Does a renter see the home before Clara sends the application? Proposed: one company setting, Tour before application, off by default. Pending Fede's review; nothing built.
2026-10-29 · session 003 · supersedes the Aug 25 page
The two voices. Kat at Western Slope, Oct 19, by email: "We always do a showing in person or virtual before we send them an application. We don't want people spending the money if they haven't seen it first." Jason, her owner, Oct 14 on the weekly call: "Clara just sends an app out. I don't think there should be approval." Both are right for their seat. That is a setting, not a rule.
| Company (leads with a first message) | Application template | Tour template | Free text asking to apply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western Slope (888) | 34 (3.8%) | 161 (18.1%) | 18 (2.0%) |
| Situs (467) | 12 (2.6%) | 81 (17.3%) | 29 (6.2%) |
| Camellia / JP&Co (144) | 7 (4.9%) | 37 (25.7%) | 3 (2.1%) |
| All (1,499) | 53 (3.5%) | 279 (18.6%) | 50 (3.3%) |
Counted from our copy of the guest cards (Oct 28), the live prospects and email threads, and the robot dumps; most cards carry no message and are not counted. The Zillow button reads "I'm interested in your property and would like to move forward. Can you send me an application for this property?" (43 seen).
| Date | What | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 1 | The link tool reused the after-tour sender, so no tour meant no link. First gate, a side effect. | build |
| Jul 18 | "if they want the link we should absolutely provide it — the goal ultimately is more applications." Gate removed next day (#4147). | Fede |
| Aug 25 | "we've always required tours to be held before we give them applications." No such rule existed; a pick-one page was opened and never answered. | Gera |
| Sep 18–19 | Design §27.11 on the leasing-engine page: send after a shown tour "and always when the prospect asks." Mode moved to a company-level setting (#10010). | Fede |
| Sep 25 | A builder's prompt change made Clara say "the application comes after your tour." Second gate, unasked. | build |
| Oct 2 | Tessa at Western Slope told to tour first. "One of the worst bugs I've ever seen… if they want an application link, they get an application link." Gate removed Oct 3 (#15828). | Fede |
| Oct 19 | Kat's email (above). Fede to Kat: "some of our customers prefer us to always send the link." A tour-first setting was parked. | Kat, Fede |
| Oct 29 | "I think we want it to be a setting." | Fede |
On text and email the model calls the send tool when asked. A tour never gates it. One home: send. Several homes: the one the renter chose, else ask which. Mode "AppFolio sends" (Western Slope, Situs, sandbox): create the guest card if missing, press AppFolio's send, held with the reply while the company is supervised. Mode "fixed link" (JP&Co, and any company left unset): paste the stored link, or forward to staff if none. Separately, the link sends itself once a tour happened (attended stamp, or tour end plus two hours). On calls Clara promises "by email right after this call", and a pattern over the caller's words triggers the same send after the call. Two gaps found on the way: the Oct 27 ruling that unset means "AppFolio sends" is not in code, and several failure outcomes still forward to staff against the Oct 3 ruling.
With it on, exactly: on an application ask with no tour on record, Clara books the tour and says the application link comes right after the showing. The existing after-tour send delivers it. The link goes out on the first ask anyway when the renter says they already toured, says they cannot tour (out of state, sight unseen), or asks a second time. Clara never says no twice and never asks staff. Voice uses the same rule in its promise line. The after-tour send and the "already applied" check are unchanged.
| # | Question | Options | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scope | a) company · b) property · c) company with property override | a. Your Sep 19 ruling; one process per company is also the fair-housing-safe shape. |
| 2 | Default for a company that never set it | a) off, send on ask · b) on | a. Every ruling since July; Jason's view; 3.5% of first messages are the application button, so the cost of waiting is small either way. |
| 3 | Escape hatches when it is on | a) second ask, already toured, cannot tour · b) second ask only · c) none | a. The Oct 2 bug was "no" with no way out; the hatches are what make it not that bug. |
| 4 | Kat's "text me first and I decide" | a) no, the setting decides · b) build the per-lead ask | a. A per-lead human decision is the flow we never build, and it is the uneven process fair housing warns about. |
| 5 | Western Slope | a) turn it on once proven · b) leave off and answer Kat | a, your call at turn-on time. Kat's email has sat 10 days without an answer either way. |
| 6 | Fix the two gaps found (unset means AppFolio sends; failure outcomes still forward to staff) | a) two small fix PRs, no switch · b) leave | a. Both are your rulings already. |
appev/leads-final.json, appev/report-out.txt, appsearch/NOTES-application-timing-evidence.txt; history and code trace in the history agent report.