Stop Inspecting Occupied Rentals

Gilbert, Arizona

General Landlording & Rental Properties

Stop Inspecting Occupied Rentals

Travis BohlingBusiness Member

Property Manager · Gilbert, AZ · Member since 2011 · 65 posts · 78 votes

Landlords and Property Managers should stop inspecting occupied rentals.
For residents, an inspection feels like a prison shakedown without the cavity search.
For owners, negative goodwill with the residents and some photos. No thanks!

There is a better way.
Preventative Maintenance

Once a year complete some or all of these tasks:
🛠 Repair drips instead of floods
🛠Change the air filter
🛠Flush the water heater
🛠Recaulk where necessary
🛠Rinse HVAC coils
🛠Test smoke detectors
🛠Add missing doorstops
🛠Adjust sticky doors/locks
❄ Winterization
📷 Snap a few photos

Flip the script on inspections and deliver value instead.

Why?
Residents feel valued rather than distrusted
Owners/landlords increase renewal rates and reduce maintenance/turn costs
Managers save time with 1 work order and invoice instead of many

What other value could we create in this 1 visit?

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Real Estate Consultant · Cleveland · Member since 2020 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes

3y

Quote from @Travis Bohling:

Landlords and Property Managers should stop inspecting occupied rentals.
For residents, an inspection feels like a prison shakedown without the cavity search.
For owners, negative goodwill with the residents and some photos. No thanks!

There is a better way.
Preventative Maintenance

Once a year complete some or all of these tasks:
🛠 Repair drips instead of floods
🛠Change the air filter
🛠Flush the water heater
🛠Recaulk where necessary
🛠Rinse HVAC coils
🛠Test smoke detectors
🛠Add missing doorstops
🛠Adjust sticky doors/locks
❄ Winterization
📷 Snap a few photos

Flip the script on inspections and deliver value instead.

Why?
Residents feel valued rather than distrusted
Owners/landlords increase renewal rates and reduce maintenance/turn costs
Managers save time with 1 work order and invoice instead of many

What other value could we create in this 1 visit?

Not sure of your level of experience however this is 100% NOT the way to run your business. Of course, you do inspections, we do them twice a year, (for the most part) Do you know how many times we find a leak; we ask why you didn't tell anyone, " it's not my house and I do not pay the water" . or other issues. Actually, tenants are happy we go, we tell them we are looking for any issues and make sure we take care of them for you. EVERY tenant thanks us for coming. We video the walk through and provide the owners with the video and photos, owners LOVE IT!! Its ALL about how you word it. To post, do not do inspections on a property you spent 100k +++++++ on well I am sorry, but this is terrible advice.

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Costin I.
Rental Property Investor · Round Rock, TX · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 971 votes
3y
Just to add my 2¢ to this fun fest...
1. The OP picture shows two correction officers doing a cell toss-up. Not two PMs.
2. We do "maintenance visits" every 3-4 months, with a short 21 checkpoints list and once a year a bigger one with a 132 checkpoint list. Primarily for the property status, but also checking on lease compliance.
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Rodney Sums
Laveen, AZ · Member since 2016 · 584 posts · 528 votes
3y
Quote from @James Hamling:

Quote from @Todd Jones:

For the record,

1) An ejector seat in a helicopter does work if it goes sideways or straight down. You’ll “Wile E. Coyote” splat but no blade-choppy-woppy.

2) What’s bad about Solar powered flashlights? They’ve been around since the 80s. Charge in day and use at night. Amazon got several even thought the company names are in all caps with random consonants. I get you were implying a solar powered flashlight with no batteries but….

Guys, regardless if this was intentional or unintentional click-bait, this has gotten weird, unproductive, and unnecessarily aggressive.

Thread lock?

Lol.
Interestingly, the military choppers, several, do have ejection seats, and yes they go up. Rotor blades have charges that blow-em off, or at least supposed to.
Regardless, it was just making a point, not to get lost in weeds of technicals.
Annual inspections are very important. It lends pro-active measures for various items that wear out, to effect maintenance early vs late. It lends insight into tenant habits, so one can make an informed decision on renewal or termination. And tenant mindset, knowing someone is checking changes habits.
The only tenants I have ever had who took issue with such inspections, were those with something to hide, not in theory, real world experience. Pet's had damaged something, kids had damaged something, there was reasons, reasons we only found about because of that annual inspection.
PM, in simplest form is: screening, monitoring, responding and accountability. Remove any 1 leg of the table, it get's real hard to keep things level and smooth.

Your comments are always the kind that I like, and get on my nerves at the same time. 😂😂😂 Regarding this subject, I agree with you though.
I also doubt the sincerity of the post...whether it was intended to advertise something, get attention, start an argument, or something else.
It is definitely is an inspection and I want it to feel like one. This is not a "kumbaya" momment. It's also not intended to make tenants uncomfortable. For me its:
-My way of letting you know not to mess around with my property or violate lease terms, because I'm watching
-An opportunity to catch what tenants fail to report and gets worse over time
-An opportunity to share their concerns so I can be of better service
-An opportunity to gauge if I want to renew their lease
It's not a preventative maintenance visit. Someone is coming to look thoroughly at the property. I won't disguise it as something else to be warm and fuzzy. If anything that could look like a lie. "If it's preventative maintenance, why are you looking in the closets?"
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