Rental crisis: A real estate expert shares her top tips on getting your application to the top of the pile

As the rental crisis deepens, a real estate expert has shared her tips to get your application to the top of the pile and in the hands of landlords.

As SA’s rental crisis deepens, real estate agents are vetting dozens of applications before recommending only a handful of prospective tenants to landlords.

So tight is the market that many applications are rejected even before the inspections – which typically only last for 15 to 20 minutes – are held.

Industry commentator Emma Slape said one of the main reasons was people lying when they submitted their online profiles or submitting fake references.

“Agents understand it’s a very tight rental market, but the worst thing to do in any application is fabricate facts or have family or friends act as a referee,” she said.

“These days, it’s easy to spot these flaws quickly with smart technology.

“Experienced property managers know the type of questions to ask to uncover whether the reference is legitimate.”

Ms Slape said as soon as agents proved something was false on an application “it doesn’t stand well against other applicants”.

“If there are areas of the application form that you can’t provide evidence for, just be honest,” she said.

“Property managers will appreciate that so much more as it shows you’re willing to be a problem solver and you’re a genuine and honest applicant.”

Ms Slape said the use of false pay slips and other supporting documentation had increased over the past six months as competition for rental properties intensified.

“Applicants are probably unaware of how obvious it is to the industry,” she said.

“While we understand that people are finding it hard to secure a rental, honesty will always be the best policy.”

Ms Slape urged applicants to persist if they were unsuccessful.

“If you are putting forward a strong application, don’t be despondent or offended if you do miss out,” she said.

“In this market, it is not uncommon to receive up to ten quality applications for a family home.

“However, only one can be chosen and often that deciding factor might have been small, such as the date the tenant can start the lease or rental referees responding faster.

“Often we could tenant a property with great tenants many times over, it’s just availability of stock, so applicants shouldn’t take that personally.”