Building Waitlists
Keep a fair, ordered list of the people who want to live in a building, take names from your listings with their consent, tell the next people in line when a home comes free, and let entries lapse on a schedule you set.
A waitlist is the people who want to live in one of your buildings, in the order they asked. Open it from Renting → Waitlists on the website, or Tools → Waitlists on the iPhone and Android apps. For a management company, team members need the Showings permission.
Turning a waitlist on
Under Buildings, open a building’s settings. Turn the waitlist on to keep names for it, and turn on taking names from the public to show a Join the waitlist button on the building’s listings — on the website and on both phone apps. You can add a short introduction of your own, and choose how long an entry stays on the list (between 30 and 730 days; 180 by default).
Taking names from the public also gives the list a share link you can post anywhere. Replacing the link turns off the old one.
How people join
Somebody joining gives a name and email, and can add a phone number, the bedrooms they need, a budget, a household size, an earliest move-in date and a note. Nobody is added until they tick this, which is stored with their entry exactly as they saw it:
I agree to be contacted by email about homes at [the building] becoming available. I can leave the list at any time from the link in my confirmation email.
They are told their place in line and emailed a link to check it or leave the list. Joining twice with the same email does not add them twice. You can also add somebody yourself — for example after a phone call — which records that the building confirmed they asked.
When a home comes free
Contact the next people in line with Notify next: choose how many, and add a message if you like. Seayora emails them in order and marks them Contacted. You can also contact one person directly — a contact out of turn is recorded as out of turn, so the order you kept stays visible.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Waiting | On the list and not yet contacted. |
| Contacted | Told a home came free. Still on the list. |
| Applied | Applied for a home. |
| Leased | Signed a lease. |
| Removed | Taken off by you, with a reason. |
| Lapsed | Reached the end of the list’s waiting period without being housed. They are emailed when that happens. |
| Left the list | Left the list from the link in their email. |
Only Waiting and Contacted people count toward the line. Every change is kept in the entry’s history, including who made it.
Fair housing
The list keeps the order people asked in and records every exception. It asks nothing about who somebody is — only about the home they need — and you should contact people in order unless you have a reason you would be comfortable explaining.
What is kept
An entry that is no longer waiting is deleted a year after it closed. Somebody who asks us to delete their Seayora account is taken off every waitlist.
Related guides
Related features and guides
- Booking Tours & Showings — Documentation. How prospective renters book a tour from your listing, what you control (hours, slot length, in-person, self-guided or video), and what the visitor receives.
- Fair Housing Basics — Documentation. The core fair-housing rules that apply when advertising, screening, and leasing on Seayora.
- Cars, Parking Permits, Pets and Assistance Animals — Documentation. Keep one register of the cars and animals that live at each building: plates, parking spaces and permits, pet requests you approve or decline, and assistance-animal accommodations handled the way the Fair Housing Act requires.
- Rental Listing Software — 60 Days Free, Then $9/Month — Feature. Advertise apartments, houses, condos, and townhomes for rent. Every listing gets its first 60 days free, then $9/month while the unit stays vacant — charged a month ahead, with the unused days refunded the moment it rents. No brokerage fee, no setup fee, no subscription.
- Online Rental Applications — Feature. Collect complete rental applications online and track every applicant in one pipeline, with the same questions and the same criteria for everybody. Screening reports are not available through Seayora yet — no consumer reporting agency is connected — so nothing is ordered and no screening fee is charged.
- Fair Housing Support — Feature. Structured applications, consistent screening criteria, automated policy application, and listing guidance that supports fair housing compliance.