How to get a rental application filled in and signed online

What the application should collect

• Who's applying: full legal name, date of birth, phone and email, and every adult who will live in the unit.
• Rental history: current and previous addresses, how long they lived there, and a landlord or manager you may contact.
• Income: employer, job title, monthly income, and proof such as recent pay stubs or an offer letter.
• The household: pets, vehicles and the move-in date they want.
• Screening consent: a signed authorization to run the credit and background checks you actually use, naming the company that runs them.
• Fee terms: the application fee, whether it's refundable, and what it pays for. Collect the money separately; SignMaster doesn't take payments.

Set it up as a link in SignMaster

The quickest setup is a public link: one address you paste into the listing or print as a QR code on the yard sign. Every applicant who opens it gets their own copy of the application, saved as a separate envelope (SignMaster's word for one send).

1. 1

   Upload your application as a template

   On the Templates page, click New template, upload the application as a PDF, name it and click Create template. If your PDF already has fillable boxes, SignMaster offers to turn them into fields with Add form fields.

2. 2

   Place the applicant's fields

   Drag on Name, Email and Phone fields, Text fields for addresses and employers, a Currency field for monthly income, a Date field for the move-in date, a Checkbox beside the screening consent, then Signature and Date signed. Switch on Required for anything you can't decide without.

3. 3

   Ask for the documents

   Add an Attachment field and allow PDFs and photos, so applicants can attach pay stubs or a bank letter, several files at once if they need to. A Photo field takes a picture of their ID and prints it inside the box on the signed copy.

4. 4

   Turn on the public link

   On the template's page, click Public link, pick the role that signs through it, and click Turn on link. Leave Confirm email with a code on so each applicant proves the email is theirs. Then Copy link for the listing, or download the QR code.

5. 5

   Watch the applications arrive

   The public link page lists every response and whether it's finished. Each completed application arrives as a signed PDF with a certificate of completion, and the attached files are added at the end.

Two adults applying together? Each can fill in their own copy from the same link. If you'd rather send one application to a specific couple, start an envelope instead and add both of them as signers, set to All at once so neither waits on the other.

Compare applicants side by side

Reading ten PDFs to compare incomes is slow. On paid plans, the template's Responses tab puts every answer from every application into one table, one row per applicant, with a column per field. Filter by date or status, then download it as a CSV to sort by income or move-in date in a spreadsheet.

If you're the applicant

• Read the screening authorization before you tick it, so you know which checks you're agreeing to and who runs them.
• Ask whether the fee is refundable if you're turned down or the unit goes to someone else first.
• Answer accurately. A wrong date or income figure can be a reason to deny the application, even when it was an honest slip.
• Have your pay stubs ready as PDFs or clear photos before you start. If the landlord emailed you the application, Save and finish later in the signing page's menu keeps your answers, and the same link picks up where you stopped.