How Long Does Employment Verification Take?

Good news—a tenant wants to rent in your community! But don’t ask them to sign a lease just yet. Instead, evaluate the applicant using a thorough tenant screening process to determine if they’re financially stable, responsible, and likely to pay their rent on time. 

Verifying income and confirming employment are essential to effective tenant screening. If an applicant has a reliable, steady job, they’re far more likely to make their rent payments. 

But doing employment verification right can take some time and effort. You’ll need to get written permission from the applicant and reach out to their employer, all while handling sensitive employment data. And then you may have to wait for a response, delaying the decision by a few days or even weeks. 

So, how long does employment verification take?

Understanding the process can help you set expectations with future residents and create a smooth process from application to lease agreement. 

We’re digging into the factors that influence how long employment verification takes and what you can do to speed up the process to help you find great tenants. 

Quick Insights

• Employment verification is a critical step in tenant screening. It helps property managers create a holistic picture of a prospective renter’s financial stability.
• Employment verification typically takes anywhere from 1-5 business days.
• Using automated verification solutions and integrations can expedite and simplify the process.
• Multiple factors can affect employment verification timelines, including the accuracy of application information, employer responsiveness, and busy seasons in property management.
• Set expectations with renters around timelines for their application and employment verification, and always obtain consent before contacting employers.
• Don’t sacrifice security for speed. Cutting corners during tenant screening may mean missing signs of fraud or employment verification scams.

Why Employment Verification is Crucial to Tenant Screening

One of the most important qualities in a potential tenant is their ability to pay rent (and on time). It’s why property managers take the time to run background checks, pull credit scores, and review proof of income. 

Dealing with late or missed rent payments is time-consuming and costly. In some cases, failure to pay rent may even lead to expensive and difficult evictions. 

That’s why we suggest doing some homework upfront and evaluating employment history before signing a lease. Once a renter moves in, it can be difficult to get them out, even if they’re not paying rent. 

And because rental application fraud is on the rise, it’s critical to double-check every document for signs of tampering. Through cross-referencing, employment verification can help you confirm the authenticity of an applicant’s pay stubs and bank statements. 

Employment verification also helps build a comprehensive tenant profile for informed decision-making. You want great tenants in your community, and to do that, you need a holistic view of a tenant, including their rental, credit, and employment history. 

How Long Does Employment Verification Take? The General Timeline

Employment verification normally takes 1-5 business days to request and receive results. But automated verification can speed things up, taking as little as a few minutes and with same-day results. Manual verification, meanwhile, may take one or more weeks. 

One of the biggest factors in how long employment verification takes is the method you use. In general, automated verification is faster, while manual verification is usually more resource- and time-intensive. 

Verifying employment is typically a three-step process: 

1. Submission of tenant information. While applying, the tenant submits their employment information, including employer name and contact information.

2. Contacting employers or using verification services. With the tenant’s information, you can reach out to the employer directly to request an employment verification letter. Or you might submit the data to a verification service.

3. Receiving and reviewing results. Once you’ve communicated with the applicant’s employer or collected the results from an automated check, you can include this information in your final application decision. 

Factors that Influence the Speed of Employment Verification

Employment verification can be quick—less than a day in some cases—or it can take weeks. Several factors affect how long employment verification takes. Let’s take a look.

Verification Methods

Most property managers verify employment in one of two ways: 

1. Manually, through phone calls or emails to employers
2. Automated services

Automated services are typically faster. Thanks to direct integrations with payroll systems, automated employment verification can be as simple as entering the tenant’s information, clicking “Submit,” and waiting for the results to come back.  

Tenant’s Employer Responsiveness

While automated verification can take just a few clicks, manual verification relies on an employer. If the employer is slow to respond or unavailable, you might be left waiting. 

Some employers might be experiencing a busy season (think accounting firms in April). Or they may be closed or operating with reduced staff during the holidays. Build in some buffer time if you’re using manual verification. 

And don’t forget company size. Organizations with hundreds or thousands of employees might receive multiple employment verification requests every week. And each one may require processing and internal review before the employer can respond. 

Completeness of Tenant Information

We’ve all made typos or left a form field blank on applications, and tenant screening forms are no exception. If a tenant mistypes a phone number or doesn’t share their supervisor’s email address, you might have to hunt down the correct contact info. 

Even if the applicant fills out every field, verify all employer data independently. If a tenant shares an incorrect phone number or address, that could be a sign of an employment verification scam. 

Peak Periods in Property Management

Like many industries, property management is seasonal. During the busy summer months, you may handle more apartment turnovers and process more applications—generating more employment verification requests than usual. This high volume of requests can create backlogs and increase processing times. 

Tips for Speeding Up the Employment Verification Process

Verifying employment might not be instant, but you can speed things up with these tips and tricks. 

Use automated employment verification services. These tools integrate directly with payroll software. Rather than reaching out to someone’s employer and waiting for a response, you can submit the applicant’s information electronically and receive the result in a day. 

Make sure applicants provide complete and accurate employment details. Whether you’re using automated or manual employment verification, ask applicants to double-check the information they’re sharing, like: 

• Company name
• Company phone and email
• Company address
• Manager or supervisor name
• Manager or supervisor phone and email

Incorrect or missing information for any of these data points could stall the verification. Let applicants know that accurate, complete information will speed up the approval process. 

Set expectations and get written consent. Inform applicants about when you’ll be contacting their employer and what information you’ll request. Let them know that timely document submission will speed up the process. 

And always get written consent before you contact an employer or share any applicant data. Not taking this step may violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act, data privacy regulations, and other tenant screening laws. 

Get permission and keep a record of all authorizations and requests.

Establish clear timelines and follow-up procedures. Let renters know if and how you’ll follow up with their employer if you don’t receive a response within a set timeframe. The applicant should also understand how long it’ll take to make a decision after verifying their employment. 

Consider integrating verification tools with your tenant screening software. With an integration, you only have to enter the renter’s application information once, and the software will automatically send the relevant data to the employment verification service. The results will then flow back into your tenant screening software—no manual entry required. 

Balancing Speed with Accuracy

The best way to protect your property from bad tenants is by identifying and attracting great residents through a thorough screening process. Spotting red flags early on means you can avoid accepting and signing leases with unqualified renters. 

But finding the very best renters takes time. Between running credit and background checks, verifying income, and contacting referrals, the entire application process may take a week or more. Using an automated employment verification service can reduce some of the operational overhead. 

A word of caution—always be on the lookout for rental application fraud. The National Multifamily Housing Council found in 2024 that over 93% of survey respondents in property management had experienced application fraud in the past year. 

Moving through the tenant screening process too quickly could lead to missing tell-tale signs of forgery. 

Incorporate employment verification into a multi-layer fraud detection strategy by comparing employment information with bank statements, pay stubs, and employer referrals. Any inconsistencies could be a tip-off for fraud. 

Simplify Tenant Screening by Optimizing Employment Verification

Employment verification typically takes 1-5 business days. But the process may take longer—sometimes weeks—depending on the method you use, the employer’s responsiveness, and the accuracy of the information the applicant shared. 

An automated solution like Snappt can save you days (or weeks) of waiting—you might receive results in minutes. Plus, integrating employment verification with your tenant screening service can save time while increasing accuracy.

And many of these tools can help with other heavy lifting in your workflows, like data security and compliance, plus fraud detection. 

Ready to explore your options for enhancing employment verification and tenant screening? Get started with our guide to the best tenant screening services.