Why Am I Not Hearing Back from Apartment Inquiries?

We’ve all been there: You’re scrolling through a ton of apartment listings, submitting your information on dozens of apartments, and hearing… crickets. It’s frustrating to be left wondering why your apartment inquiries aren’t getting answered — especially in cases where it’s totally out of your control. However, there are a few best practices you can follow to try to increase your success rate.

In this guide, we’ll provide answers that may explain why your inquiries are being left on read — and offer tips for how to craft the perfect apartment inquiry.

It’s possible that an apartment that you fell in love with online and submitted an inquiry on was never available to begin with. It may have been rented long before you ever saw it, and the agent who uploaded it just never got a chance to take the listing down. If it looks like an apartment listing has been on the market for a long time and you are not hearing back about it, in many cases, you can assume its unavailable — especially in a competitive rental market.

In some markets, where rental brokers are less common, a landlord or property manager may be handling all incoming inquiries on their new apartment listing. This is also common on non-rental search sites like Craigslist or a Facebook group. If the landlord hasn’t hired a real estate agent or brokerage to handle their listing and are working through all inquiries on their own, it may take them longer to get back to you.

Similar to our last point, the apartment listing may be really popular — and the agent or landlord may be receiving a lot of inquiries. If your inquiry was one of hundreds received on a particular rental property — and yours was received later in the process — then the agent or landlord may have already started working with other renters on touring this unit.

Someone else may have gotten to your desired listing before you. If another prospective tenant has already submitted an inquiry, toured, and applied to an apartment, it’s not likely that the listing agent or landlord will want to start the process with you while that application is still pending (for reference, it can take around three business days for an application to be approved or denied). Because there’s a chance that the pending application may get denied by the landlord, the agent will likely keep the listing posted until a lease is signed. This means that, unfortunately, you usually won’t be able to tell whether an application has already been submitted.

If you want to move in to a unit immediately and it won’t be available until three months from now (or vice versa), then you likely aren’t the right tenant for this apartment. The same goes for if your budget or credit score falls below requirements for the property, or if you have a pet and the unit is not pet-friendly. Read apartment listings closely before submitting an inquiry to avoid wasting your time on properties that aren’t a fit for you.

It’s important to include all relevant information about you and your co-applicants in your apartment inquiry. Otherwise, an agent or a landlord may prioritize an inquiry that does have more details over yours. Luckily, ApartmentAdvisor makes this easy. On all of our apartment listings, we craft your inquiry for you and just give you some blanks to fill in along the way. Even better, we’ve launched our Verified Listings program in Boston and New York, which allows you to work directly with an advisor on our team rather than an outside agent or landlord, among other benefits. Learn more here. (Coming soon to a market near you!)

If you want more details on what to include in an apartment inquiry you are submitting on your own, read on for our full guide below.

If you’ve found an apartment you love on Facebook, Craigslist, or any other apartment search site, then we recommend including a few important details in your initial inquiry to set yourself apart as a potential tenant:

Keep in mind: You will almost never need to submit information like bank statements or pay stubs or pay a fee to submit an apartment inquiry. Any fees or extra documents will all be required later in the process, once you are submitting an apartment application. Be wary of rental scams, especially on third-party websites like Craigslist. To learn more about why a rental application may have been denied, click here.

In general, when you are submitting an apartment inquiry, you are making a first impression on a potential landlord, apartment manager, or property management company. Be sure to write in complete sentences and check your grammar before hitting send. Otherwise, your inquiry could be seen as a red flag.

Below, we’ve included a sample template that you can use when submitting inquiries:

Hi! My name is [full name]. I saw your listing for [full address of desired unit, including unit number], and I am interested in scheduling a tour. Is it still available?

I will be applying with [number of roommates] roommate(s), named [full names of roommates]. Our combined income is [combined income of all co-applicants] and I [or “we all” if multiple applicants] have a credit score above [credit score]. We will be bringing one [type of pet] with us, a [breed of pet] named [pet’s name]. They are [weight of pet] pounds.

Our anticipated move-in date is [move-in date].

You can best reach me by email at [your email address] or by phone at [your phone number]. I am available to chat at [times and days of week when you are able to speak on the phone].

Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you!