From application to keys
One thing up front: you apply before you see the home in person.
A showing costs you an evening. If the photos, the layout, the neighborhood, the rent, and the Cash for Keys amount do not already look right to you, standing in the living room is not going to change that, and you will have spent the evening anyway.
By the time you walk into a Strong Blocks home, you should already know it fits your budget and your family. The visit is to confirm that, not to find out. If the numbers on the listing do not work for you, do not spend the $25 and do not spend the evening.
Step by step
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You apply
Everyone in the household who is 18 or older fills out their own application and pays $25. That includes your adult children, a parent living with you, and anyone else 18 or over who will live in the home, whether or not they are signing the lease and whether or not they pay anything toward rent. Two adults and an 18 year old is three applications and $75. The fee covers the background check on each person and it is not refundable.
Your application is not tied to one house. If this home goes to someone else, or you decide it is not the one, we can move your completed application to any other Strong Blocks home without you applying or paying again.
Gather what you need first. Every document, on one page. It is the difference between an application that takes a few minutes and one that takes weeks.
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We review it
We look at your rental history, your income, your debts, and we run a background check. If things look good, we do not wait for every last document before moving you forward.
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You see the home
Once your application looks solid, we schedule a showing. You walk the house and decide whether you actually want it. Nobody should commit to a home they have only seen in photos.
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We finish the approval
Anything still missing gets wrapped up, either before or after the showing.
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The overview
About 30 minutes. We meet on Google Meet with cameras off and share our screen, so you can see the actual numbers for your home while we walk through them line by line: what you would pay, what counts toward the purchase, the timeline, and anything we think could get in your way.
Afterward we email you the same document plus a written summary of the next steps, so you can read it again on your own time and talk it over with your family.
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You decide
This is your decision, not ours. You pick a move in date and time. You decide whether to pay your Cash for Keys in full or on a payment plan, or something in between that works for you. And you can decide this home is not the one, or that the program is not for you. Any of those is a fine answer, and none of them costs you anything further.
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You sign and put down the deposit
The deposit is equal to one month's rent. After you move in it becomes your security deposit, so it is not an extra cost, it is the first piece of your Cash for Keys paid early.
Once the lease is signed and the deposit is paid, the home is held for you and we stop marketing it.
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Move in day
You bring a certified check or money order to the house for the balance of your Cash for Keys, which is the total minus the deposit you already paid. We bring the keys.
How we choose between two good applicants: the home goes to the first approved applicant who has seen it, been through the overview, picked a move in date and a way to pay, signed the lease, and paid the deposit. It is not first to apply. It is first to finish.
Clear these before you apply
Not judgments about you. Just things that quietly stall an application, and every one can be handled up front.
Pet screening, even with no pets
Every applicant has to complete a pet profile at strongblocks.petscreening.com (opens in a new tab), including people who do not have an animal. Skip it and your application is not complete, and it will just sit there.
First time on a lease
If you have been a lease signer for less than 12 months, you need a co-signer. They fill out their own full application, pay their own $25, and have to be approved too. Plan for that before you start.
A past due gas or electric bill
The cleanest fix is to bring it current, pay it off, or settle it. If you cannot do that, a payment plan you have already made the first payment on also works. More than 90 days past due with nothing in place will hold you up. This applies to whoever your gas and electric provider is, here or in another state.
Missing or unverifiable information
If we cannot verify what you told us, we have to deny it. If something is complicated, explain it rather than leaving it blank. We would much rather read an explanation.
Who actually lives there
Everyone 18 or older who will live in the home goes on the application, and each pays $25, whether or not they sign the lease. Two adults and an 18 year old is $75.
One more thing
Check what we actually look at first. It takes two minutes and it may save you $25.