In this video, you will walk through a rental inspection of a unit. These are the items you will want to look for in your new rental that was just purchased or is in the inspection period. We will point out some items that were done well and some items that may cause an issue as a rental.

Often the pictures of a For Sale listing do not give you the full picture. For example, there are many details that are important to a real estate investor that may not be important to a home owner. These are items that come up in a city inspection which may affect rent price or are important to a prospective tenant.

Paint

Starting off, you can see this home was fully painted white. While this helps to make the unit look very clean and renovated, it can also cause some problems. One issue is a lot of windows become painted shut. This something you can’t see in the photos and will be an issue during a city inspection. You want to make sure you test every window.

Interior Doors/Locks

This home had all the doors replaced which is nice. One important items is they have new hardware. These older homes often have skeleton keys that need to be filled as the city won’t allow them.

Bathroom

We are going to walk over to the bathroom. This unit has a nice new tub. However once you get into the closet, none of the closets have shelving. This will be a big negative for a prospective tenant. So that’s something else we’re going to have to go through and do. It’s an easy fix but something to look for.

Kitchen

Peepholes on doors are great. Positive: they put in an awesome kitchen in here Negative: No drawer pulls. If you don’t put any drawer pulls on you are going to find the cabinets getting all dirty. Again, door pulls or knobs, if you don’t do that, doors are going to get marked up and that’s something you don’t want for a brand-new kitchen.

Drywall Cover Ups

You can see that probably in this home they also did a lot of dry wall work. This trim should be around 3/4 of an inch deep and it’s not. They probably just added drywall and went all the way around it. This is not the proper thing to do but because most of these old homes are plaster, it is easier to wrap up a house. This may cause issues down the road as repairs are needed in the home or if the drywall was not installed properly.

Flooring:

Heading upstairs this rental has a brand new carpet. This will show very nicely for a prospective resident. It will also cover all of the old floors.

Smoke Detectors

A big NO NO: No smoke detectors in this house. This is often something that investors or flippers don’t add or will only add a couple because it gets costly.

Closet Shelving

Once again, as we open up the closet door, there is no shelving. This is just another item to check as you are going through your new rental.

Blinds

Blinds are important. There are no blinds or curtains in this home. This is most likely because they went through, removed them and sprayed paint.  Normally, at a minimum, you would want to add blinds to the front of the home. If you don’t tenants will hang whatever sheet, towel or blanket is available. With blinds, people drive by a nice looking rental and won’t see bed sheets or flags flying in the windows.

Upstairs Bathroom

Now onto the upper bathroom. While they did newly tile around the window…. there is a WINDOW in the SHOWER. It’s great for the natural daylight and also to flash the whole neighborhood. Normally we’d like to do like a glass black so the window doesn’t rot out and give privacy. Because it is vinyl you know water can get behind it and start the rotting out process. There is an exhaust fan which is great. During the city inspection, they would want to see a way to exhaust moisture. Also let’s talk GFIs: they added the GFIs, that’s great. IMPORTANT: you will need GFI’s within 6ft of a water source.

One Final Item

As a final thought, as property managers, we often complete these inspections for our clients. With many years and thousands of units under our belts, we know what to look for and what needs to be completed before a unit can be listed. If you use a property manager, make sure they are familiar with city inspections. A good property manager will save you money in the long run, by making sure your property is set up for success at the beginning.

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About the author

Eddie Beekman is the founder of "Give Your Clients Your Cell Number", because he believes there is no reason for poor communication! He tackles the daily management and maintenance issues that arise in the operations at APMG. Eddie is an excellent video blogger and likes to add humor to his videos. After 18 years of Property Managment you think you've heard it all, until tomorrow and it starts over.

Have questions you'd like to bounce off Eddie? Just give him a call or drop him a question through our contact form and he'll be in touch ASAP!