Landlord Home Inspection

[Konstance Chambliss]

Hi everyone,

I have a rental property in Florida and my tenant's lease agreement ends next month. My property manager has not sent out the lease renewal letter yet. This is my first rental property and I'm debating on when I should perform the home inspection. If they decide to renew, should I inspect before the new lease starts? If they decide not to renew, should I inspect before or after the tenants vacate?

[Nathan Gesner]

Originally posted by @Konstance Chambliss:

Hi everyone,

I have a rental property in Florida and my tenant's lease agreement ends next month. My property manager has not sent out the lease renewal letter yet. This is my first rental property and I'm debating on when I should perform the home inspection. If they decide to renew, should I inspect before the new lease starts? If they decide not to renew, should I inspect before or after the tenants vacate?

There's a few things wrong here. Why are you inspecting the property instead of the PM? Why hasn't the inspection already taken place well before it's time to renew? Why isn't your PM answering these questions for you?

The PM should do the inspection unless you have something special going on. They've selected the tenant and are (allegedly) monitoring the property, so they're usually best suited for the job. Inspect at least once a year, preferably two or three months prior to renewal. This gives you plenty of time to review the inspection results, look at their payment history, consider market rates, etc. Collect information early and then determine if you want to offer a renewal and what changes you want to make (price, term, etc.)

Here's my process:

• 90 - 120 days prior, inspect the rental
• Compare inspection results to previous inspections
• Review Tenant ledger, notes, communications, etc.
• Study market rates and decide whether an increase or other change is due
• Decide if I recommend keeping the tenant or not
• Talk to owner about my recommendation to keep tenant, verify Landlord wants to continue renting and see if they have any changes to their plans with the property
• If everything lines up, offer tenant a renewal 30 -60 days prior to termination

If I find problems during the inspection, I may give the tenant 7 - 14 days to correct the issue(s) and pass a second inspection. If the issues are too big or they've had other problems during the past year (neighbor complaints, lease violations, late rent, etc.) then I will give them a notice of termination 30 - 60 days prior to expiration date and my conversation with the Landlord will be focused on placing a new renter.

When I do the inspection, it's far enough away from renewal that the Tenant doesn't tie it with a renewal. I don't even mention renewal offers until after I've inspected, reviewed records, reviewed the market, and talked to the Landlord.