By Chris Diamond, Head of Product at Findigs‍

In leasing, every decision matters. The criteria you set, whether it’s a credit threshold or income multiple, shapes who gets approved, how fast your units fill, and how often you face delinquency or eviction. But for too long, screening has been a black box. Screening criteria is debated and analyzed, but the process is so disjointed that by the time outcomes come around (months and sometimes years later), the policies are forgotten, or at least changed.

Said differently, most leasing teams set policies, make decisions, and then hope for the best.

At Findigs, we knew there had to be a better way.

The Problem: Screening Criteria Without Feedback

Most screening tools end at the decision. They’ll tell you who qualifies based on your current rules, but they won’t tell you whether those rules are actually working.

Are you declining renters who would’ve paid on time? Approving tenants who are likely to default? Losing leases because your income threshold is too high?

Without tying real outcome data like eviction rates, delinquency, or time-to-lease to actual business outcomes, we argue most operators are flying blind. Screening policies stay static, even as markets shift and portfolios evolve.

The Findigs Solution: Policy Optimization, Powered by Outcomes

That’s why we built Policy Optimization.

Policy Optimization is the first AI-driven screening intelligence engine that continuously learns from real leasing outcomes—rent payments, delinquencies, evictions, and renewals—and feeds that insight back into your decision rules.

It works in three simple steps:

1. Connect: We integrate with your property management system to capture what happens after a screening decision; whether that renter paid rent, moved out early, or was evicted.
   
   
2. Compare: Our models analyze historical decisions and compare them to real-world outcomes. We pinpoint which rules correlate with good tenant performance and which ones don’t.
   
   
3. Optimize: You get actionable recommendations to fine-tune your criteria. Adjust a credit threshold, income multiple, or debt-to-income rule and see exactly how it could impact occupancy or delinquency.
   

Now with this data, leasing teams and property owners can now see how past policy decisions have influenced the tradeoff between eviction rates and occupancy—and how those factors affect their bottom line. 

For a leasing team without Findigs, pulling this data together manually would be a massive lift. They’d need to export application and screening records from their property management system, cross-reference those with rent rolls, delinquency logs, and eviction filings, and then manually match each approved or declined applicant with their eventual leasing outcome. This means tracking down fragmented data across systems, normalizing formats, resolving inconsistencies, and maintaining accurate tenant identifiers often across months or even years.

On top of that, teams would have to analyze the data themselves to identify patterns or correlations, likely relying on spreadsheets or outside analysts. It’s not just time-consuming; it’s nearly impossible to do consistently or at scale, especially across multiple properties or markets.

A Real Example: Turning Guesswork Into Strategy

One of our customers, a mid-sized multifamily operator, had set a 3.5x income-to-rent requirement based on a “standard rule of thumb.” But after six months of using Policy Optimization, they discovered that applicants earning just 3x rent had nearly identical on-time payment rates, and were being declined at a much higher rate.

By lowering the threshold slightly, they approved more renters without increasing risk and filled units faster. In just one quarter, their occupancy jumped 12%, and delinquency stayed flat.

That’s the power of outcome-based decisioning.

Why It Matters Now

Leasing teams are under pressure to do more with less: fill units faster, reduce risk, and stay compliant. But static rules and outdated tools can’t keep up. What you need is a living, learning system that evolves with your portfolio, market, and goals.

This is what Policy Optimization by Findigs provides. Transforming screening from a one-time gatekeeper to a dynamic, data-driven strategy engine. It's not just about who gets approved—it's about why, and what that means for your bottom line.

Policy Optimization Isn’t One-and-Done—It’s Continuous

Most leasing teams think of policy changes as a one-time event: a reaction to rising delinquencies, a tightening of criteria when losses spike, or a quick compliance fix in response to new regulations. But that mindset misses the mark. The reality is that your screening policy isn’t a static document, it’s more of a living system. And like any good system, it should adapt over time based on performance, market shifts, and operational goals.

At Findigs, we’ve started implementing our customers’ Policy Optimization as a continuous feedback loop. Our platform doesn’t just apply your criteria; instead, it learns from outcomes. We surface what’s working, what’s introducing risk, and where you may be missing out on qualified renters. That means instead of waiting for problems to build, you can proactively refine your approach. Your policy should evolve quarterly—maybe even monthly—in response to real data. Does yours?

This isn’t just about avoiding risk; it’s about driving performance. While most tools stop at risk flagging, Findigs helps you actively balance risk reduction with occupancy goals. One customer’s policy, for example, started with a flat 3x gross income requirement. But by Q3 of that year, we’d helped them shift to evaluating net income in specific markets, unlocking a wider pool of qualified renters without increasing delinquency.

Continuous optimization is what sets Findigs apart. We don’t just screen, we help you get sharper over time. Because in today’s market, what worked last quarter might not work next.

Ready to Rethink Your Screening Strategy?

As of this month, Policy Optimization is available to all Findings Platform customers.

If you're ready to move beyond approvals and into performance, we’d love to show you how it works.

Let’s turn your screening data into smarter decisions—and better outcomes.