Rental Application Instructions

One Focus Property Management does business in accordance with the Federal, State and Local Fair Housing laws and welcome Persons of all Race, Color, Disability, Religious Creed, Ancestry, Sex, Familial Status, Sexual Preference, Gender Identity, Age and National Origin. We process applications and score is on the criteria described in this policy. We select the best qualified tenant based on the highest scoring application.

Each application requires that we verify credit history, leasing history, income, and criminal reports. Factors such as your move in date, pets and your behavior and cooperation with our staff may also be considered in the application decision.

We encourage you to review our LEASE prior to applying for a property. This lease is not negotiable.

IN ORDER TO PROCESS YOUR APPLICATION, WE NEED YOU TO PROVIDE US THE FOLLOWING 4 ITEMS:

• Completed application- We must have a separate completed application for anyone 18+ years old that will be living at the property. Please make sure to complete all fields as we only process fully completed applications.
• A copy of a state issued photo ID. e.g. driver’s license, passport, military ID
• Proof of income for all applicants- Applicants must provide verification of legal income sufficient to meet the rent to income ratio. Examples of verification include, but are not limited to, last two paycheck stubs, payroll report from employer for at least the two most recent pay periods, current proof of government income (such as Social Security, disability, welfare, etc.), proof of retirement income, liquid assets (e.g. savings/bank account, stocks), proof of spousal and/or child support, or any other legal verifiable income. Verification of more than two pay periods may be required if the income is not consistent. If the applicant is hired but has not received a paystub yet, a written letter of hire from employer detailing wage/salary, position and start date is required.
  
  Self-employed applicants must provide a copy of the previous year’s tax return in in Q1 or Q2 of the year. In Q3 and Q4, applicant must also provide documentation of the current year’s financial performance in addition to last year’s tax return. Gross income is calculated as total income before taxes less child/spousal support, debt service, payroll garnishments for loans, taxes, child/spousal support, etc. Tax free income is divided by .85 to account for the difference in taxed and non-taxed income such as social security, disability or state support.
• $55 non-refundable screening fee per application. PLEASE NOTE, SINCE WE INCUR COSTS TO PROCESS AND SCREEN EACH APPLICATION, APPLICATION FEES ARE NON-REFUNDABLE.

APPLICATION POLICIES

• You must be willing to start the lease within 30 days of applying if the property is vacant at the time of application. If property is not available until a future date, you must be willing to start a lease within 21 days of the availability date. Please check with our team if this is a concern.
• A complete application package includes all four items listed above. Only fully completed application packages will be processed. An incomplete application package will not be considered. Please attach all documents to your online application.
• Our application process generally takes three business days from the day you provide us a complete application and all required documents. If there are multiple applicants, it can sometimes take longer, but our goal is to get you a decision within three business days. We make no guarantee as to the time it will take to process your application. The time required varies based on the responsiveness of your landlords and employers and other business demands.
• We must verify your rental references, so please make sure to provide working phone numbers for your current and previous landlords. When possible, it is a good idea to let them know we will be calling in advance. If you cannot provide contact information for your former landlords, we cannot consider that history and your application score may be affected.
• There are times when a company would like to rent a property in the company name. In those instances, we will require an individual to also be on the lease as a responsible party, either as an occupant lease holder or co-signer. This may be a principal of the company or the employee who is living at the property. The person who is responsible for the lease must qualify by our conventional scoring criteria. For occupant/non-leaseholders we require a criminal background check as part of the application.
• Be honest and truthful in your application and answer all questions. Any falsification of facts or withholding of information requested on the application is cause for denial. If the falsification of facts is revealed after a lease has been signed, this is a reasonable cause for eviction.
• If you have not seen the property, your application may be subordinated to other applicants who have seen the property. We strongly encourage you to view the property prior to applying.
• Please note, if your application is approved, One Focus Property Management needs a minimum of 1-2 business days to prepare the property prior to your move in.
• Pets- Please check the advertisement on wwww.onefocuspm.com to confirm if pets will be considered, and what the number, type and weight restrictions are. Your application may be subordinated to other applications, if other applicants do not have pets. You must submit pet applications at https://onefocuspm.petscreening.com/. No pets will be considered without a pet application. PetScreener.com fees apply. You MUST submit current vaccination records, photos and your tenant insurance policy number in order to have your animal considered. The information you submit to Petscreening.com will provide a score of 1 through 5 Paws. Animals meeting a minimum score of 3 out of 5, with all documents uploaded and meeting the weight and type restrictions will be approved.

APPLICATION SCORING- CONVENTIONAL

CREDIT

0. 775+ Transunion Resident Score
1. 700-774 Transunion Resident Score
2. 600-699 Transunion Resident Score
3. No Score or 599-550 Transunion Resident Score
4. ≤ 549 Transunion Resident Score

*Open (non-discharged) bankruptcy is cause for automatic denial of the rental application.*

RENT/INCOME RATIO (THIS IS A HOUSEHOLD MEASUREMENT, ALL APPLICANTS’ INCOME IS COMBINED FOR SCORING)

• 1- Verifiable rent to income ratio is 20% and less OR assets in bank accounts and investment accounts total six times the total rent for the lease term.
• 2- Verifiable rent to income ratio is 27% and 21% OR assets in bank accounts and investment accounts total four and a half times the total rent for the lease term.
• 4- Verifiable rent to income ratio is 32%-28%
• 6- Verifiable rent to income ratio is 33%+

When an applicant presents child support as a source of income, we need to be able to verify the income to consider it part of the application income. Acceptable forms of proof are court orders and notarized statements with proven receipt of the funds. (i.e. bank statements showing regular deposits)

Non Court Ordered Support:
With verification including proven receipt of funds and a notarized statement we will count the lesser amount of support OR 20% of the application income. (Example- If the application income is $4,000/month and the notarized statement states that the support is $1,000/month, we will only count $800 toward the monthly income because it is the lesser of the two amounts.)

Court Ordered Support:
There is no limit to the amount of child support counted if it is verified as court ordered. If a court order states that the applicant is receiving $1,000/month in income, all $1,000 will be counted because it is court ordered.

**All rent to income ratios are rounded to the nearest whole percent. Temporary or seasonal income will not be considered. Income without sufficient documentation (e.g. paystubs, statements, letter of hire) will not be considered. If applicant is starting a new job, paystubs are not necessary but a letter of hire detailing wage, start date and position will serve as the documentation.

LANDLORD HISTORY

• 1- No eviction record, no more than 1 late rent/mortgage payment record in 3 years, or last three years of address history is in a home owned by applicant
• 2- 2 late rent/mortgage payment records in 3 years or no leasing history (with non-family or friend landlords)
• 4- 3 or more late rent/mortgage payment records in 3 years

Current Landlords will be asked to rate your cleanliness and general upkeep of your unit during your tenancy on a one to four star scale. One being worst and four being the best. If you are given one star, two points will be added to your overall landlord score. If you receive two stars, one additional point will be added. If three or four stars are given, no additional points will be added. Incomplete landlord references will add 1 point to your landlord score.

* Three years of address history must be verifiable. Lack of verifiable address history may result in application denial at the discretion of One Focus Property Management.

**Your application is automatically denied if you have an eviction record in the past 7 years, Negative Landlord Reference regarding property damage or outstanding balance due, Outstanding Landlord Collection or Judgement, or Mortgage is currently past due

***When a full time student and non student wish to reside together, each person must fill out the appropriate/separate application. The non student must complete the residential application. The non student must meet the requirements listed on the residential application. The non student’s rent to income ratio will be calculated using a percentage of the rent (For example, If there are two people residing in the unit, the ratio will be calculated using one half of the rent to calculate the ratio.) Approval of the application as a whole will be at the discretion of One Focus Property Management

CRIMINAL HISTORY

Criminal history is given an individual assessment and is either considered qualified or unqualified based on those facts separate from the scoring of financial matters. In order to fully consider your criminal history, please provide any information you feel is necessary to understand the context of your convictions. Examples of information you may want to provide for consideration include the circumstances surrounding the criminal conduct, your age at the time of the conduct and evidence of rehabilitation. As we evaluate an applicant’s criminal history, special attention is paid to violent and sexual offenses. We base our decisions related to criminal history on our business concern for the safety of other residents and our staff. Only convictions are considered, arrests without conviction are not considered when evaluating an application. Convictions for the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs (Within the past 10 years) will result in application denial.

SCORING DECISION

≤ 6 = approved with one-month security deposit

7 = high risk, if no more than one category is scored at highest possible score then a co-signer or higher deposit may be required to be approved. Co-signers live in the United States AND must score ≤1 on credit AND 1 on landlord history AND have verifiable gross income at least four times the rent after subtracting debt service and the amount of rent. Whether a higher deposit or co-signer (or both) is required is at the discretion of One Focus Property Management.

8 or higher = Declined

If you are applying with multiple people, we the average scores each of each individual to get a score for the whole application. If your application score is not a whole number, it will be rounded to the next whole number. (e.g. average score is 3.33 then the score is rounded to 4)

When choosing an applicant, we also look at move in date. Please make sure to list the earliest date you are willing to start your lease.

If we have multiple applications who scores the same we will pick the application with the highest Transunion Resident Score (Average of all applicants).
If that is the same we will pick the application with the earliest move-in date.

FULL TIME COLLEGE STUDENTS (ENROLLED FULL TIME)

We rent many off-campus student housing properties. If you are a full-time student, it is very likely that you cannot qualify to rent a property because of your limited income and little or no credit and rental history. To accommodate the needs of our full-time student applicants we have developed the following guidelines for application approval. Our student applicants should restrict their search the student rental sections of our website. Those properties are owned by our clients who are prepared to accept student renters with co-signers.

Co-signers are required for full-time students. Co-signers must be living in the United States, are preferably closely related to the student applicant and must be willing to sign the lease agreeing to bear the financial responsibility of the lease, including property damage, without being permitted to reside at the property. Special exceptions may be made for international students to allow them to rent a property without a co-signer if they pay a double deposit.

Please note: You may be a full-time student and want to rent a property without a co-signer or a property that isn’t on our student rental sections of the website. This is possible, but in that case you would have to apply and qualify on the conventional scoring standards. You must complete a full rental application, provide those documents and pay the fees.

If you are renting with roommates on a joint and several lease (please ask your leasing agent about whether the property you are interested in requires a joint and several lease or individual room lease), then all roommates must have co-signers or all qualify without co-signers.

If you intend to rent with roommates, but some of your roommates are not full time students, then you need to discuss this with the Director of Property Management to determine your application process. This process can vary depending on the property, who it is owned by, and the nature of your application.

We encourage you to review our lease prior to applying for a property. This lease is not negotiable. In order to process your application, we need you to provide us the following two items:

• Completed Student Application- We must have a separate completed application for anyone 18+ years old that will be living at the property. Please make sure to complete all fields as we only process fully completed applications. A completed application is required of your co-signer. All information requested on the student application is required including dates of birth and social security numbers. DO NOT SUBMIT AN APPLICATION WITHOUT THIS INFORMATION.
• A copy of a state issued photo ID. e.g. driver’s license, passport, military ID for each applicant and co-signer.

CRIMINAL HISTORY

Criminal history is given an individual assessment and is either considered qualified or unqualified based on those facts separate from the scoring of financial matters. In order to fully consider your criminal history, please provide any information you feel is necessary to understand the context of your convictions. Examples of information you may want to provide for consideration include the circumstances surrounding the criminal conduct, your age at the time of the conduct and evidence of rehabilitation. As we evaluate an applicant’s criminal history, special attention is paid to violent and sexual offenses. We base our decisions related to criminal history on our business concern for the safety of other residents and our staff. Only convictions are considered, arrests without conviction are not considered when evaluating an application. Convictions for the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs (Within the past 10 years) will result in application denial.