You just have to be what they're looking for. But usually without knowing what is. My landlady told me afterwards they were specifically looking for a family with young children, as the other two renters in our small block also had little ones, and she thought it would work out better that way for everyone.

It helped that I was happy to use a little bit of school French, so she felt comfortable that she could at least communicate with us at a basic level until my language skills picked up. And when I asked her where the recycling place was in our village, she practically signed the contract on the spot!

Good luck with the application.

kodokan