Inspections are very important in the property management field, and there are several inspection levels to talk about, as well as reasons for doing them.
Video and picture documentation
In the beginning, when you put a house on the market, there are walk through videos and pictures of what the home looks like the day of move in. This is important so that a year or several years down the road, you know what the house looked like. It gives you a reference point.
Third party inspection
Throughout the course of the lease, we do a third party inspection at least once a year. That is often with a local vendor in San Antonio and the cost is typically around $65 per inspection. We always advise getting this inspection done because it is very thorough. Our vendors often provide between 60 and 80 pictures. Those photographs go into a PDF report for the file. We also do our annual walk through in conjunction with the inspection. This is the most effective tool we have in keeping tenants in line and communicating with the property owner about what the house looks like in the course of a lease agreement. When the tenant vacates, we have to determine what to do with the security deposit, and the initial inspection as well as the annual inspection come in handy.
End of lease documentation and inspection
Finally, at the end of a lease period, we do a third party inspection and take our own pictures and videos. We help the owner determine how much of the security deposit should be refunded. This is a critical step and requires us to compare our move out inspections with our move in inspection. There are some tenants who are not going to be happy regardless of how much of that deposit you send back. If you have to withhold anything for any reason, we make sure to document it. We have pictures and videos and the third party inspection reports that can clearly demonstrate why part of that security deposit will be held back. Our owners always appreciate the time we take getting through the inspections and the explanations of how to manage the security deposit at the time of move out.
If you have any questions regarding inspections or the best way to handle them throughout the course of a lease, please contact us at RentWerx San Antonio. We’d be happy to help you.
By Brad Larsen
