.jpg)
Your Landlord Resource Podcast
Your Landlord Resource Podcast
The Importance of Rental Property Inspections
As we are landlords who promote professionalism and a business mindset, this episode is a prime example of how to embrace these outlooks.
Too many landlords take the hands-off approach, thinking their tenants don’t want to be bothered. That the less contact they have with the tenant, the better. Maybe they won’t move out, maybe they won’t ask us for any improvements, maybe they won’t complain. Guess what? By avoiding the tenants, you’re ignoring your biggest asset, your rental property.
Like your personal home or your vehicle, rental properties need periodic maintenance. It needs to be checked on to make sure your tenants are caring for it as intended in the lease agreement. Make your presence known to your tenants so they will feel like you care about your investment and, in turn, them as your “customers”.
It has been statistically shown that rental properties that go without maintenance, have a higher turnover than those with active, attentive landlords.
Want to the whole process we use from a week before to two weeks after our unit inspections? Give this episode a listen. Being a hands on landlord isn’t difficult. We are here to walk you through everything we know to help you move towards being a landlord that does right by your tenants.
Links:
Purchase our 6-Page Inspection Checklist ($9.99). For properties up to 4 bedroom/4 bath and includes all pertinent areas to be inspected, including the exterior.
Help support our site while getting a valuable tool you can use over as many times as you'd like.
Want the podcast link emailed to you weekly? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter, Landlord Weekly!
Landlord Tips ▪️ Early Access to Our Blogs ▪️ Landlord Specific Articles by Other Industry Pro's ▪️ Podcast Links
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click HERE for our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us: 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters!
📩Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
📱 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & join our private Facebook group
🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
It's a tenant's right to live at a home that's. And it's a landlord's job to make sure that all measures have been put in place for this safety and it has not been compromised because when it comes down to it, the landlord is ultimately responsible should something devastating happen Welcome to Your Landlord Resource podcast. Many moons ago when I started as a landlord, I was as green as it gets. I may have had my real estate license, but I lack confidence in the hands-on experience needed when it came to dealing with tenants, leases, maintenance, and bookkeeping after many failed attempts. Fast forward to today, Kevin and I have doubled our doors and created an. Professionally operated rental property business. Want to go from overwhelm to confident if you're an ambitious landlord or maybe one in the making. Join us as we provide strategies and teach actionable steps to help you reach your goals and the lifestyle you desire, all while building a streamlined and profitable rental property business. This is your Landlord Resource podcast.
Kevin:Hey landlords. Welcome to episode four. Today's episode is the importance of Rental Property inspections, and today we're gonna be covering interior inspections. Previously on our spring maintenance episode, we covered mostly the exterior. So if you haven't already, go back and give that a listen to get the full scope of what inspection should cover.
Stacie:Yeah, and so according to the American Apartment Owners Association, while many tenants may love a hands-off landlord, many things can go wrong if you don't stay on top of monitoring and maintenance. And failing to maintain your rental property is among the top reasons many tenants decide not to renew their lease. So I think that's pretty important to. To think about there. You wanna, you wanna do the maintenance, but you don't, you don't wanna harass them. But you want to make them feel, you wanna make them feel like they're cared for and important to you. So when do we do inspections? We do them twice a year. Usually we do them along with our spring and our fall seasonal inspections. And at that time we focus more on exterior. But this, today we're gonna be talking mostly about interior. So, Multi-family properties have freedom when it comes to walking around the exterior. So we can in, we can schedule those inspections pretty much anytime, but because it takes much longer to inspect multiple units in a day, we stick to interior spaces when we're at our multi-family units. For our single family homes, because we have to give notice regardless of being inside or out. It's easiest to do both exterior and interior inspections at the same time. And also, we don't wanna bother the tenants on multiple days. If a tenant has taken possession of the unit within four to six weeks, we generally don't do an inspection. It's better to wait a little while and give them some time to live in the unit. So you. Get a better gist of the wear and tear that they, that they put on the U on there. So we usually wait around 90 days since everything had just been cleaned and checked and everything when we turn that unit.
Kevin:First we're gonna say why we do these inspections. The main reason. So little problems don't turn into big problems. Failure to monitor and maintain your property can lead to costly repairs later and affect your total ROI and property value. It's also a good way to monitor the tenant and the wear and tear on the unit. If a lease is ending soon and not renewing, it can give you a good idea of what to expect when turning the unit. For example, one of our units, the tenant liked to do a lot of fried cooking. Oh gosh. And they were there a couple years and there was a lot of grease and residue on the walls. The ceiling near the stove. And cleanup was, was a bear, but at least we, it didn't make it any easier, but we kind of knew what to expect and yeah, we allowed for
Stacie:extra time during that turnover because the, we had to go in with a special kind of cleaner, and it wasn't just the stove top, I mean the whole surrounding area, all above it. Everything. It was.
Kevin:And conversely we've gone into units and wow, it looks almost as clean as when we handed it over. So at the same time we're going, okay, if they're gonna be going out, It's like this isn't gonna take a lot of our time, you know, touchups here, obviously some cleaning, but yeah, we can
Stacie:flip it and get it back on the market at no time.
Kevin:It also allows us to be proactive on maintenance. So if we find a water leak, we can resolve it prior to dry rot setting in we also look for lease violations.
Stacie:Yeah. Th those are always fun. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I, it's also important that we should note that this is for safety reasons. It's a tenant's right to live at a home that's. And it's a landlord's job to make sure that the all measures have been put in place for this safety and it has not been compromised because when it comes down to it, the landlord is ultimately responsible should something devastating happen, right?
Kevin:Completely right. And with that said, one of the primary reasons you do inspections is to protect yourself. If you get yourself in a situation where a tenant challenges you, or unfortunately it might end up in court, the judge will be looking at what you have done to ensure your unit is safe, clean, operational for the tenant to live in, having written notes or a checklist with photos. We'll show you're a conscientious professional landlord. Yeah.
Stacie:And, and that's, and that has happened to people that we know. It has not happened to us, thankfully. But it, it had made a big difference in court for those landlords. It has. So what we do before the inspection, before we start, the most important element to acknowledge is to make sure your lease states you are allowed to do these periodic inspections. And here's a tip. Use the word periodic in the body of the lease, the words you choose in your lease are crucial. If you state the words quarterly or semi-annual, you limit yourself to one inspection during that timeframe. So leave yourself open to do checks more often in case you suspect the tenant is in violation of lease terms, and, and also it allows you some grace in case you can't get to that inspection as often as you'd like. We know that life happens, so build yourself some leeway in case you need it. We also cannot stress enough, you need to give ample notice to this tenant. For most states, it's 24 hours. We give a minimum of 48 hours if we have to go in. But for inspections we usually give a week. So give them time to clean up and get it ready for you, hopefully.
Kevin:Yeah, and this helps both of us for sure.
Stacie:So notification should be written preferably by email, but you can do a text too. When correspondence with a tenant is written, there's no if, ands, or buts about who said what and when they said it. So in the body of the email, explain exactly what you will be doing for the maintenance and the issues you're gonna be looking for. Ask them if they have noticed anything that needs to be looked at or repaired so that you can be prepared. It's the perfect opportunity for them to let you know that the toilet's been running or the window won't close all the way, or that one of the stove top burners isn't working. This allows you to have all the parts ready or notify the necessary repair person to meet you at the unit and get the items remedied on the same day here's another tip for you this. This
Kevin:is a good one. Pay
Stacie:attention. Have the serial number and all the model numbers of your appliances that are in your N Unit. Have those in your tenant's notes. This way, when the tenant states that the stove top burner isn't lighting, the repair person can bring the correct parts when they come to repair. Right. So a week's notice also allows them time to plan around your inspection in case they wanna be present for that, or if they work remotely. Cuz a lot of people do now. Maybe they have a specific timeframe that they want you to be there in case they have a meeting or something. If you don't hear back from the tenant, text them to inquire and make sure that they received your notice. Follow up with a text reminder the day before the inspection, noting the timeframe that you're gonna be on on site. And we always have our contractor on site when we do our inspections. Very important, and we pay him as hourly rate and we, he checks all the items that we really just don't have a lot of experience. So often he'll find leaky faucets, running toilets, loose cabinet handles, broken garbage disposals closet doors that don't close properly. And these are things that definitely we can handle. But he, he has such a, a higher level of experience with this. He can get it done in, in, in minutes compared to us. So it's, it's better off. This is also why we ask the tenant to let us know of any issues in advance so our contractor can bring the necessary tools and materials to repair the issue right there on the spot.
Kevin:And that's what we said before. It helps us both giving them plenty of notice so they can, you know, we're not just gonna say, we're gonna be there tomorrow. And give'em a little time so they can look for things that Yeah. And kind
Stacie:of pay attention, maybe pay a little bit better attention to exactly, to what's going on. Yeah, so our contractor is also there when we turn the unit. He does a, his own inspection prior to the tenant taking possession, and he's acutely aware of how easy or rough the tenant is treating the unit as he does his semi-annual inspections right along with us. So let's say the tenant moves in before the tenant moves in the kitchen. FAU handle was loose and he tightens it up, and then during the inspection he finds it loose again. He can then advise us that it's time to get a new faucet. And it's not because a tenant is rough on the product, it's because, you know, he tried to fix it and it didn't work and we just need to replace it now.
Kevin:Okay, now we're getting to the inspections. Getting down to the nitty gritty here. There you go. And but don't worry, we have you covered here. For the low, low price of$5 we sell a six page inspection checklist that covers every aspect up to a four bedroom, four bathroom, single family home. We use it for our multi family, you know, one and two bedrooms too. Yep. It includes interior spaces, ats basements, utility rooms, exterior spaces like garages, driveways, fences, decks, all of. And on the pages next to each item, it has a space to mark if the inspection was satisfactory or if it needed attention or was damaged, and a place to notate what it needed to be remedied. The link is in the show notes, and right now this is the only item we're selling. It's five bucks, and if you're purchase it, you can use it over and over as many times as you need. Thanks in advance if you buy one. Okay. So yeah, that was our commercial break. Now, now back to the show. These are most all the items we inspect. Smoke and carbon detectors. Make sure in place working, replace with any batteries. And believe it or not, we find these on the whole shelf more than we'd like to admit. Some people, oh, it's when we're cooking and it always goes off and yeah. So it's, that's not good. And we
Stacie:could admit the placement in a couple of the units, the placement isn't, isn't great. It's Right. Especially the offs, the
Kevin:kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. So, but you want to take photos, make note, and put it back in place. Check fire extinguishers you provide. This is the ones inside like a small kitchen, one or a large one, maybe in the utility room. Make sure they're in working order and serviced and up to date. Next you wanna look for mold?
Stacie:Yeah. Mold grows where there is a lack of airflow on walls that back up to the outside. So let's say in winter months when it's cold outside and it's warm inside, or vice versa, in the summer. If there's any sort of moisture in your room, for instance, a lot of people use humidifiers. So if there's moisture that comes from that or there's a leaky window or there's a leak in the roof above that's coming down the wall and people don't know, that's, that's a good place for potential growth of mold. So we look in closets behind clothes, behind the dressers. Headboards shelving, units, anything that's placed on an exterior wall. And we also check for mold growth on windows. And in the showers. Now most bathrooms have to have a window or a vent fan. So if you're finding mold in the bathroom area, remind your tenants to open the window or to turn on the vent fan to clear out that.
Kevin:Yeah. As we've said many times, even in the previous episode, you know, airflow is your friend, so yeah, make you just don't want stagnant air. Next we check all sinks. Toilets washing machines for water leaks hinges on cabinets and appliance doors to ensure they're closing properly. We check sinks to make sure they're draining properly. We inspect all outlets for cords with exposed wires or overloaded with too many items plugged in. For example, a lot of people use if a three unit outlet extender. Yeah. And then they put a power strip in and you could have. Eight items or more if, you know, people have gaming systems or
Stacie:Yeah, all the computers and computer printers. We had that in the in our college rental. Yeah, we had a big problem with that.
Kevin:And it's not good. You want to kind of spread that out. And especially in older homes or older units. Correct. That could be serious. We check around water heaters and the heaters themselves to make sure there's no flammable items or chemicals that can, you know, cause an explosion. Fire. Yeah. Anything. Yep. Do you wanna make sure bikes and strollers are not blocking exits? Yeah. Anything that could make it difficult to get out in a fire in the
Stacie:dark. So I'm gonna interrupt here real quick and just say that when there is a fire and there. Dark smoke, even if it's broad daylight. The interior of a space is, is pitch black. Yeah, that's, yeah. So that's why, that's why you can't have the exits blocked.
Kevin:And then go piggybacking onto that on our second story units and higher you wanna make sure the fire escape ladder is easily accessible in case of fire blocks, the primary exits, we, we usually put it in an obvious spot or sometimes in a closet. But you wanna make sure it's someplace where the tenant knows. Once again, fire breaks loose. You want to get out, you don't want to be searching, you know, they threw it in the back of the closet
Stacie:someplace. Right. And let me, let me clarify on that. So we provide on our second story, third story unit, we provide a accessible fire ladder that hooks on the window. Yeah. This is not a fire escape that you find outside of like large apartment buildings. Good point. This is a separate, this is a separate unit.
Kevin:If you provide a washer dryer look at the lint filter in the dryer, it needs to be cleaned out after each use to avoid buildup within the line to the outside and potentially causing a fire. If you find it full, take a photo, remind the tenant. This is something that should be done every time. It's easy. It just pulls right. You know, but it, the buildup can cause serious problems. Wood or charcoal grill on wood decks are a fire hazard. And if you allow propane or electric grills, which this should be in noted in the lease check to make sure the grills comply. If there's a basement, we check for water intrusion. If there's a crawl space, we wanna make sure the vapor barrier is intact. If there's an attic, we check to make sure there are not any critters living up there. Yeah. Or roof leaks and that we can't sometimes see from the exterior. And lastly, we check all door locks to make sure they're engaged working properly. Especially in wintertime too, you get water or, well, if it's a wood door, you'll have some swelling. Yes, exactly. So that's another thing you can check. So stage, what do you think are the most common lease violations that we find? All
Stacie:right, well, in our apartments we have a no pet policy. Now this is not talking about e s a or anything like that. So this is just simple pets. We have a no pet policy. We find the floors get damaged quite a bit. We have laminate flooring in there and they drop things, or you know, they let water sit on it for extended periods of time. We see broken windows from time to time. We do see broken blinds. We have had a unreported flood, which was from a toilet that we think the toilet overflowed, but completely trashed the unit. And we had a fruit fly infestation. That was fun. Oh boy. So we also do experience a lot of block ex exits and egress on windows. So when. There are dressers with mirrors on them that are blocking windows that if you're in the bedroom and that's your only way out, it makes it kind of difficult for the the tenant to climb out that window if they've got a big piece of furniture in front of it. So, that's right. We have experienced unauthorized roommates and like Kevin said, missing smoke detectors. Sometimes they're just missing all together. Just throw'em away.
Kevin:So, so it might be obvious, but why are these such a big deal?
Stacie:Okay, so unauthorized roommates. Well, when you rent to one person, say there's one person on the lease, you expect the wear and tear of that one person. So the more people there are living in a unit, the higher chance there is of damage. If that damage is caused by someone who's not on the lease, it can be difficult to receive compensation. And if the tenant on the lease leaves and the unauthorized roommate stay, And they're not signed on that lease. You now have a squatter situation on your hands. We did find one when we were doing an inspection. There was a male, one male who was on the lease and in the spare bedroom that had been empty for the last year. There's now feminine. Furniture and decor, and the closet was full of women's clothing and high heeled shoes. Now, maybe he lived a dual life, not that there's anything wrong with that. So we politely and politically correctly questioned the tenant and found that he had an old college friend who was staying there for a couple months, and who knows how long that person planned to stay. But you know, we qualified them, added them onto the lease, and just that simple, just an addendum, not a big deal. That tenant ended up staying for two years. I think it's important that you're really paying attention when you go in to look for that mold in the closet. Maybe check out the shoes and kind of see what's going on. We ju we just found also we have an upstairs unit and our contractor is in the middle of doing a renovation on one of the units, and he just kind of winked and said, Hey, maybe keep an eye out because one of those one of those tenants seems to have a, a female visit. Quite often we see her leaving early in the morning, whatnot. When we did our inspection, we found a lot of teeny tiny scrubs and things like that, and shoes that definitely wouldn't fit that guy. So, you know, not that they're living there, but just something to kind of keep an eye out on. All right, so let's move on. What do you do when you do find issues during the inspection? The reason rental property inspections are performed is to make sure your unit is being maintained and safe as per the lease or rental agreement. When you find issues stay calm it's really easy to get upset when you find a tenant is not treating your unit with respect. Stay professional, please give them the benefit of the doubt. Keep your personal opinions to yourself and keep it strictly business. Maybe they're going through something you're not aware of, like an illness or maybe their one of their parents is ill and keeping their unit clean and organized is not a priority for them, right? Then if the issues found are the tenant's responsibility, for instance, the overloaded plugs or the lint filter, or there's blocked exits, make a note on your checklist. Take photos. Here's a tip for you. Do not take videos. They cannot be emailed easily, and they are not usually admissible in small claims. Court should this issue lead to a lawsuit? When you get back to your office, create an email to each tenant, letting them know what you inspected, and if anything, you know what you found. If you need to go back, let'em know. You'll need to return at a later date to fix it. Give'em a kind of a timeline if you could do that, or if it's an issue that they have to remedy. Give them a list of what needs to be done. Be specific of what you expect to be completed. Give them the date of when it needs to be completed by, and let them know you're gonna be coming back to the unit on such and such day to verify that it's been remedied. You must follow up to make sure that it's fixed. If the tenant has blocked a fire exit and there is a fire where they cannot get out, you can be held liable if you cannot prove, you did a second inspection to verify that lease violation had been resolved. So if you make the effort and they just put the bikes and the strollers back in front of the exit door, as soon as you leave that second inspection, you're covered. If you fail to follow through to verify, especially if you're on a safety issue like that, it can mean serious consequences on your end. Sure. A tragic event. And the same goes with like a window or a door that does not close or lock properly. If you know this is an issue and you fail to fix it in a timely manner, say like two weeks, and the unit gets broken into with many valuables stolen, the tenant or their insurance company can look to you as the faulty party and request damages paid back to them. So put notes and photos of the lease violations in the tenant file. This inspection is your saving grace. Should there be any significant issues if the tenant moves out? If you can prove misuse or neglect. And need to pay to repair something. You have positioned yourself to withhold from the security deposit should they argue and sue you. You have proof in your file that you inspected, you notified, and you inspected again. It also positions you to be able to have a reminder should that tenant move out and another landlord contacts you for a reference on them. Yes.
Kevin:Having a paper trail is very, I. Next we also do the routine and preventative maintenance during the inspections. We replace replace air filters to ensure proper airflow with the HVAC system. Now, even if your lease states the tenant is responsible for doing this maintenance, just do it yourself. Yeah. They rarely do it, and if they fail to, the system has to work harder to push the air through. And it just lessens the life of the unit. This simple task you do a couple times a year will extend the life of the HVAC units saving you, having to replace it. Our property up in Idaho, yep. They provide, I think it's four times a year. Quarterly, quarter. Yep. They provide'em with the air filters. And when we went up just to see our units for the first time. You're looking at closet, there was what, three or four air filters? Yep. Stacked
Stacie:up. Just, just stacked up brand new ones in the package never replaced.
Kevin:It's like, yeah. So it's Go ahead and do it yourself. Save you a lot of headaches. We also changed the batteries on the smoke and carbon detectors. Yes. These new ones all have the 10 year battery. But the ones we've experienced multiple incidents were these 10 year units failing only after a few years. Now if they're hardwired and have a backup battery, change the battery a minimum of once a year. And here's a little tip for you too. Get a Sharpie, right, the month and the year on the battery, so you know when it was changed last. Once installed, snap a picture of the battery with the date showing so you know before you go if it needs to be changed. And you can also prove you changed them in case of a fire where the tenant claims the alarm didn't sound. Yes, very important. Once a year we change the batteries in the thermostat. Now there's nothing more frustrating than a tenant calling during a heat wave saying the thermostat isn't working. You go over and you find it just needed a. If the refrigerator you provide has a waterline, it likely has a filter, again, notate in your file or put the date on with a sharpie when you changed it last in the dishwasher, there's a filter in the bottom of the wash bin that if you just turn it and unlock it, it can be washed out once a year. I think is pretty
Stacie:good for that. Yeah, that depends on how how well people rinse their dishes
Kevin:to exactly As mentioned in the spring cleaning episode, check the fireplace for obvious cracks and have it cleaned every other winter season. Now, this applies mostly to single family homes, right? Have your hvac air conditioner person with you when you check the function of the heater, the air conditioning unit, and the thermostat every other year have the dryer vent line vacuumed and cleaned out.
Stacie:We need to do that, by the way. Yes, it's time.
Kevin:Yes. Here's a little tip that I just learned recently. Keep an eye on your water bill. Especially, I think most water bills come every other month, so if you notice, it's gone up significantly in one. Reach out to the tenants and ask them if they've experienced any water leaks and faucets, shower heads, toilet's been running now in our Idaho property. We pay for the water in the building, and I happen to notice that the bill went up about a hundred bucks. And so I called the property manager to contact the tenants and there were a couple residents that came back and said, yes, their toilets were running. I don't know why they would, they reported it. They needed to be asked. So they had their maintenance team go over, replace the guts of the toilet, and the issue was resolved. Also, when this happens, contact your water or a municipal company and ask for a credit. Typically you have to go through a couple cycles so they can see before, during, and after the amounts. And some, like in this case, they asked us for proof that it, it was repaired. But yeah, we got a credit back for the overage for that last
Stacie:bill. Yep. That was. So we've learned a lot of these items through trial and error. We read a lot and we have friends who are landlords and, and we all, we share stories so we can learn from each other. And this is why we started your landlord resource. So we can teach other landlords how to avoid conflict and become professional conscientious. Rental property owners. So we're getting ready to wrap up. Wanna let you know we do send out a free newsletter each week and it includes landlord tips early access to our blogs, links to that week's podcast. And we also put landlord specific articles that are written by other industry pros. So if you'd like to subscribe, check out the link in the show notes. Please leave a comment and let us know what you think we would love if you'd subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast site. And I think that's about it. Thank you for joining us today. I am Stacy. And this is Kevin. All right, we'll see you next time. Thank you.
.png)
.png)