PSA: This article references the direct integration LeadSimple has with AppFolio. If you aren't familiar with that integration, learn more here!

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"Did you get my application? Have you reviewed it yet? Do you have an update on my application?"

I'm guessing you've heard these questions 👆 from tenant applicants before. And someone in your company has probably spent inordinate amounts of time responding to those tiresome questions.

Also, if you've been using LeadSimple for your application screening process, you'll know that up to this point it has been very difficult to get new applications into LeadSimple. You had to add these manually, which is (obviously) time consuming.

But the time for that is over.

LeadSimple automatically syncs tenant applicants from AppFolio so that:

First, you'll need to activate the LeadSimple integration in AppFolio (instructions here). Then you'll have the option to sync rental applicants from AppFolio.

Purpose of the AppFolio Tenant Applicant Pipeline

The purpose of the applicant pipeline is twofold:

Read on to discover how to do this!

Every 5 minutes, LeadSimple will pull new rental applicants, and status updates on existing applicants, from AppFolio into a special pipeline called "AppFolio Tenant Applicants".

It will put them into the "New" stage where you can set up a custom workflow, including an automatic email or text that tells new applicants you'll look at their application soon.

Applicants are automatically connected to the properties they are applying for. If one applicant submits multiple applications--one for two different properties--LeadSimple will create two applicant leads, each corresponding with the property the application was for.

If multiple applicants apply as a group, LeadSimple will create separate application leads for each applicant, but it will link them all using the "Group Number" field on the lead. You can find this field in the right-hand sidebar of the lead page under the "Details" section.

To see all applicants in a group, simply click the group number. This pulls up a list of all the applicants who applied in that group so you can check their status, and review them all together to make a final approval/denial decision.

You can also display the "Group Number" column in your dashboard for the "AppFolio Tenant Applicants" pipeline so see which ones applied as a group vs. applicants who applied on their own. (Learn how to customize the columns displayed here.)

The stages in the "AppFolio Tenant Applicants" pipeline are controlled by AppFolio. When the status of the applicant changes in AppFolio, LeadSimple will automatically update the lead to the stage that corresponds with this new status.

This means you can trigger powerful automations with these stage changes, such as sending a text to the applicant, and/or the property owner, at every milestone of the screening process, letting them know how it's going. (How many owners or applicants complain about their property management company over-communicating with them!)

The only downside with these stages is that they are controlled by AppFolio and can't be renamed, deleted, reordered, or added to, so you are somewhat limited by the way AppFolio handles statuses.

But remember, the upside is that when the status changes on the application in AppFolio, the stage automatically changes in LeadSimple, which can be used for a lot of helpful automations.

Whenever LeadSimple syncs a new applicant lead to the "AppFolio Tenant Applicant" pipeline, you'll need to manually start an application screening sub-process from this lead. To make this easier, you can add a step to start the application screening process in the "New" stage of your "AppFolio Tenant Applicants" pipeline.

Pros of using a process type:

Cons:

Questions? Let us know via chat or email! support@leadsimple.com