)

When choosing an Applicant, we also look at move in date. Please make sure to list the earliest date you are willing to start your lease. If we have multiple Applicants who score the same, we then look at move in date, then highest FICO score, to select the best Applicant.

FULL TIME COLLEGE STUDENTS (ENROLLED FULL TIME)

If you are a full-time student, it may be likely that you are unable to qualify to rent a property because of your limited income and little or no credit and rental history. To accommodate the needs of our full-time student Applicants, we have developed the following guidelines for application approval. A Landlord may decide to not rent to individuals who are not able to qualify on their own. Please inquire with our staff before applying so that we can inform you if the property you are interested in allows for Student Applicants. We do have properties that are owned by our clients who are prepared to accept Student Renters with Guarantors. 

Guarantors are required for full-time students. Guarantors must be living in the United States, are preferably closely related to the Student Applicant and must be willing to sign the Lease Guarantee agreeing to bear the financial responsibility of the lease, including property damage, while not residing at the property. Special exceptions may be made for international students to allow them to rent a property without a Guarantor on a case-by-case basis. An increased Security Deposit may be required.

Please note: If you are renting with Roommates, then all Roommates must have Guarantors or all must qualify without Guarantors. This process can vary depending on the property, who it is owned by, and the nature of your application.

Thank you,

Diego E. Jaramillo
Property Manager
Edinson Property Management LLC