So you’ve got a fantastic new tenant in your property. Congratulations! The tenant screening process can be challenging, so getting a great tenant into your property is a huge win — but just because someone seems amazing doesn’t mean you can trust them blindly with your investment.
When you rent to someone, it’s important to set the right expectations to ensure they take good care of your property. And a great way to do that? Stopping by for a six-month inspection.
Six-month inspections are great for you as an investor because they allow you to make sure the tenants renting your property are keeping up their share of the bargain — and to identify any potential issues before they snowball into much bigger problems.
On the flip side, six-month inspections are great for your tenant because they show you’re invested in maintaining the property and making sure they and their home are well taken care of.
Checking in on your property at the six-month mark is a win-win. And because we know it’s one of the best ways to protect our clients’ investments, it’s a standard part of our property management process.
Let’s take a look at exactly what our six-month inspection process looks like — and how it helps our clients protect their investments:
How We Manage the Six-Month Inspection
The first step to a successful inspection is connecting with the tenant. We give the client a call and let them know we’re going to be stopping by for a routine, six-month inspection. We let them know that these inspections are routine and we’ll only need a few minutes. Then we schedule a time to stop by.
Once we arrive at the property, we ask the tenants to clue us in to any issues or repairs that they know of. Then we do a thorough walkthrough of the property, where we look for any visible damage or potential problems that need to be addressed. We take photos, write summaries, and are out of the tenant’s hair in about 10 to 15 minutes.
Client Reports
After the inspection wraps up, we start putting together a report to send to our client to give them an update on what’s going on with their property. In the report, we’ll include photos of any damage, a summary of any repairs that were identified, and our recommendation for how to take care of those repairs (so, for example, if we notice an appliance in the rental property isn’t working, we’ll provide a photo of the appliance and any visible damage, a summary of how and why the appliance isn’t working, and our recommendation on whether a repair or replacement is the best avenue for addressing the problem).
We also include anything that we’ve noticed that we think should be brought to our client’s attention, even if it isn’t something that needs a repair. So, for example, if we notice cracks in the foundation (something that commonly happens due to shifting and movement on the property), we’ll take a photo and make our clients aware of the cracks — even if there’s nothing that needs to be done in the moment to address it.
What Happens After the Inspection
Once we’ve wrapped up the walkthrough and submitted the report to our clients, it’s time to address any issues that came up during the inspection.
If the damage or issue is a result of tenant negligence, we let the tenant know they’re responsible for the repair. If it’s something that falls under the umbrella of owner responsibility, we’ll make a recommendation for getting it taken care of in the easiest, fastest, and most cost-efficient way possible.
We make the repair process simple for our clients; once we see what needs to be done, all we need is their approval and we get it taken care of.
We value our clients and want to make sure that we’re taking the best possible care of their properties — and one of the ways we do that is through the six-month inspection. By checking every property at the six-month mark, we’re able to catch issues before they get out of control — and give our clients the peace of mind that their investment is being protected.
