Learn what’s driving the rental housing industry shift to automated, direct-source verifications
Here’s a startling statistic: Per a recent Snappt survey, 48% of property managers are currently relying entirely on manual income, employment, and asset verifications—or not performing verifications at all.
That means, in an era when one can order groceries, transfer money, and sign legal documents with just a few phone taps, nearly half of the rental housing industry is still asking applicants to track down, scan, and upload paper documents. Someone must then review each document by hand, call or email employers to verify the details, and slowly piece together a picture of the applicant’s financial health. All in all, the process typically takes three to five business days.
It’s not just inefficient. It’s costing the industry millions in lost revenue, exposing property managers to rising levels of fraud, and driving away qualified applicants who expect the same frictionless digital experiences they get everywhere else.
Luckily, a growing number of screening providers have eliminated these challenges. As a result, they’re seeing completion rates jump by 30% or more, cutting timelines from days to minutes, and reducing their fraud risk instead of accepting fraud as a cost of moving faster.
Their secret? They’ve stopped asking for documents altogether and have instead adopted fully automated, direct-source verifications.
They’re seeing completion rates jump by 30% or more, cutting timelines from days to minutes, and reducing their fraud risk instead of accepting fraud as a cost of moving faster.
Looking to level up your verification process?
Our new ebook, Modernizing Tenant Screenings, shares how top screening providers are minimizing fraud, accelerating approvals, and building seamless applicant experiences with direct-source verifications.
A perfect storm in the rental housing industry
Three converging forces are making the status quo of manual verifications untenable when it comes to tenant screening.
- Fraud is on the rise—and it’s easier than ever to commit.
According to the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), over 93% of rental housing owners and managers experienced fraud in the last year, writing off an average of nearly $4.2 million in bad debt.
This sharp rise in application fraud can largely be attributed to advances in AI, which have made document forgeries so convincing that they fool even experienced screeners. For less than $50, virtually anyone can now purchase a counterfeit paystub online, complete with phone numbers routing to accomplices who will confirm false employment details.
What’s more, each resulting eviction costs property managers approximately $7,500 between legal fees, lost rent, property damage, and turnover costs.
- Applicant expectations have fundamentally shifted.
Today’s renters—especially young renters who have never known a non-digital world—expect verifications to be as seamless as any other consumer experience. Complex, multi-step application processes that ask them to hunt down documents, scan and send files, and wait days for a decision feel hopelessly outdated. When faced with such friction, many applicants simply walk away, taking their business to competitors with smoother, faster approvals.
- Competitive pressures are intensifying.
In a sluggish and competitive rental market, speed is everything. The property manager who can approve a qualified applicant today will win out over one whose process stretches into tomorrow or even next week. Extended vacancy periods directly impact revenue, as each day a unit sits empty represents lost rental income that can never be recovered. Factor in multiple properties and dozens of applications each month, and the financial impact quickly becomes substantial.
The screening providers who recognize this moment for what it is—an inflection point that will separate the industry leaders from the stragglers—are taking action to modernize their operations.
The direct-source difference
The breakthrough transforming tenant screening is deceptively simple. Instead of relying on bothersome and easily manipulated documents, forward-thinking teams are using direct-source verifications to connect to applicants’ payroll providers, employment platforms, and bank accounts and pull information straight from the system of record.
This offers several critical advantages:
- Efficiencies that minimize operational costs
By eliminating manual review efforts, phone calls to employers, and back-and-forth with applicants around missing and incomplete documents, screening providers reduce the labor costs associated with each verification. Instead, they can focus on high-value, strategic activities while a verification "waterfall" runs automatically in the background.
- Fraud prevention that’s baked into the process
When data flows directly from an applicant’s payroll system or bank, there’s no opportunity for fraudsters to manipulate or forge documents. The data is pre-verified, tamper-proof, and always up to date. That means screeners aren’t just hoping that applicants are being honest. They’re connecting to authoritative sources that root out the truth.
- Broad coverage that matches today’s diverse workforce
These days, applicants don’t all have traditional W-2 employment. They pick up shifts for gig platforms like Uber, freelance on Upwork, receive government benefits, and often combine income from multiple sources. Because direct-source verification platforms tap in at the payroll or banking level, they can cover all of these income streams at once, ensuring applicants can be verified regardless of where and how they earn their wages.
- Speed that transforms the applicant experience
With direct-source verifications, data flows from financial systems in real time, so processes that used to take three to five days can now be completed in minutes. They feel as seamless as any modern digital service, dramatically reducing abandonment rates and boosting conversions.
Ultimately, reducing friction doesn’t just improve the applicant experience. It directly impacts business outcomes by turning more applicants into more completed verifications—and, ultimately, into more good tenants.
“Argyle allows more applicants to get through the Snappt workflow, which provides our customers with more applicants to rent apartments to, and that’s a tremendous value. We’re in the business of getting qualified applicants into apartment units, and Argyle is helping with that mission.”
– Kyle Nelson, VP of Corporate Strategy at Snappt
Why now is the time to move
The window for gaining a competitive advantage through modern verifications is open, but it won’t stay open forever.
Early adopters like Snappt and SafeRent are seeing dynamic improvements in conversion rates, verification speed, and fraud prevention. They’re winning qualified applicants away from competitors with slower, more cumbersome processes, and they’re reducing operational costs while simultaneously improving their data quality and security.
Right now, direct-source verifications offer a distinct competitive edge, but they’ll soon become table stakes that applicants expect from every screening provider. That means fence-sitters will likely find themselves scrambling to catch up, eventually implementing solutions not to get ahead but to avoid falling further behind.
Your direct-source roadmap
Understanding that you need to level up your verification process is one thing. But knowing how to do it effectively—which approach to use, what to look for in a partner, and how to optimize for maximum ROI—is what separates successful implementations from expensive failures.
Our comprehensive ebook, Modernizing Tenant Screenings, offers an introductory playbook to expertly navigate this transition.
It covers:
- The full landscape of challenges facing today’s property managers and tenant screening providers
- How a verification “waterfall” approach maximizes coverage while ensuring data quality
- What’s included in comprehensive, direct-source verifications
- The business case for modernization, with real numbers and examples from early adopters
- How to evaluate verification partners and avoid costly implementation mistakes
- Realistic implementation timelines and what to expect at every stage
- Best practices for optimizing conversion rates and the user experience
The tenant screening industry is undoubtedly changing. But, with the right tools and strategies, every provider and property manager can have what it takes to keep up.
Get started with Argyle
Argyle is the leading platform for direct-source income, employment, and asset verifications purpose-built for the tenant screening industry. We connect directly to over 90% of the US workforce, including major payroll providers, employers, gig platforms, and banking institutions to deliver verified data in minutes rather than days.
From direct payroll connections and banking data to intelligent document processing, Argyle ensures every applicant can complete the verification process while maintaining the fraud prevention and data accuracy that today’s property managers demand.Ready to see what Argyle can do for your business? Explore our platform first-hand to learn more about our verification solutions and coverage—or contact our expert team to set up a demo.
