How Landlords Can Protect Themselves During the Move-In Process

Everyone seems to be against landlords. At least that’s what you’ll feel like if you start reading articles and blogs on the internet. Everything is written for tenants and how they can protect themselves against “greedy” landlords. But what about you? How can you protect yourself from tenants? That’s a valid question and one that deserves to be examined.

Don’t Wait Until Move-In

First and foremost, you have to start prepping your property well before move-in day. In order to streamline the process, minimize disputes, and ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible, you need to check and double-check everything. By doing this, you can make sure you don’t run into any unforeseen issues when you’re touring the property with your new tenant (which can cause some awkward and tense moments).

Before your new tenant moves in, immediately address any health and safety issues. This includes things like smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, mold, mildew, or any presence of lead-based paint. In addition to giving your renter peace of mind, this also saves you from potential legal issues down the road.

While this is stating the obvious, you should also give your property a thorough, professional deep-clean. You don’t want to give the tenant any reason to complain, so ensure everything from the bathroom to the stove is in pristine condition.

Finally, take a look at the property’s major systems and components. All plumbing, electrical work, and HVAC systems should be tuned up and inspected so you know exactly what condition they’re in prior to the new tenancy.

Things to Remember on Move-In Day

If you’ve taken care of all the basics, you’ll be confident on move-in day – which will give you the upper hand. Instead of being worried about what the tenant may find, you’ll rest easy knowing everything works as it should. However, in order to protect yourself and avoid a situation in which your tenant later tries to claim that something was broken or damaged prior to their tenancy, you should heed the following tips on move-in day.

1. Ensure All Tenants are Present

If you’ll have more than one adult tenant living in the property, it’s important that you ask everyone to be present for the move-in inspection. This ensures all parties get a chance to inspect the property and ask questions. It also prevents one tenant from bringing up an issue later on and blaming it on the fact that they weren’t able to participate in the walk-through.

If one tenant absolutely can’t make the inspection, you should have them sign an agreement that waives their rights to a move-in inspection. Simply explaining this rule will usually cause the tenant to reconsider their plans and participate.

2. Take Pictures of Absolutely Everything

While you often hear about tenants taking pictures of the property before moving in, you should also carry your camera with you and snap pictures while walking through with the tenant. In addition to providing you with visual proof of the pre move-in condition, this also shows the tenant that you’re serious about the property and you won’t be fooled by dishonest attempts to retroactively claim there were existing issues.

According to Cliff Tuttle, an experienced real estate litigator and legal writer, taking pictures can save a landlord a lot of hassle at the end of the lease. “This level of documentation may seem to be a pain in the neck, but if done properly, it may save a trip to the magistrate or beyond,” he writes. “True, photos can be misleading, but they can be the tiebreaker between two equally plausible stories.”

You have to remember, though, to take pictures at move-out, too. The images should be taken from the same angle, distance, and in the same lighting for optimal results.

3. Give Both Parties Checklists

Because you’re already walking the entire property with the tenant, you should go ahead and fill out an inspection checklist as you go. Give the tenant one, too, and let them know that they have 48 hours to fill theirs in and email or mail you a copy. If there are any discrepancies between checklists, discuss those issues and settle them immediately.

4. Email All Documentation

Here’s where a lot of landlords mess up – they don’t keep digital records of documentation. If you only keep paper copies or physical pictures, you aren’t protecting yourself as much as you can. By emailing digital copies of images and checklists to the tenant and yourself, you’re putting a verifiable time stamp on them and creating an undeniable digital paper trail. If you ever get into a dispute with the tenant or feel like they’ve manipulated their copy of the images or checklist, you can go back to the originals for proof.

5. Provide a Repair Cost List for Tenant Reference

At move-in, it’s a good idea to go ahead and give your tenant an itemized list of potential repair costs. This list should include every possible deduction you could take from them when they move out. By clearly stating costs up front, you’re less likely to run into trouble at the end of the lease. Additionally, it encourages them to treat your property with care and respect, since they can clearly see what it costs to fix something.

Contact Your Dream Real Estate for Your Property Management Needs

At Your Dream Real Estae, we understand the intricacies of the move-in process. That’s because we’ve worked with landlords like yourself for more than three decades. And over the course of those years, we’ve seen just about everything you can imagine.

Whether you need help finding and retaining tenants or assistance managing the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities that come along with your properties, we can help. It’s our goal to offer quality property management services that allow landlords to take a hands-off approach. For additional information on any of our services, please don’t hesitate to contact us today! We would love to tell you more about our company and why we’re considered the premier property management company in the Houston area.

 

A Landlord’s Guide to Cleaning After Move-Out

After the tenant moves out, you hope that everything’s been perfectly cleaned, and you won’t need to lift a finger. Unfortunately, that’s usually not the case. As a landlord, most of the time you’ll need to go in after the tenant has moved out, and clean a little deeper before the next tenant arrives.

Generally, this type of cleaning is known as white-glove, which refers to an extreme cleaning wherein“immaculate” and “spotless” are the standard. It means cleaning all of the spots off of the blinds, wiping baseboards until they shine, and even polishing the individual slats of the air vents.

When your new tenants arrive, they want to see a clean space, and if you want to make a good first impression, you’ll give it to them. If you’re not sure how to clean to the white-glove standard, use this guide to get you started.

Gather Cleaning Supplies

Begin by gathering the necessary cleaning supplies. This is the most important step in cleaning success. It’s much easier if you have the right types of materials and tools with which to begin. Here are a few supplies you’ll want to collect:

Vinegar: This acidic mixture will be your best friend during white-glove. It has some surprising uses, including removing hard water deposits.

Rubbing Alcohol: Cleaners usually leave a residue. Even if you can’t see it looking straight on, if you look at a shiny surface from a different angle, you can usually see streak marks. Rubbing alcohol will remove all of the extra streaks and residue for a perfectly clean shine.

Magic Eraser: This little gem has so many uses, from cleaning baseboards to removing grime in the tub. It really is magic when it comes to removing stubborn marks and stains. Just be careful about using it on the walls because it’ll take the paint off if you rub too hard!

Brushes: You’ll want an assortment of brushes to get into the nooks and crannies. A pack of toothbrushes from the dollar store should do the trick. Q-tips are also excellent for cleaning miniscule corners.

Microfiber Cloths: Microfiber can clean, dust, and polish without soaking up too much of the chemical. You won’t need to switch out your cleaning rags as often, and you can use less product to get the job done. A microfiber cloth takes the place of a duster and a polishing cloth as well.

Dryer Sheets: It may seem like an odd tip, but dryer sheets are perfect for dusting off baseboards and blinds.

Cleaner Varieties: You’ll also want a variety of cleaners, starting with all-purpose, which are good for almost any surface. You can make your own by mixing three parts water, one part vinegar, and a few drops of dish soap. For the bathroom, look into getting an abrasive cleaner, such as Comet, to clean the porcelain on the tub and toilet.

Oven Cleaner: A good quality oven cleaner (avoid dollar store brands) left to soak overnight in your oven will remove the bulk of cooked-on messes. Make sure you get the kind that’s fume free!

Pumice Stone: Grab one to clean the stubborn ring in the toilet and another for the stuck-on grease spots in the oven.

Go Room By Room

Once you’ve gathered your handy supplies, go room by room, and take care of what the tenant missed. You’ll probably find the most issues in the kitchen and the bathroom. Here are a few tips and tricks you can use to polish those two rooms.

Kitchen: This’ll be the most difficult area of the house to clean, but also the most important. Pay special attention to these areas.

Oven: Remove the racks, spray the interior with oven cleaner, and let it sit overnight. Place the racks in a heavy-duty garbage bag,spray them with oven cleaner, and let them sit overnight as well. The grime will wipe right off! Use a pumice stone to remove stubborn stains. Polish the oven with rubbing alcohol and a clean cloth to remove residue.

Refrigerator: Throw any shelves and racks that’ll fit into the dishwasher, and run it with a cup of vinegar (this’ll clean your dishwasher too!). Wash the rest with soapy water.

Sink: The sink is actually one of the most germ-filled places in the house. Use a disinfectant cleaner and some vinegar to polish the sink. Get rid of odors in the disposal by cutting a lemon into small pieces, putting them down the drain, and turning on the disposal. Rest paper towels, soaked in vinegar, on stainless steel sinks and fixtures for a few hours to remove any hard water.

Floor: Mop the floor with a gallon of water mixed with a cup of vinegar. The solution, in combination with a scrub brush, will remove some of the toughest stains.

Bathroom: Many of the tips used for the kitchen, such as the homemade mopping solution and hard water deposits removal, can be used for the bathroom. Just remember that, when you’re cleaning the bathroom, don’t reuse any cleaning tools on any other area of the house until they’ve been thoroughly washed and disinfected. You’ll also want to pay attention to these areas:

Toilet: The toilet needs to be spotless if you don’t want to scare away potential renters. Use a toothbrush to scrub out the nooks and crannies to remove any germs. For any rings in the toilet, use your toilet brush to push the bowl water back into the tank. Then, take a pumice stone, and scrub away at the ring. It should come off fairly easily.

Bathtub: Don’t mix cleansers when working on the bathtub. It’ll result in a dusty residue, and you’ll have to clean the tub twice. For bathtub rings, use a mixture of baking soda and water, and then, use a magic eraser to remove excess stains. Use rubbing alcohol and a clean cloth to polish the bathtub, and remove any residue.

After-tenant cleanup isn’t an easy job. It’s time-consuming, back-breaking work, and not everyone has the time or patience to handle it, but we do. We at Your Dream Real Estate can take care of every aspect of the tenant move-out and move-in process, including extra cleaning. For more information about how we can make this process easier for you, contact us today!