Inspect all walls, ceilings, and baseboards. Confirm that the paint and/or wall coverings provide proper coverage, without holes, cuts, scratches, nail pops, or bad seams.
Examine all floor coverings. Make sure that floors are clean and in good condition. All flooring should be properly installed, without bad seams.
Check all bathrooms. Thoroughly clean the toilet, tub, tile grout, shower, sink, mirrors, and cabinets. Check the toilet paper holder and towel bars to be sure that they’re securely mounted and clean. Put a new roll of toilet paper and a paper sanitary ring around each toilet seat in each bathroom as an extra touch — one that is most appreciated in our post-COVID-19 world.
Look over all closets and storage areas. Clean rods, closet dowels, hooks, shelves, lights, floors, and walls. Ensure that all doors open and close properly. Remove and clean those ceiling-mounted lighting fixtures, which often have the shadow of a bug carcass sending a subtle signal to your prospective tenant that their clothes and beloved possessions won’t be safe from attack by insects!
Examine all counters, cabinets, doors, moldings, thresholds, and metal strips. Verify that they’re clean and fully operational, presenting no hazards.
Test smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors, lighting, and electrical outlets, including all ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCI, also referred to as GFI) and circuit breakers, for proper operation. Make sure that all electrical components work at move-in and thereafter as required by law in your state or local jurisdiction; otherwise, it’s the tenant’s responsibility to notify you of any problems during their tenancy.
Check the fireplace. If your unit has a fireplace, clean out ashes and debris. Periodically have the chimney flue and vent cap inspected by a qualified professional, based on the amount of use and any applicable state or local laws.
Inspect the heating and air conditioning unit(s) for proper operation. Be sure that the thermostat, filters, vents, and registers are in working order. Consider an annual preventive maintenance program if one is cost-effective for your cooling and/or heating system. You may find that your local natural gas utility company offers complimentary inspections of all gas heating and cooking appliances. Contact a professional if necessary. FORGET SECOND CHANCES WHEN IT COMES TO SHOWING A RENTALEarly in my property management career, I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of cleanliness and first impressions. I’d just arrived at a rental property for a management inspection and was speaking to the on-site manager when a prospective tenant entered the rental office and asked to see a vacant unit. She was a local college student out apartment-hunting with her mother. I told my manager to go ahead and show the unit, explaining that I’d follow along if they didn’t mind.Together, we left the rental office. The property grounds were very well maintained, and the on-site manager did a great job of getting to know the prospect’s needs and determining the right unit to show. With the manager’s help, the prospect and her mother asked to see an upstairs unit, away from the street.Everything was going great … until we got to the actual unit. A dirty, cobweb-filled entryway led us to an interior (which hadn’t been tidied in at least a week!) where we could see a large tree branch hanging precariously over the balcony rail and scraping the concrete roof tiles menacingly. Before seeing the unit, the prospective tenant and her mother had been very positive, even discussing how soon the tenant could get approved and move in. After this disappointing experience at the unit entry, they stopped asking questions, barely answered any, and became very noncommittal.Learn from my mistake: Remember that the unit’s cleanliness is paramount. Never show a rental unit without having walked the full route to the rental unit, and be sure to go through the complete interior yourself just before the showing.
Perform a final walk-through of the entire unit for appearance and cleanliness. Be sure to recheck the unit every few days, because dust can settle quickly in a vacant unit. I’ve also seen an unpleasant surprise in the form of dead pests or insects that took their time expiring from recent pest-control efforts. Nothing stops a good conversation with a great prospective tenant faster than stumbling upon a dead bug in the middle of the kitchen floor!
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Preparing Your Rental Unit the Right Way
You may think that you’re saving time and money by allowing a new tenant to lease a rental unit that hasn’t been prepared properly. After all, if Bob doesn’t mind that the unit isn’t rent-ready, why should you? Unfortunately, this strategy isn’t as problem-free as it seems on the surface. In fact, it’s a big mistake. Why? The kind of tenant that a unit that hasn’t been properly prepared attracts is someone who has lower standards and may even be desperate. New tenants who accept a dirty, poorly maintained rental unit surely won’t make any extra effort to leave the property in good condition when they depart.
One of the best ways to maximize your rental income is to develop a system to improve your efficiency by completing your rent-ready process in minimum time. But you may be so overwhelmed by the amount of work you need to get done in the amount of time you have that you don’t consider the order in which you should proceed. I recommend that you follow these steps in order to maximize your time and efficiency:
1 General cleaning (hauling away anything left behind by your vacating tenant)
2 Maintenance (which includes inspecting safety items, making repairs, and installing upgrades)
3 Painting
4 Final cleaning and sanitation
5 Carpet or floor-covering cleaning
General cleaning
As soon as old tenants move out, clean the vacant rental unit. During this initial cleaning, you should
Remove all trash left behind by the former tenants, including anything remaining in drawers, cabinets, and closets.
Wipe down countertops and shelves.
Sweep or vacuum the floors.
Wash the windows, screens, window coverings, and doors.
Clean out the storage areas, including the attic, basement, or garage as applicable.
Maintenance
Maintenance is more than just fixing something that’s broken. A comprehensive maintenance approach also includes inspections of all safety items before renting your property to make sure that they’re in place and working as intended. Although you’ll routinely handle basic repairs, you should also look for opportunities to perform preventive maintenance to improve the performance and life span of your building systems. You also need to evaluate whether renovations and upgrades are cost-effective.
The following sections help you figure out which safety items you need to check and which maintenance tasks require a closer look. They also help you determine whether renovating