Investor · O'Fallon, IL 62269 · Member since 2021 · 134 posts · 44 votes
When a tenant moves out of your rental house, what all needs to be done before re-renting your home? Do I need to fix anything or clean anything in particular before listing my home for rent again...
Investor · Fort Washington, MD · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
5y
Why would anyone think a quality tenant would desire to move in a dirty place with broken stuff in it? If you rented a hotel room and they told you its dirty with a broken TV, phone, windows and AC, would you pay for it?
When a tenant moves out of your rental house, what all needs to be done before re-renting your home? Do I need to fix anything or clean anything in particular before listing my home for rent again...
I've been doing rentals for 40 years. On one extreme, there are guys like me that clean, paint, fix, re-carpet to make the unit in move in condition. On the other extreme, there are landlords that does nearly nothing, have tenants moving in to do it, and in some cases, take them several weeks to get the place ready.
I usually have one day open house showings, meet people interested, and asked them what else they looked at. And once there was a similar rental near me, I noticed it's in the market nearly 90 days, thought the market was bad. People tell me they looked at it, would have to take two weeks off work to get the place ready. My place was in move in condition, and I had several people interested, gotten so competitive that someone rented it as of the following week. I was expecting a 30 days vacancy and it was gone in a week. At $2,500/month at the time, each months delay costs $2,500. The guy with the 90 day vacancy is not saving himself anything.
I find high paid professionals, people relocating has no time to clean and paint, go out carpet shopping, besides costing them money, want to move in right away and get started on what they're doing. Getting the place ready is my job. In fact, the people I get turned out to be better qualified financially and credit wise. So being cheap actually cost you money.
Property Manager · Denver, CO · Member since 2021 · 667 posts · 587 votes
5y
@Jayden Hamilton Above all, make sure the property is clean. Hiring a cleaning company doesn't cost much and this cost should be covered by the outgoing tenant unless they cleaned really well. The carpet should also be professionally cleaned between tenants and again, the cost is paid by outgoing tenant. Then go through and make sure smokes/carbons work, appliances work, HVAC system works, windows all lock, blinds work, no holes in the walls, paint decent enough, etc. All of which can be done very quickly. Beyond that, we assume a new tenant will report anything glaring we missed. We gather a list and try to send the handyman only once, if we can help it.
Investor · Fort Washington, MD · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
5y
Why would anyone think a quality tenant would desire to move in a dirty place with broken stuff in it? If you rented a hotel room and they told you its dirty with a broken TV, phone, windows and AC, would you pay for it?
Property Manager · Gilbert, AZ · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 451 votes
5y
Everything! Clean everything and fix anything that's broken or worn out. And this is how you should expect to get it back from the next tenant and if you don't, it comes out of there security deposit.