How to cut down screening time and close deals faster with automation

1. Nurture more leads and empower sales

In a recent webinar, Findigs found many leasing teams spend 50%-75% of their time on screening applications. "There's a tremendous amount of human power devoted to these tasks," says Findigs co-founder and CEO Steve Carroll. "Do you believe that time is being spent 100% efficiently? That's where there's a lot of free wood to chop."

Automated screening can take tasks like document verification, income calculations, and chasing applicants for missing information entirely off your plate. When technology handles these responsibilities, your team gains hours each day for high-value activities. That's why McKinley Apartments & Properties found their leasing agents could work with twice as many prospects daily after implementing Findigs.

"Marketing drives everything at the top of the funnel. But once people reach out, [leasing teams] can spend their time getting people to apply. That's the call to action," explains Josh Lin, VP at McKinley Companies. "Maybe we had a property with 150 leads in a week. There's two people there. We require everyone to call, text, email every prospect every day, three times. That's nine touch points. That's just way too many for 150 people. But if you don't have to do all the subsequent steps beneath that, you can spend more time qualifying the people who are reaching out to get them to apply."

2. Catch fraud without slowing reviews

Today's fraud techniques require advanced technology to detect. Fake documents, synthetic identities, and digital manipulation aren't typically visible through manual screening methods. But without specialized tools, catching fraud often means slowing down the process for everyone, including legitimate applicants just trying to find a home.

"The space is quite fixated on fraud, understandably—there's a lot of economic loss associated with it," explains Carroll. "But the real consequence of fraud is that you're going to create a worse experience for the 90% of applicants who are not going to be committing fraud to catch the 10% that are."

When McKinley Properties analyzed their past evictions with Findigs, they discovered our system would have flagged 44% of those applications upfront as potentially fraudulent. While evictions can occur for many reasons beyond what application screening can detect—including unexpected financial hardships, changes in personal circumstances, or other factors that emerge after the approval process—technology helps you identify potential issues before they become problems, without creating bottlenecks for qualified applicants. Meanwhile, when residents need to move out unexpectedly due to legitimate reasons like job loss or financial hardship, you're not starting from scratch with that empty unit. The data you've already collected through Findigs gives you insights about your current residents and applicants. You can use these patterns to adjust your screening criteria and fill vacancies more quickly

The real consequence of fraud is that you're going to create a worse experience for the 90% of applicants who are not going to be committing fraud to catch the 10% that are. Steve Carroll Founder, CEO

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3. Cut approval times from days to minutes

The typical application often takes two to three days to process manually. Leasing agents wait for missing documents, make verification calls only during business hours, manually review all submitted materials, and make individual judgment calls on borderline cases. Each step introduces more delays and frustration for both your team and applicants.

With automated screening, the entire process runs continuously. Missing documents are immediately requested and processed upon receipt. Income and identity verification happens through multiple automated methods simultaneously. Your exact criteria are applied consistently to every application. As a result, most applications can be processed the same day—sometimes within just a few minutes.

This speed advantage works around the clock to nurture sales and keep residents excited. A Friday night application that would normally be delayed until Monday (or later) gets processed immediately, letting you capture prospects before competitors even respond.

How Findigs handles each step for you

Converting prospects into residents becomes a lot easier when you can focus on getting prospects into the pipeline, then trust that the review process will be handled efficiently.

What sets Findigs apart is that while other screening tools might help reduce workload or catch more fraud, they still require your team's involvement at some point in the process. With Findigs, you can completely hand over the entire application process, including all those tricky edge cases that typically require your team’s attention. It's the difference between partial assistance and true outsourcing of the screening function.

Here's how Findigs helps your leasing teams close more deals with less effort:

Step 1: Application submission and document collection

Manual process: An applicant submits their form but forgets to include pay stubs. Your leasing agent notices this a day later and emails them requesting documents. The applicant responds when they can, often with incomplete information. This back-and-forth continues, sometimes for days, delaying the entire review.

With Findigs: Applicants submit information through a user-friendly portal. If anything's missing, the system immediately identifies gaps and automatically guides applicants on what's needed next—no human intervention required. The platform supports 14 languages and provides assistance even after business hours, keeping applications moving forward when your office is closed.

Result: Your team starts each day with complete applications ready for review, instead of spending hours chasing missing documents.

Step 2: Identity and income verification

Manual Process: Leasing agents manually review IDs, call employers, and analyze bank statements or paystubs, trying to identify potentially doctored documents with the naked eye. This process is time-consuming and prone to human error.

With Findigs: Multiple verification methods work together automatically: selfie matching with ID verification, device attestation to block fake IP addresses, behavioral insights to spot suspicious patterns, direct bank and payroll linking for instant income verification, and AI-powered document analysis for uploaded materials.

Result: Thorough identity and income verification are handled automatically, with human specialists available to manage any higher-friction edge cases.

Step 3: Fraud detection

Manual process: Leasing agents try to spot inconsistencies between documents and application details, often missing sophisticated fraud attempts that are specifically designed to pass human review.

With Findigs: Cross-referenced data analysis catches various fraud types: applicants misrepresenting their own details, stolen identities, fabricated synthetic identities, and altered documents. The system analyzes not just what applicants submit, but how they submit it.

Result: Comprehensive fraud protection that evolves as new tactics emerge, without slowing down legitimate applications.

Step 4: Decision guidance on applications

Manual process: Leasing agents review all materials, then try to apply sometimes-vague screening criteria, leading to inconsistent decisions and potential fair housing issues. The interpretation of rules can vary significantly between team members.

With Findigs: Your specific rental criteria are codified into clear, hyper-specific rules that cover every use case known to Findigs. The system automatically applies these rules consistently to all completed applications. If the situation demands, Findigs specialists step in to ensure consistent handling according to your detailed policies.

Result: Standardized application evaluation based on your criteria—no interpretation needed from your team. 70% of Decision Assist applications receive responses within 24 hours, and 10% within one minute, all thanks to comprehensive ruleset orchestration.

Step 5: Communicating results

Manual process: Leasing agents call or email approved applicants, sometimes days after submission, often after the applicant has already found another place to live.

With Findigs: Applicants receive prompt notifications about their approval status. Results can go straight to your property management system, with your team receiving fully vetted, approval-ready applications.

Result: Your leasing team starts their day with qualified applicants ready to be contacted about next steps, rather than starting the screening process from scratch.

What makes automation possible?

The key to this level of automation is having clear, specific screening rules that leave no room for interpretation. Findigs works with property managers to define exactly what makes an application acceptable.

Let's take a common example. Many properties have a simple rule that says "We accept valid offer letters." But what makes an offer letter valid? This vagueness matters because offer letters have become prime targets for fraud. Unlike standardized bank statements, offer letters vary widely between companies. An offer letter from Apple looks completely different from one from Walmart.

So instead of a vague "valid offer letters" rule, you need specifics: Must it be on company letterhead? How recent must the start date be? Are we using gross income stated in the letter or calculating net income?

When these rules are specific enough that any two people would make the same decision on an application, that's when you can truly automate the process.

Making the shift

Moving to fully automated screening doesn't happen overnight, but it follows a clear path:

1. Define your specific criteria: Work with Findigs to create detailed decision rules.
2. Set up the system: our tech enablement team will work with you to establish all necessary connections to make applying and deciding seamless
3. Start processing applications: Watch as the system handles applications according to your rules.
4. Monitor and refine: Use the audit trail to verify performance and make adjustments as needed.

Automated screening fundamentally changes how your leasing team operates, allowing them to focus on sales. When your team spends less time on paperwork and more time on people, you not only process applications faster—you convert more browsers into applicants and more applicants into residents.

Across the Findigs network, that shift is measurable as fewer leads per signed lease, from an average of 11.1 down to 8.65.

Ready to give your leasing team a break from chasing documents and playing detective with applications? Let's chat about how automated screening could free them up to connect with prospects and fill your units faster. Book a demo with Findigs today and see what happens when your team gets out from under the pressure of resident screening.