A Rental Application form is a form in which the rental applicant provides his or her information.
What must a proper rental application include and what are the pitfalls?

1. Applicant's personal Information.
   This includes name, date of birth, phone, social security number, dependents and pets if any.
   
2. Residential History.
   This includes previous addresses, duration of stay, reason for leaving, property owner's name and their phone number.
   
3. Credit History.
   This includes the following questions:

1. Bankruptcy declared in the past seven (7) years.
   
2. Prior eviction from a residential rental property
3. Late rent history and late credit card payment history

4. Employment Information.
   This includes status of current employment, whether full time or part time, or whether the applicant is a student or simply unemployed.
   If employed, the following relevant information is requested: Employer name, address, phone number, job title and salary.
   If currently a student, name of school and current source of income whether a parent, guardian or loans.
   If the prospective tenant is currently unemployed, proof of source of income to cover the total rental amount.
   Additional information.
   This allows the applicant to provide additional information to aide their application.
   

The most common pitfalls and how to avoid them? 1.
The most common pitfall is that many landlords make the colossal mistake of not having a rental application at all.
The application allows the landlord to collect valuable information about their perspective tenant.
The rental application will also weed out many troublesome tenants since any false information they provide will be uncovered in a reference or credit check.
2.
Using a handwritten or free form downloaded from the Internet.
Such handwritten or free forms almost always contain errors and are incomplete.
It is prudent to use an application form that was prepared by professionals.
3.
Failure to call the references or verify information in the application.
Some landlords fail to call references simply because a tenant seems nice and looks presentable.
This course of action is inadvisable.
It a rental application a must? Yes, it is an absolute must.
Landlords would be wise to perform this step prior to signing a lease agreement rather than deal with a troublesome tenant down the road.
Collecting past due rent or going through an eviction process is a tiresome and time consuming task that no landlord wants to go through.
Erring on the side of caution and being comprehensive in vetting a tenant will weed out unwanted tenants.
Rental application