Agent Showing Policy

Most rental homes today are shown through self-showing technology rather than by an Agent in person, and most of our homes are shown that way. Homes advertised to rent for $3,000 per month or more are shown in person by an Agent. For a home advertised under $3,000 per month, the property Owner chooses when the home is listed whether it is shown by Self-Guided Tour or by Agent Escorted Showings. The minimum credit score follows the showing method: 600 for homes shown by Self-Guided Tour and 740 for homes shown by Agent Escorted Showings (Minimum Requirements, Section 3). Each listing states how the home is shown and the minimum credit score. Whichever method applies to a home, it is applied on the same terms to every Rental Customer.

For homes with Self-Guided Tours, Dean & Associates Inc uses Rently® to give every Rental Customer secure, self-guided access. After a short identity verification through Rently, you schedule and tour the home on your own using a lockbox or smart lock. No Agent is present, and no Lease Application is required just to look. Self-guided tours are available through Rently from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, seven days a week. A self-guided tour is the fastest way to see a home and works around your schedule.

Homes with Agent Escorted Showings are listed in the Greater Alabama Multiple Listing Service, and Self-Guided Tours are not available for them. There are two ways to view one of these homes, and every Rental Customer may use either.

With a Cooperating Agent. A Cooperating Agent is a licensed real estate agent who is not affiliated with Dean & Associates Inc. If you are working with a REALTOR®, ask them to schedule the showing and accompany you. No Lease Application and no fee is required to view a home with a Cooperating Agent. Dean & Associates Inc does not refer Cooperating Agents. When a Cooperating Agent’s client signs a Lease on one of these homes, Dean & Associates Inc pays the Cooperating Agent’s Broker a fee equal to one-half of the first month’s rent.

With an Agent of Dean & Associates Inc. Our Agents show these homes only to Rental Customers who have been pre-qualified. To view a home this way, contact us to be pre-qualified first; we will tell you what pre-qualification requires, and the same steps apply to every Rental Customer. Once you are pre-qualified, we will schedule the showing with you by email, phone, or text. Pre-qualification is not an approval: to lease the home you must still submit a Lease Application, which is screened under the published Minimum Requirements in the same order as any other application. Applications are processed in the order they qualify. Once an application is approved the home is marked Pending, and later applications are held as backup applications, without a fee or a credit report, until a Lease is signed (Minimum Requirements, Section 9).

Homes the Owner still lives in. Some homes are listed up to 90 days before the Owner moves out. The listing says the Owner still occupies the home and states the planned move-out date. These homes are shown only by an Agent, in either of the two ways above, with the Owner’s furnishings in place. Before you apply, we confirm with the Owner that your requested Lease start date can be met (the 45-day limit in Section 8 of the Minimum Requirements does not apply), The Owner is required to have the carpets professionally cleaned and to remove television mounts, repair wall holes, and touch up the paint before delivering the home. We also ask what other repairs and maintenance you expect before move-in; the Owner may agree to or decline any other item. We give you the Owner’s answer before you apply; by applying, you accept it. When your application is approved, the home is marked Pending. The Owner must move out and deliver the home move-in ready, including the required items and the items the Owner agreed to, at least five business days before the Lease start date, and we schedule your walk-through of the vacant home as soon as the Owner delivers it. When your application is approved, we draft the Lease and send it to the Owner to sign, and we send you a copy for review (you do not sign yet). The Owner has until 5:30 PM Central Time on the third business day to sign; once the Owner signs, the Owner is committed to lease the home to you on the Lease terms. If the Owner does not sign by then, we may cancel the Owner’s listing agreement and will tell you in writing; you will not have paid any Initial Funds. After the Owner signs, and before the walk-through, you provide proof of renter’s insurance and pay the Initial Funds (the Security Deposit and the first month’s rent) and any pet fee, so that the funds clear before you move in. At the walk-through, every Lease signatory visits the home and decides whether to accept its condition. If you accept it, we release the Lease for you to sign, and the Lease is fully signed when you sign it. If you do not accept it, or the Owner does not deliver the home by the deadline, you may withdraw with no further obligation, and the Initial Funds and any pet fee are refunded in full; screening fees already paid are not refunded. When the agreed start date is more than 45 days after your approval, a new credit report and current income documents are required before the Lease is prepared, at no charge to you. Homes occupied by a Tenant are not shown before the Tenant moves out.

When a home changes from Agent Escorted Showings to Self-Guided Tours. A property Owner may change a home from Agent Escorted Showings to Self-Guided Tours once, if its advertised rent is under $3,000 per month. A home never changes the other way, so a home’s requirements are never made stricter after it is listed. When a home changes to Self-Guided Tours, its minimum credit score becomes 600 for every application then in process as well as for new applications, and we contact every Applicant we declined on that home who would qualify under the new standard (Minimum Requirements, Sections 3 and 6).

You may submit a Lease Application for any home at any time, whether or not you have viewed it. We will not prepare and present a Lease until every Lease signatory has personally visited the home and approved its condition.

The published Minimum Requirements for lease application approval are applied to every Applicant the same way, and the Broker does not change a published standard to place a Tenant, at the request of an Applicant or of a property Owner. No Agent or staff member of Dean & Associates Inc has authority to change, waive, or negotiate these requirements through any channel. Please review the published Minimum Requirements before you apply.

If you need a reasonable accommodation to view a home because of a disability — for example, a way to enter other than the Rently lockbox or smart lock, or a staff member to meet you at the home — we will work with you to arrange it. Submit the request through our accommodation request form or by email to info@deanandassociatesinc.com, and we will follow up with you within five business days.