Congrats! You signed your Property Management Agreement with your property manager. You’re scheduling your movers to come pick up your home goods and move you to your next residence. Huzzah!
But now what? Is there anything you should be doing to prepare the rental in the meantime? I mean, being the owner, you want to do everything in your capacity to set yourself up for success, right? We hear you. That’s why we made our property owner checklist to make sure you have everything covered.
Below is our 19-step Property Owner Checklist:
1. Get a Business License. Many cities in Washington State, such as Tacoma, require homeowners to have a business license for their rental property. Even if they have a licensed, professional Property Management Company renting it for them. We highly recommend you check your city’s laws for this, or simply ask us!
2. Duplicate Door Keys. At least 3x total front door keys. Home Depot, Lowes, and other big box stores have machines that frequently make faulty duplicates. Please ensure your keys unlock your front door after making a copy. If you’re in the Tacoma area, Robblee’s Total Security is our recommendation.
3. Remove All Belongings. Remove all personal belongings, food, clutter, etc. The home must be completely empty. Anything left behind will be disposed of by a junk removal company and billed to the owner.
4. Replace the Following:
a. Smoke Detector Batteries
b. Carbon Monoxide Batteries
c. Air Filters
d. Fridge Water Filter
e. Any missing or faulty screens for your windows and doors.
5. Confirm the location of your carbon monoxide detector. If you do not have one, you must buy one and have it installed.
6. Get Insurance. Call your insurance company and notify them you will be renting the property. Many insurance companies have this product for you and will help you.
7. Check all Appliances and Fixtures. Ensure all appliances, fixtures, and faucets work. If they do not work prior to renting, document this and include it in an email to your property manager.
8. Ensure all lights work. All light fixtures must work and have working lightbulbs prior to renting. If light fixtures do not work, an electrician needs to fix this prior.
9. All electrical outlets must work and have covers on them.
10. Tell your Property Manager what your mailbox number is. If you live in a community with a centralized mailbox system.
11. Check your septic. Confirm the last time the septic was serviced and by what company. Include this is an email to your Property Manager. If it’s overdue, schedule maintenance for it.
12. Remove Any Pet Smell. “But my pet isn’t dirty! You can’t smell it in the house at all.” Sound familiar? If you’ve said this, it is a sign you’ve owned a pet too long. Everyone can smell if a pet was in the house. Stop shaking your head, trust us. If you had pets, you must at least have your carpets professionally shampooed and deodorized. Our cleaning costs do not include the professional shampooing required to get the dog and cat scent out of your home. Sometimes it requires much more than that (like cleaning walls, reflooring or repainting rooms). Please contact us and we will provide our preferred vendors for this. If you do not do this and we detect obvious pet scent in the home, we will schedule it and bill you.
13. Pet Poop. All feces, toys, and sign in the yard and home must be removed.
14. Utilities. Coordinate with your property manager on how this is handled. For those of our owners at Up First Management, we keep utilities in the owner’s name for vacancies and have a concierge service with our tenants for hookup.
15. Nails and Hangers Removed. Except for TV mounts that are staying with the home, all nails, anchors, and hangers must be removed. If they leave a hole larger than a dime, these must be patched and painted. If there are excessive holes in your walls, we recommend repainting the wall.
16. Notify USPS of your change of address. You can do that on the USPS official site.
17. Move your trash bins to the street when you move out.
18. Create an “About The Property” document. We highly recommend creating and emailing your property manager a document that outlines all the small and unique quirks about your property that others may overlook. “This sink drains slow,” or “this neighbor can pick up your packages,” etc. We will include this with the lease. In our experience, this has saved countless hours and dollars with owners.
19. Confirm when you get paid each month. Ask your property manager when you will get paid. At Up First Management, we pay owners on the 10th of each month.
Moving Forward
Each of these steps is something you can do while you wait to move out of your home or prepare the home to rent. Having streamlined communication is arguably the most important part of your relationship with your property manager. If you have any questions on preferred vendors for the above steps or want to update us on the status, feel free to reach out!
