1. Repair Any Damage or Health and Safety Issues
Before a tenant moves in, you will want to repair any existing damage at the property. Examples are cracks or holes in walls, missing handles or broken items.
2. Clean the Property
This is especially necessary if you are doing an apartment turnover, which means there was a previous tenant living in the unit. You will want to make sure the unit is thoroughly cleaned, especially areas such as the bath, toilet and kitchen.
3. Make Sure Heat, Plumbing and Electric Are Working
Before a tenant moves in, you must make sure all utilities are working. You will need to do this whether you are responsible for paying for the utilities or whether the tenant is responsible for paying for them.
4. Professional photos and engage an agent
Hire an agent to avoid the emotion of what tenants say about your property. Your looking for an agent with an abundance of experience so that they can handle any situation that arises good or bad. Ensure that professional photos are taken as first impression counts and having your property display online these days is a tenants first point of contact with your property. The second is the agent so ensure you have the right agent to represent you professional and knows what they are talking about.
5. Signing of Lease
Your agent should go over the lease agreement with you about the deal offered and then with the tenant section by section so that they completely understand what they are agreeing to. Once your agent has gone over the entire agreement with the tenant and answered any questions, your agent and the tenant should sign and date the lease agreement.
6. Collect First two weeks Rent and Security Deposit
You should always collect the first 2 weeks rent and the entire security deposit before the tenant moves into the property. If the tenant does not pay their bond or first 2 weeks rent on time, it is showing alarm bells and you should re consider leasing the property to this tenant.
7. In going inspection with photosÂ
Prior to any tenant moving in to your property the agent must do an in going inspection report and ideally with photos, our office has the facility to do this and our inspections normally take around 45 mins to 1 hour and 15 and we supply about 150-250 photos in some instances. Our system allows us to have our inspections in the cloud, are easily found and email able, once the inspection is complete we give a copy to the tenant so that they may put their comments in case we might have missed something and they can sign off on the inspection.
8. Go Through the Move-In Proceedure
Prior to or on the tenant’s actual move-in day, ensure you discuss the strata by laws is strata is applicable and ensure you give the tenant a copy of the by laws. Remind tenant to connect utilities such as gas, electricity, telephone, internet and rules around moving in and out of the premise.
9. Provide Tenant With Your Contact Information
You should provide the tenant with your contact information. This will be the method of communication which allows them to reach you if they have a question or complaint. It can be a phone number or an email address, but make sure they know to only contact you during normal business hours, 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. unless it is an absolute emergency.
10. Go Through Any Specific Tenant Requests or Conditions
There are situations where a tenant may have a specific request or special requirements that are not typical. Some examples could be:
- Having the property painted a certain color
- Installing a washer/dryer prior to move in
- Installing a new oven or cook top
- A disability which requires a pet