Product Updates: Week 24

This week's biggest change is for multifamily teams: you can now add a lead before you know which unit they want, and RentEngine will follow up, report on them, and match them to a unit automatically once they tell you. We also shipped two new Fraud Guard protections against ID-based scams, the ability to turn off application sections like pets and vehicles, and a handful of dashboard, mobile, and Intelligence API updates.

Here's what's new in RentEngine.

Multifamily: leads without a unit yet

Add a lead before you know which unit they want

Up to now, every prospect had to be tied to a specific unit. That didn't match how multifamily leasing actually works: a lead inquires about a building on Zillow, or calls asking about anything available, before they've picked a floorplan. RentEngine now lets you add that lead at the account level, or tag them to a multifamily building without picking a unit.

These leads still get follow-ups and still show up in your reports. The moment the prospect tells you which unit or floorplan they're interested in, RentEngine links them to it automatically.

To set one up, add a prospect without an address in the Command Center, or just let it happen automatically: when a lead inquires about a multifamily building rather than a specific unit (common when the inquiry comes in at the building level) RentEngine creates the building-level lead for you.

Filter and report on multifamily leads at the building level

Two changes make these unit-less leads easier to manage. In the Command Center, you can now filter by typing a multifamily building's name into the search bar. And in Leasing Reports, selecting a building now shows every lead connected to it, including the ones not yet matched to a specific unit.

If a building-level lead comes in and there's nothing available yet, RentEngine now sends a reply letting them know. You can customize this under Messages.

Fraud Guard

Scammers have started sending prospects their own scheduling link rather than trying to pass prescreening themselves, since a real person with a real ID has no trouble clearing the checks. Two changes this week make the underlying ID checks themselves harder to spoof.

Require a live photo instead of a camera roll upload

A new scam uses AI-modified driver's licenses with someone else's photo swapped onto a real ID. Until now, prospects could upload an existing photo of their ID from their camera roll, which left room for a manipulated image to slip through.

You can now require a live photo taken in the moment instead.

Enable this setting under Fraud Guard in your prescreening templates.

A global blocklist for prescreening fraud

RentEngine can now check a prospect's phone number, email, and document ID against a global blocklist shared across property managers, not just your own. Since scammers reuse the same documents and phone numbers across companies, a prospect already flagged for fraud at one PM gets rejected at prescreening with you too. You'll still get a prescreen-rejected event and can manually override it to schedule the showing if needed.

Turn it on under Fraud Guard in your prescreening template, with "Enroll in Global Blocklist."

Rental applications

Skip sections like pets, vehicles, and emergency contacts

You can now turn off the vehicle, pet, and emergency contact sections in your application template, which removes the step entirely for applicants, on your tracker, and in the renter-side flow. All three are on by default.

See the latest note and decision reason without leaving the dashboard

The Notes column in the Applications dashboard now shows the most recent note for that applicant, pulled straight from Notes & Follow-ups, so you don't have to open the group to see what's been flagged.

Hovering over an application's status chip also now shows context: the note for Archived, Conditional Approval, or Additional Information, and the reason for Rejected.

Voucher communication, independent of your reject setting

When a prospect has a housing voucher, you can now control what your AI tells them about voucher acceptance separately from whether you actually reject on that answer. The new "AI Voucher communications" field defaults to following your reject logic, but you can override it to have the AI communicate that vouchers are accepted, or that they're not, without changing how the prescreening itself is scored.

Command Center and mobile

Application and prescreening status, right in the prospect card

Prescreening status now sits under email, labeled Approved, Rejected, or Submitted, and is clickable to open the full prescreening. And the RentEngine Application status, already available on desktop, now also shows on mobile.

Integrations and Intelligence

New Intelligence API endpoints

We extended the Intelligence API with new read endpoints for agent performance and showings data, plus dedicated endpoints for a prospect's calls, messages, and notes and follow-ups. Each pulls only the data you ask for, rather than one large response per prospect, so you can build the integration you actually need without pulling everything at once.

Kijiji feed integration for Canadian customers

RentEngine listings can now syndicate to Kijiji. To turn it on, send your feed URL to the Kijiji support team.

Questions or feedback? Reach out via the Chat!