Tips and Practices

LOCKS: We strongly recommend that all rental property door locks be changed after each new tenant has moved out to insure that all keys are accounted for. This will give the new tenants peace of mind and minimize your liability.

LANDSCAPING MAINTENANCE: For rental units of two or more, exterior maintenance in all common areas is the property owner’s sole responsibility. For single-family homes, yard maintenance is your option and is encouraged. As a suggestion, you may wish to pay for yard service and water if the landscaping is an important issue to you. Even though our rental lease agreement reads that the resident is to care for the yard, we cannot guarantee compliance from a tenant (or the residents’ gardening expertise). If during our monthly drive-by inspections it appears that attention is needed to a yard, we will remind the resident of their responsibilities. If the problem persists or continues, Right Move Property Management will correct it to the best of our capabilities and charge the resident for those services.

APPLIANCES: We suggest that you do furnish your rental unit or property with an appropriate stove and refrigerator. Moving large appliances in and out of a property can be hard on doorjambs, carpet, tile and vinyl floors and often times results in damages to the property, for which repairs will have to be made. If the laundry room is not located in the garage or near an outside door of the property we suggest you also install a washer and dryer. This is especially so, if the property may be desirable to first time renters, college students, newlyweds, corporate transfers, etc. Any damage to the appliances that was done by the resident will be charged to the resident. All appliances are inspected during the move in and move out inspections.

UTILITIES: We recommend that residents be required to pay for natural gas and electricity services. Water, trash and sewer are optional, however if you have nice landscaping you may consider and we suggest offering the home with the water paid as residents may not be willing to pay a high water bill for watering your rose bushes or lawn.

WINDOW TREATMENTS: A rental unit or home supplied without window treatments is an invitation to your resident to drill holes in the walls as well as leave those holes behind at move-out. It also encourages makeshift window coverings, such as sheets, blankets or worse. For these reasons, we do require property owners to ensure that your property has adequate window coverings before a resident takes occupancy of the home. Final Thought – As difficult as this may seem, we suggest you keep emotions about your rental property to a minimum. Think of the mortgage that is being paid off by renting it out! Normal wear and tear of a home is to be expected. All damage that may occur can be repaired and anything can be replaced. All of the above also applies to investment properties. A “return” on your investment is the key word; not the drape that got torn and can be replaced with resident’s deposit money.  Allowing pets and open lease lengths are a sure way of providing an open market and continued income. There are many considerations to make regarding an income producing property. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact our office here.