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How
to Prepare Your Complete
Home
Inspection Checklist for Landlords PART 2
Are you
looking for a good home inspection checklist to record the complete
list of inventory in your rental property? Find out how you
can prepare your own home inspection checklist and protect your
belongings in this Part 2
of our Landlord Inventory Guide.
Have You Read
Part 1 Yet? If No, Click
here for Part 1
of this Landlord Inventory Guide.
Do You Need an
Inventory List for an Unfurnished Property?
I
have asked this question so often by landlords that I will give you a
straightforward answer: Yes, yes and yes.
Too
many landlords do not bother with a home inspection checklist just
because they
think that their unfurnished property is empty and there's nothing to
record anyway. Don't make this critical mistake.
Just because
your rental property does not come with furniture and appliances, it
does not mean it's empty. There are still items such as walls, roofing,
gardens and bathroom fixtures that can be damaged or vandalized.
If
your tenant decides to go color crazy and plaster your walls with neon
green paint, you can make him undo the damage if your inventory list
clearly states the original color of your walls. If he refuses to do
it, you can use the money from his security deposit restore your walls
to their former glory.
How
do You Prepare a Complete Home Inspection Checklist?
Before we
begin, grab a sample of our Move In Check List
- This will be a good skeleton to kick start your home inspection
checklist.
A detailed landlord inventory takes time to prepare especially if your
rental property is fully furnished so be sure to give yourself more
time to do it. You should have it ready even before your tenant moves
in.
The first crucial thing to note is that your inventory list
should be clearly divided into separate rooms instead of lumping
everything into one messy chunk. This not only makes your inventory
more precise and useful, it also reduces your chance of missing out
anything important.
Some
landlords will just mention the main
contents of their property such as the sofas, kitchen stove or washing
machine, other landlords will go to the extent of including minor
features such as toilet roll holders or flower pots.
While it's
a definite must to include your expensive and major contents, we do
recommend that you take the time to add in any small ticket items if it
is not too much hassle for you. The rule of thumb that I personally use
is to only exclude something if I can easily afford to lose it.
For
your costly furniture and appliances, you should always include as
much as details as you can. Instead of "leather sofa", you should pen
it down as "Casto Italian 3-seater genuine calf leather sofa". That way
if your tenant accidentally ripped your sofa apart, he cannot replace
it with a random fake leather sofa that he recovered from the local
dump.
For electrical appliances, you should include the brand,
model and serial number. If you are taking down your furniture, it
helps to write the brand, model, material and important features. When
it comes to fixtures, you can record the location and dimensions.
It's
not enough to just take down the existence of your home contents - You
will have to indicate its current condition and status. Useful terms
include brand new, like new, slightly used, well used with signs of
wear and refurbished.
If your items are already damaged or has
obvious defects, it actually pays to honest and indicate on your
landlord inventory. There's nothing worse than dealing with unhappy
tenants who were unfairly treated by your inventory list right from the
beginning. Naturally if you have it repaired later, you should always
update your landlord inventory as well.
Want to learn MORE practical must-know facts to
maintain your rental property?
Return from
this Home Inspection Checklist page to our Property Landlord Rental Repairs
guide
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