Thanks to our recent flood, I'm on the other side of the fence and looking for a place to rent.
I was delighted to discover 1Form, a system set up by realestate.com.au whereby you can complete your application once, then pay to store it online, and when you see a property you like, you just hit "apply online", and it electronically submits your completed application. The "apply online" button appears on every rental ad, and apparently the individual agencies can't opt out from having this button appear.
1Form asked me if I wanted to pay the $30 (I think, for one week?) to store my application before I started, and I said no, and then I spent two hours filling the mongrel out, and they wisely ask you again, when you've finished and the $30 seems a bargain. LMAO - love a good entrepreneur!
But, to my dismay, I've since discovered that >80% of PMs has said "oh yeah, we don't accept them, you'll have to fill out one of ours" - and "theirs" has less information on it than the one I've already filled out.
Two points:
1) 1Form - you've got a great product, but until you get a greater uptake by PMs, you have to only put those buttons on ads from PMs who'll take 1Form applications, otherwise you just end up with pissed off prospective tenants. (I've written to 1Form on this point and they're at least as frustrated as I am and were great.)
2) (And why I'm posting here) PMs: for crying out loud, if all the information is there, why do we have to fill it out again in a different format???
If my PMs made it as difficult to apply for a rental as these PMs are making it for me, I'd be mightily annoyed. I intend to check today how my own PM would respond to receiving a 1Form application.
I was delighted to discover 1Form, a system set up by realestate.com.au whereby you can complete your application once, then pay to store it online, and when you see a property you like, you just hit "apply online", and it electronically submits your completed application. The "apply online" button appears on every rental ad, and apparently the individual agencies can't opt out from having this button appear.
1Form asked me if I wanted to pay the $30 (I think, for one week?) to store my application before I started, and I said no, and then I spent two hours filling the mongrel out, and they wisely ask you again, when you've finished and the $30 seems a bargain. LMAO - love a good entrepreneur!
But, to my dismay, I've since discovered that >80% of PMs has said "oh yeah, we don't accept them, you'll have to fill out one of ours" - and "theirs" has less information on it than the one I've already filled out.
Two points:
1) 1Form - you've got a great product, but until you get a greater uptake by PMs, you have to only put those buttons on ads from PMs who'll take 1Form applications, otherwise you just end up with pissed off prospective tenants. (I've written to 1Form on this point and they're at least as frustrated as I am and were great.)
2) (And why I'm posting here) PMs: for crying out loud, if all the information is there, why do we have to fill it out again in a different format???
If my PMs made it as difficult to apply for a rental as these PMs are making it for me, I'd be mightily annoyed. I intend to check today how my own PM would respond to receiving a 1Form application.