We analyzed 3 million rental applications. Renters with a co-applicant were 3x as likely to submit.
A Findigs study of 3M+ rental applications: groups of two or more submitted 86% to 91% of the time, while people applying alone submitted 29.0%.
Key takeaways
- Groups of two or more submitted 86% to 91% of the time. People applying alone submitted 29.0%.
- Solo applications accounted for 95.6% of all unsubmitted groups.
- The largest drop comes at the first step: 62.2% of individual applications completed household details.
- About 96.6% of unsubmitted groups had no fee charges.
- Unsubmitted is a snapshot status, not proof that an applicant permanently abandoned the process.
We analyzed 3,008,478 individual rental applications across 2,431,555 application groups on Findigs. Groups of two or more submitted 86% to 91% of the time. People applying alone submitted 29.0%, about a third as often. At the study snapshot, 974,270 groups had submitted and 1,457,285 had not, a 59.9% unsubmitted share overall (60.6% in the trailing 12 months).
A group is one submission unit — one applicant or several applying together for the same listing. It counts as submitted only once every applicant has completed their part and the group has been sent to the property manager. Individual completion and group submission are different measures, and that gap is what this study tracks.
The solo gap
People applying alone account for almost all unsubmitted groups. Solo groups made up about 81% of all groups started, and only 29.0% of them submitted — compared with 85.7% of two-person groups, 89.1% of three-person groups, and 91.5% of groups with four or more applicants. Solo applications accounted for 95.6% of all unsubmitted groups (1,392,606 of 1,457,285).
The gap does not prove that adding a co-applicant causes completion. The data cannot separate differences in intent from friction in the process — shared accountability is a possible explanation, not a measured cause. But solo applicants are the clearest segment to investigate: improving their completion rate would address the largest source of unsubmitted groups in this dataset.
Where progress stops
The largest drop happens before the first section is even complete. Only 62.2% of individual applications completed household details, the first step — a 37.8 percentage-point gap from all starts. The next largest drop was between housing history and financial stability, at 6.2 points. Identity verification is not the largest measured drop: among 706,246 solo applicants who completed financial stability, 664,121 (94.0%) also completed identity verification. The priority is the earlier losses, where most solo applications had already stopped progressing.
Fees and submission timing
Most unsubmitted groups had no charges on them: 49,622 of the 1,457,285 unsubmitted groups had a fee charge, so about 96.6% had none. Among the 49,622 that did, charges covered 55,626 individual applications: $3,116,484 charged, $96,027 in recorded refunds, for $3,020,457 in net charges. Among applications that were charged a fee, the median charge came 138 minutes after the application was created, and 98.2% of charges occurred at or before the individual application was completed. This is a different group from the 129-minute median completion time below, which covers all completed applications, charged or not. Among groups that did submit, the median gap between the fee charge and group submission was one minute. A fee charge alone does not confirm that a group has submitted.
Completion time
Among 1,523,224 completed individual applications, the median time from creation to completion was 129 minutes. A quarter took more than about 25 hours, and one in twenty took more than about 13 days. The solo gap shows up here too: completed solo applications took a median of 192 minutes, versus 103 minutes for individuals in two-person groups — nearly twice as long.
Yearly trend
From 2020 through the partial 2026 period, annual group submission rates rose from 24.7% in 2020 to 33.6% in 2021, then leveled off between 39% and 42% from 2022 on (41.3% in 2022, 41.5% in 2023, 40.1% in 2024, 39.6% in 2025, 39.8% for partial 2026), even as annual groups created grew from 92,226 in 2021 to 629,126 in 2025. The 2020 sample is small — the study window opens in February of that year — so treat that point as directional. The recent results resemble several preceding years rather than a new trend.
Explore states
Among states with at least 500 groups, Delaware had the lowest submission rate at 28.1% and Oregon the highest at 58.2%. The interactive explorer below covers all 44 qualifying states plus DC; the full 51-location data table renders underneath it so every number stays visible.
Schematic map, not exact boundaries. Select a state tile or use the menu. All figures are also available in the table below.
Georgia
Among submitted groups
Georgia has the largest state sample in the dataset. Its 37.3% submission rate is below the overall platform rate of 40.1%.
All 51 states and DC
| State | Groups created | Submission rate | Median hours to submission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 109,001 | 42.1% | 10.1 hours |
| Alaska | 1 | Not shown | Not available |
| Arizona | 82,275 | 45.7% | 4.6 hours |
| Arkansas | 28,352 | 40.7% | 9.1 hours |
| California | 122,104 | 42.5% | 6.2 hours |
| Colorado | 81,828 | 44.7% | 3.9 hours |
| Connecticut | 1,180 | 54.3% | 4.9 hours |
| Delaware | 519 | 28.1% | 8.3 hours |
| District of Columbia | 12,125 | 42.1% | 6.9 hours |
| Florida | 169,233 | 47.1% | 5.2 hours |
| Georgia | 337,012 | 37.3% | 8.3 hours |
| Hawaii | 3,782 | 52.8% | 3.4 hours |
| Idaho | 14,094 | 45.4% | 9.6 hours |
| Illinois | 48,107 | 37.5% | 13.8 hours |
| Indiana | 65,285 | 37.5% | 10.5 hours |
| Iowa | 6,951 | 51.0% | 7.4 hours |
| Kansas | 6,047 | 43.3% | 8.4 hours |
| Kentucky | 16,209 | 33.1% | 17.2 hours |
| Louisiana | 5,870 | 41.8% | 7.5 hours |
| Maine | 1,893 | 29.2% | 7.5 hours |
| Maryland | 19,810 | 38.3% | 12.0 hours |
| Massachusetts | 5,930 | 36.9% | 14.2 hours |
| Michigan | 115,070 | 36.4% | 11.4 hours |
| Minnesota | 14,293 | 37.9% | 15.2 hours |
| Mississippi | 37,225 | 37.1% | 17.6 hours |
| Missouri | 78,212 | 40.6% | 12.0 hours |
| Montana | 5,624 | 43.9% | 12.4 hours |
| Nebraska | 3,319 | 30.6% | 22.5 hours |
| Nevada | 24,989 | 48.5% | 6.8 hours |
| New Hampshire | 1,612 | 45.2% | 6.7 hours |
| New Jersey | 9,806 | 40.6% | 7.3 hours |
| New Mexico | 1,597 | 39.3% | 5.3 hours |
| New York | 28,570 | 33.4% | 18.1 hours |
| North Carolina | 140,015 | 38.3% | 6.2 hours |
| North Dakota | 1,446 | 39.7% | 26.7 hours |
| Ohio | 182,078 | 36.3% | 14.4 hours |
| Oklahoma | 65,899 | 41.9% | 8.5 hours |
| Oregon | 6,295 | 58.2% | 4.0 hours |
| Pennsylvania | 43,893 | 37.0% | 12.3 hours |
| Rhode Island | 58 | Not shown | Not available |
| South Carolina | 90,980 | 36.7% | 9.4 hours |
| South Dakota | 1 | Not shown | Not available |
| Tennessee | 120,331 | 38.0% | 7.8 hours |
| Texas | 153,298 | 43.8% | 7.7 hours |
| Utah | 11,417 | 48.2% | 6.3 hours |
| Vermont | 4 | Not shown | Not available |
| Virginia | 115,813 | 37.9% | 7.5 hours |
| Washington | 10,131 | 44.2% | 13.3 hours |
| West Virginia | 44 | Not shown | Not available |
| Wisconsin | 23,618 | 39.5% | 13.6 hours |
| Wyoming | 19 | Not shown | Not available |
States below 500 application groups show as "Not shown" / "Not available" per the study's display threshold, matching the map above.
What to do
For property managers
- Measure individual completion and group submission separately, and break both down by group size.
- Investigate the large early losses among solo applicants. Test simpler opening steps, saved progress, and reminders, then measure whether they help.
- Review groups with fee charges but no submission. Check where individual completion and group submission diverge.
For renters
- Prepare the financial and identity information the application requests before starting.
- If applying with others, confirm everyone has completed their part and that the group has actually submitted.
- Check when the fee is charged. A payment or a completed individual application does not, by itself, confirm group submission.
These are suggestions to test, not measured fixes — the study does not measure their effectiveness.
Methodology and limits
Source: Findigs platform data across all portfolio types. Snapshot pulled August 24, 2026, covering eligible groups created from February 21, 2020 to July 24, 2026. Groups created in the 30 days before the snapshot were excluded to reduce the influence of fresh, in-progress applications.
“Unsubmitted” describes status at the snapshot, not proof of abandonment. Bases: 2,431,555 groups created, 974,270 submitted; the stage funnel uses 3,008,478 individual applications; completion-time percentiles use 1,523,224 completed individual applications. Location is the state of the listed unit; rates for locations under 500 groups are not displayed. These are observational platform results, not a nationally representative survey or a test of causes.
About this research
Findigs is the decisioning platform for rental applications, processing applications for more than 500,000 U.S. units. This study is part of its research series on the application process. For press inquiries, data questions, or underlying aggregate tables, contact the Findigs team.
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