Stop Paying a New Application Fee at Every Apartment
Applying to five places at $60 each is $300 — for screening that costs about $30 once. You usually don't have to pay every time.
Key takeaway
Many platforms let you pay one screening fee and reuse the report across listings for ~30 days, and several states require landlords to accept an applicant-provided ("portable") screening report.
How to reuse one report
- Run your own screening once (Experian, TransUnion, or a portable-report service).
- Offer it to each landlord — in states like New York, Colorado, Oregon and Wisconsin they must consider it and can't charge you again.
- Check whether your state requires acceptance of reusable reports.
See where you stand on the markup index, and check any fee you've already paid.