Rental Leasing Checklist: Listing to Move-In

Leasing a unit yourself comes down to ten steps: prepare the listing, post it, answer inquiries, schedule showings, collect applications, screen and decide, write the lease with the right disclosures, get it signed, walk the unit with the tenant, and file everything. None of the steps is hard. The trouble is that a vacancy spreads them across your inbox, your texts, two marketplaces and a pile of PDFs, and something gets dropped.

This checklist walks through each step, what to do, and the mistake that costs landlords the most. The legal points below are federal rules. Your state, and sometimes your city, adds more, so check both before you rely on this.

1. Prepare the listing

• Take fresh photos of every room, the kitchen and bathroom in particular, in daylight.
• Write the description: rent, deposit, available date, lease length, pet and smoking rules, which utilities the tenant pays, parking and laundry.
• Write your screening criteria before anyone applies (minimum income, credit, rental history, occupancy limits) and apply them to everyone the same way.
• Save the photos and description somewhere you will find them at the next turnover.

That last item matters more than it looks. Photos and descriptions get rebuilt from scratch every time a tenant leaves because they were buried in an old email or a phone camera roll. Keep them with the unit, not with the ad.

With Resida: your photos and description stay with the unit, so the next vacancy starts from what you already have.

2. Post it, and watch what the ad says

• Post to the sites your renters use. For most small landlords that means Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, plus any local sites.
• Use the same text and photos everywhere so the details match.
• Read the ad for wording that signals a preference. The federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. § 3604(c)) bars housing ads that state a preference or limitation based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability. Many states and cities protect more characteristics. Describe the unit, not the tenant you imagine in it.
• When the unit is rented, take the posts down so you stop getting inquiries for a unit that is gone.

Posting is where most of the retyping happens. Each site has its own form, so one listing becomes three or four data-entry sessions, and the take-down step is the one people forget.

With Resida: the browser extension fills in your Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace posts from the same listing. You review each one and press Post, and Resida reminds you to take them down when the unit is rented.

3. Answer inquiries

• Use one email address for the listing, not your personal inbox.
• Reply fast, ideally the same day. Prospects are writing to several landlords at once.
• Keep a short set of answers to the questions you get every time: rent, deposit, pets, move-in date, lease length, utilities.
• Track who has asked, who has been answered and who needs a follow-up.

With one prospect this is easy. With twelve, spread across email, Marketplace messages and texts, the follow-ups are what fall through.

With Resida: every listing gets its own email address, and every inquiry lands in one inbox. An optional AI leasing assistant answers prospects' questions from your listing and sends them a link to book a showing. Anything it can't answer comes to you, and you can approve its replies before they go out.

4. Schedule showings

• Pick a few set windows instead of negotiating each time.
• Give prospects a way to pick a time themselves, so you are not trading six messages to settle one appointment.
• Confirm each appointment, and cancel it if the prospect drops out.
• Write down who came, so you can follow up with the ones who were interested.

With Resida: prospects pick a showing time from your availability and get confirmations automatically, with no back-and-forth.

5. Collect applications

• Use one application form for everyone: names, income, employment, household, references and a signed consent for the checks you plan to run.
• Keep each applicant's status visible: invited, started, submitted, or withdrawn.
• Ask every applicant the same questions. Avoid anything that touches a protected characteristic, such as whether someone plans to start a family.

The status question is the one that eats weekends. If you are keeping "who applied, who sent their pay stubs, who I still owe an answer" in your head or in a spreadsheet, you will eventually leave a good applicant hanging.

With Resida: applicants apply online, and every lead's status is visible in one pipeline, so you can see at a glance who is waiting on you.

6. Screen and decide

• Check each applicant against your written criteria, and record what you verified: income, employment, prior landlord, and any credit or background report.
• Get the applicant's written consent before you pull a report.
• Decide using the criteria, not a gut feeling, and write down the reason.
• Tell the applicants you did not choose. A short, polite note ends the waiting.

Adverse action notices

If you deny an applicant, ask for a co-signer, or require a larger deposit, and a consumer report (credit, eviction or background) was any part of the reason, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires you to tell the applicant. The FTC's guidance for landlords says the notice must include:

1. The name, address and phone number of the company that supplied the report.
2. A statement that the company did not make the decision and cannot explain it.
3. The applicant's right to a free copy of the report if they ask within 60 days, and to dispute anything inaccurate or incomplete.

If you used a credit score, the notice must also include the score, its range, and the key factors that hurt it. The notice is required even when the report played a minor part in the decision, and written notice is the safest practice.

With Resida: applicants upload their documents with the application, and your screening results stay on their record. When you decline someone, Resida drafts the right notice for your reason, including the extra details that apply when a consumer report was involved. You review it and send it.

7. Prepare the lease and the disclosures

• Put the key terms in writing: names of all adults, address, start and end dates, rent, due date, payment methods, late fee, deposit, pet terms, who pays which utilities.
• Check what your state limits: security deposit caps, late fee rules, how much notice you must give before entering the unit.
• Add every required disclosure for your state and city.
• If the building was built before 1978, give the tenant the EPA pamphlet and the lead-based paint disclosure before they sign. The EPA requires you to share what you know about lead-based paint, including where it is and the condition of painted surfaces, to pass along any records and reports you have, and to include a lead warning statement in or with the lease. Keep a signed copy for three years after the lease begins. Exemptions include zero-bedroom units such as lofts and dorms (unless a child under six lives or will live there), leases of 100 days or less that can't be renewed or extended, and housing found lead-free by a certified inspector.

Most of the time spent here is re-typing: the tenant's name, email, move-in date, rent and pet details are already on the application and the listing, and you enter them a third time into the lease. The other cost is trying to remember whether your state wants a disclosure about, say, mold, flood risk or a prior owner's registration. Laws change, and a template you saved three years ago may not reflect the latest.

With Resida: the lease wizard fills in the lease from the application and listing, and builds in legal guidelines for your state, such as security deposit limits and required disclosures. It is researched content to remind you what to include, not legal advice.

8. Get it signed

• Send the lease to every tenant and co-signer for signature, not just the first one who replies.
• Choose a method everyone can use from a phone, with no account to create.
• Keep the signed copy, with the disclosures, in a place tied to the unit.
• Collect the first month's rent and the deposit once the lease is signed, and give a receipt.

Paper means printing, signing, scanning and chasing. Many paid e-signature services take away the printing but add a monthly fee or a charge per document, and you still have to upload each lease and add the signers.

With Resida: e-signatures are built in and free. Your tenant and any co-signers sign from their phones with no account, and the signed lease is filed with the unit.

9. Do the move-in walkthrough

• Walk the unit with a room-by-room checklist: walls, floors, doors, windows, appliances, fixtures, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
• Photograph the condition of each room, especially anything already scuffed, cracked or stained.
• Have the tenant do their own pass and note anything you missed.
• Both sides should keep a copy.
• Check your state's rules. Some states require a written statement of the unit's condition when you take a deposit; Massachusetts does, under G.L. c. 186, § 15B.

This is your evidence at move-out. When a deposit is disputed, the question is what the unit looked like on day one, and a dated photo beats memory.

With Resida: walk the unit on your phone with a room-by-room checklist and photos, and send your tenant a link to do their own pass. At move-out, the two walkthroughs are compared side by side to build your deduction report.

10. File everything where you will find it

At minimum, keep for each tenancy: the listing as it ran, the application and screening notes, any notices you sent, the signed lease and disclosures, and the move-in checklist with its photos. Disputes about deposits and damage tend to surface at move-out, often years after move-in, which is when the photos and signed copies matter most. The common failure is that the lease is in one email thread, the photos are on a phone you have since replaced, and the checklist is in a drawer.

See the full feature pages for leasing and listings, lease management and walkthroughs.

With Resida: the lease, disclosures, application, and move-in photos are all filed under the unit and tenant, and walkthrough photos are kept for three years after the lease closes.