Hi welcome back Inside Uplift Property Management! Today we’re going to talk about the move in and move out process. So here’s a quick overview of what happens before a move-in. Obviously we’re assuming we’ve already gotten to the tenant signing a lease Your unit is already ready to rent but before that tenant can move in you need to complete a property inspection. We call this the move in inspection And I’ll go over a little bit what the must dos are and why you need to do those things But once that property inspection has been completed then you can collect those move in funds and then you can actually give the keys to the tenant.

So some of those mustd dos during the movein inspection include documenting any existing issues at the property Of course this has to be completed before the tenants move in That might sound redundant but you’d be surprised how many people want to complete this during the tenants moving their furniture in or the next day This inspection needs to be completed before you ever give your tenant keys before they ever step foot inside that rental property as the tenant of that property And again like I said we need to document any existing issues This is going to be extremely critical later on but this should include written documentation and photographic documentation This can look like anywhere from 100 to 500 pictures of your rental property depending on the size and depending on what it includes Right? If you have a large backyard or amenities that that tenant would be using and would have access to you’re going to want pictures of every part of that rental property and thorough documentation in writing that not only do I have a picture of this fan but I have written documentation that it is fully functional it uses a remote and it has three light bulbs in it. You want to be as detailed and thorough as possible during this moveout inspection So why are these things so important This establishes the baseline for the property condition So what is the state of your property when those tenants receive possession of it What is the state of the carpet and the paint and the yard This is extremely important when it comes to security deposit dispositions at the end of the teny And this will prevent future disputes It is very easy to get caught in the back and forth of a dispute for a tenant charge but that can be completely cut out the moment that you use picture and written documentation of the actual property.

So now before a move out we’re assuming this tenant will give you notice right Either one notice 30-day notice they could give you 6 months notice I’m not sure right? But so once that tenant has given you notice you are legally required to offer what is called a pre-moveout inspection And we can go through some of those details in other videos about everything that’s going to include but essentially this needs to happen 14 days prior to that tenant moving out Now the tenant is not required to do a pre-moveout inspection with you but you as the landlord are required to offer it And then once you offer it and if you are able to complete it you are also required to provide the report and move out guidelines This is helpful to the tenant not only to know what it’s going to look like after they’ve moved out of the property but it’s also legally required in order to give them the opportunity to prevent security deposit charges being taken out.

So what happens during that premoveout inspection You walk through the unit with the tenant You’re going to note any possible damages any maintenance issues any specific areas that need cleaning but do not make any promises And what I mean by that is you should never during this pre-move out inspection say “Yep that’s everything that we’re going to withhold.” Or “Once you do those things we won’t have to withhold anything from your security deposit.” If you do that you’ll get the full security deposit back That’s what I mean by promises Because when this pre-moveout inspection happens nine times out of 10 the tenants are still going to have lots of furniture in the unit They’re still going to have occupants After this inspection is completed they’re then going to be moving all of that out of the property So not only is there a possibility that there’s damage behind those furnishings that you can’t see but there’s also a high probability that additional property damage could happen during that move out process.

So that’s what I mean by don’t make any promises You are required to provide the report of all of the findings that happened during that pre-move out inspection but do not make a promise that there is nothing else that you could ever possibly charge them for because you don’t know what you could find after they have actually moved out of the property Another bonus to this is that this actually helps you plan your make ready for this new rental property If you get in there and see that it’s in really great condition you know that you can probably schedule your cleaners pretty quickly after they move out However while you’re doing this pre-moveout inspection if you find that there’s a lot of property damage or you’re going to need to replace flooring or paint all the walls you can go ahead and schedule vendors to be ready as soon as the move out actually happens So this premoveout inspection is also a benefit to landlords as well.

So your tenant has moved out now right They’ve returned possession of the property to you either by leaving keys at the lock box handing them to you directly in person Either way your tenant has returned possession Next you the landlord need to complete a property inspection And you’ll notice that these are sequential right You cannot begin completing those repairs until your inspection is fully complete And of course once those repairs are then done then you will be able to withhold costs from the security deposit from tenant cause damage and then return those funds to them That needs to happen within 21 days So within 21 days of the tenant moving out you need to return whatever is remaining from the security deposit back to those tenants.

So our must dos for a move out inspection Again you need to complete this inspection before any repairs even start at the property Right So if you start doing this inspection and your handyman is there at the same time and you can see in these photos that you’ve got vendors in there completing work or possibly causing damages these photos are now unhelpful to you if you wanted to charge these tenants So before anyone else ever steps foot in that property you need to complete a thorough inspection Like we talked about earlier you want written documentation you want photographic documentation you want to be as detailed as possible And once that inspection has been completed you can then compare it to your movein inspection to look for discrepancies to look for tenant cause damage or even normal wear and tear that has happened right But once you have a completed moveout inspection and a completed movein inspection you can start comparing and looking for those differences.

So the security deposit reconciliation what are we trying to accomplish here We are trying to figure out what is the cost to return the property to the condition that it was received in Remember earlier when we used that word baseline That’s what we’re trying to figure out is what is the cost to return it to baseline Not to upgrade the property not to do an air duct cleaning that we’ve been thinking about doing for a long time No this is to figure out what is the cost to return it to the same condition it was in before those tenants moved in And that’s why that baseline is so important So we are now able to charge for tenant caused damage We’re not able to charge for normal wear and tear right So if you had tenants live in a property for 10 years and so the paint looks old and we need to repaint the interior of the home that would qualify as normal wear and tear That is not tenant cause damage They lived there for a decade and paint gets old right But if a tenant only lived somewhere for a year and we’ve got doorork knobs falling off we’ve got cabinets that are breaking that would be tenant cause damage And that’s something that you could charge your tenants for However you can only charge them not punitively You can’t just charge them cuz you’re angry but you can charge them again for the cost that it was to return your property to the condition that it was received in And again like I stated earlier you have to send this to them within 21 days And not only do you have to send them what’s remaining of the security deposit you also have to send them an itemized statement specifically detailing what they were charged for Not just repairs $700 but to say painting $200 cabinet repair $150 That’s what I mean by itemized So you have that itemized statement You also have to include photos of the completed repair happening So photos of that damage and then photos once the repair was completed in addition to that itemized statement And then of course any remaining funds must be sent to that tenant via their forwarding address within 21 days of the move out Not 21 days of you being done with the repairs not 21 days of when you remember to do it 21 days of that tenant moving out of the property That needs to be in the mail to your previous tenants.

So just to wrap this up overall message of this video is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure We all know this silly phrase but essentially what we’re saying is that doing all of this work this thorough inspection of the property prior to a tenant moving in is going to prevent so many headaches once the tenant has moved out So be thorough in your documentation prior to a tenant moving in so that you can utilize that security deposit after they’ve moved out Hope this was helpful for you This was just a quick overview of how Uplift Property Management handles our moveins and move outs.