Seven Simple Steps to Make Your Tenancy Application Stand Out (in the good way)

Posted on February 6th, 2025

At GrannyFlat Rental, we oversee so many listings and monitor their property enquiries, and it can be hard to see a well-deserving prospect tenant miss out on a rental because they haven’t taken these easy steps:

1. When you first enquire, check to see who is managing the listing and address them by name in your message
2. Always read the property information before you enquire, and write a short, relevant message to the owner or tenant
3. Engage with the property, mentioning something you like about the particular listing to imply the care you would take to keep it that way. (e.g. if a listing advertises a quiet neighbourhood, your message could include some gratitude for the peaceful space)
4. Prepare rental references (if you are yet to rent a property and don’t have a reference, offer to provide a reference letter from an employer)
5. Share insights about your professional and not your private life - while it can be tempting to be open and let your future landlord get to know you quickly, be careful with how much you share. Appealing to the empathy or a property manager or landlord is not usually the best way to score a rental, because overall people want to leave their home in the hands of someone secure, who comes across as the stablest option of the other applicants.
6. Do a background check on yourself - if you need to clean up your social media, do so before sending an enquiry, looking out for anything that a property manager or landlord might red-flag.
7. Always remember, whilst short and succinct is best, still be polite and don’t skip your formalities, because even when on an online platform, there is always a real person on the other end who reads your message, who could play a big role in your rental future.

More Tenant's Resources

Property Managers vs Landlords: A tenant’s guide

How to Make Your Rental Feel Like Home

How To Spot And Avoid Rental Scams

Author and posted by Alysha de Ruyter.