5 TOP TIPS when carrying out inspections on your rental property
I’m always advising landlords and stressing the importance of carrying out regular inspection on
their rental property’s but what should you be looking for when doing them? In this post i will be sharing my top 5 tips which you can implement straight away and make your inspections fast and more productive.
1/ Confirm the inspection with your tenants ON THE DAY
How many times have you turned up to carry out an inspection and your tenant(s) have forgotten all about it… I bet a few times for sure. This is a super simple tip but one that many just don’t do. We always send a quick text message on the day (or the evening before if it’s an early appointment) to remind our tenants about our up and coming visit.
2/ Make sure your tenants will be in
We ALWAYS carry out inspections when the tenant(s) are home. Mainly because it’s their home and we respect that. If you do see anything that isn’t right you can have the conversation with them face to face and resolve it, and if they have anything they would like to bring to your attention they can. We have found that face to face is always better and it builds the professional relationship between you and your tenants.
3/ Take photos of each room
Take photos of each room when carrying out the inspection. This is to keep a diary of the property from when the tenants move in, throughout the tenancy to when they move out. This is so important for you as the landlord. If you ever find yourself in a position where your investment property has not been well looked after or the tenants have moved out and left the property in a bit of a state all your pictures can be used as evidence. Now this may seem extreme but believe me this does happen. Documenting all inspections is key. We also send our tenants the photos once the inspection is completed so that they have the exact same information.
4/ Tick list
It’s so easy to do an inspection then you get home and think… I didn’t check that room. What ever it may be without a check list we sometimes forget or get carried away in conversation. We use an inspection app that’s very cheap which creates a check list for us (it also allows us to take photos and generates a report). It reminds you to check the big things like each room all the way down to small things like making sure the water is flowing from each tap. Again we send our tenants this list once we have completed it so they have the same information as us. This is also where we would document any problems/maintenance for the property.
5/ Thank your tenants
The media always drive a bad relationship between landlords and tenants and we have found this just isn’t the case. If you respect your tenants they respect you and your rental property. We always do the inspections at a convenient time for our tenants, but most importantly we always thank them for allowing us to visit and carry out the inspection. Remember…
’Its your investment house but your tenants home’!
Bonus tip 6/ Action any maintenance with in 10 days
We all know that properties sometime go wrong and that’s why inspections are so important. If the tenants notify you or you see a problem that needs attention get it booked in and sorted within 10 days. Don’t just leave it as a small maintenance issue can sometimes turn into a big expensive maintenance issue. If you find something that the tenant needs to sort out (most of the time it’s either clutter or garden) book in another visit in 2 weeks or ask the tenants to send photos by a certain date to show they have resolved the issue (remember to keep the photos).
As I said at the start… inspections are so important when managing your investment property. Keep them regular and keep all documentaction.
If you would like to have a chat about your inspections or find out more about the inspection app we use please contact Natalie on 07526186047 or email us info@nspropertysolvers.com