Real Estate Investing Guide: Tenant Move-In Procedure
Whether you’re transitioning a rental property between tenants or you’re bringing in your first ones, you should have a system developed to ensure the move-in procedure goes smoothly. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide that you can use as a checklist when preparing for your first tenant move-in day.
#1 Ensure the Contract Has Been Finalized
Before you start preparing for the move-in procedure, first make sure the contract between yourself and the tenant has been finalized. In order to call it a done deal, the lease agreement needs to be signed both by the tenant and the owner of the property, after which it needs to be copied and stored.
If it’s your first time putting together and signing a lease agreement for a rental property (from the perspective of a landlord), it’s not a bad idea to have a lawyer go through it to make sure everything is good to go. The last thing you want are loopholes in your agreement or clauses that could lead to potential issues in the long run.
#2 Handle Pre Move-In Maintenance
Once the lease is signed and everything is ready to go, start going over any pre move-in maintenance if necessary. While this might not always be needed, there are situations where you have to handle maintenance issues before welcoming the new tenant.
This is usually necessary when transitioning the property between two tenants, in case the previous tenants left a mess. Pre move-in maintenance can include everything from general cleaning and carpet cleaning to painting, lock maintenance, appliance fixes, and other handyman work.
#3 Do a Final Property Inspection
The final property inspection can be done a day or two before welcoming the tenant, depending on how much time you have on your hands. The goal here is to make sure everything is in order and that the property is in good condition.
Take a video of the unit and take pictures of specific damages if there are any. Make sure to let the tenant know that you have recorded the property in its current condition and that you will be sharing that footage with them in a DropBox or Google Drive folder. That way, you will have proof of the previous condition in case there are additional damages made by the new tenant.
#4 Welcome the Tenant
When the day finally comes, make sure to arrive at the unit at 20 to 30 minutes before the tenant. Do one last check to see if everything is in order. Remember to pick up any miscellaneous items lying around and leave the property spotless for the new tenant.
Keep in mind that first impressions are important. The move-in process should set a firm foundation for a professional relationship with your tenant. Speaking of which, I’ve published a blog post on why you should be treating your tenants as clients and I highly recommend you to check it out.
#5 Give them a Walkthrough
Once the tenant arrives, greet them and proceed to give them a walkthrough of the unit. Show them any additional factors specific to the unit (ex. location of their mailbox, which garbage bin is theirs, location of their parking place, etc).
Be prepared to answer questions they may have and do so in a polite and informative manner. Remember, we are trying to establish a professional relationship from the start and first impressions matter!
#6 Hand Over the Keys
After you’re done giving the tenant a walkthrough and answering any of their questions, your job here is done. Let the tenant know that if they have any further questions, they can contact you at any time. Hand over the keys and go celebrate before you dive into your next rental property investment!
Rinse and Repeat
In another one of my recent blog posts, I went in-depth on the topic of the BRRRR real estate investing strategy. As you already know (perhaps because you read that blog post), the last R stands for repeat, which is what you should be doing after renting out your first income property.
The key to building wealth with real estate is to diversify your portfolio and continuously add new properties to it. After refinancing your first investment, you will be ready to move on to the next one and so on.