As we count down to the height of PCS season, military service members and their families around the world are preparing for one moment that can have substantial financial impact – the move out inspection. AHRN.com checked in with former renter and current land lord Lisa Klinkhammer about what she looks for during a move out inspection.
Before I was married and settled down, I was a professional renter. Due to roommates coming and going I moved ALOT before I bought my own home as a single gal. For someone who often moves from one rented home to another, the ability to get your deposit back is a tremendous asset. Now as a landlord, we’re regularly finding that our home is not in rentable condition when it is turned over to us. If you have the time, puting your rented home back into rentable condition (just as you would want it when you first moved in) benefits both you and the home owner.
The last renter we had was a great Army family. We loved them and they were great tenants. They spent great amounts of time cleaning the house. On the surface it looked good, but once you looked close, it wasn’t deep cleaned. A home may be presentable, but is it rentable? All that time and energy during a stressful time may still leave getting dinged if the home isn’t in a clean enough condition to be turned directly over to new tenants.
Our biggest problems we have with our tenants is keeping the yard up. This takes the majority of our time and expenses as landlords — pulling weeds, raking, pruning bushes, tending to flowers, and getting the lawn back to healthy.
Carpet cleaning – get approved by landlord and keep receipts for everything to prove you did it. Make sure that the carpet cleaners took care of any pet odors or stains. Bleach marks can even be repaired by specialists and is cheaper than having to replace carpet!
Sample Landlord Turnover Task List
1) Carpet cleaning if it hasn’t already been done ($300)
2) Deep house cleaning (cupboards, drawers, top of cabinets, under fridge and washer / dryer / dishwasher. ($300)
3) Windows washed ($300)
4) Yard — general repair (weeded, mowed, water, cut back bushes, etc. ($300)
5) Power wash porch, walkways and patios ($200)
6) Clean garage
7) Touch up paint throughout house
8) Any repairs / replacements that need to occur
9) Replace all light bulbs (one of our tenants left nearly all of the light bulbs burnt out
10) Change out keys ($125)
We typically will not charge for all of these turnover prep tasks. Yet we will often spend $1,600+ out of our own pocket (we hire out all the services) to make it presentable and ready for the next person/military family. On average, our tenants lose $300-$600 of a $1,800 deposit depending on the condition of a home upon vacancy. The estimate on this list is for a 2,300 square foot home with two yards and a two car garage. Approximate the amounts for an apartment or smaller home.
What Can You Do?
- If you are going to take one step towards getting your deposit back, get in writing from your landlord exactly what you need to do. Some landlords don’t ever return the full deposit charging a cleaning fee automatically!
- Search for landlord/tenant laws regarding deposits return in your state to know your rights
- If you pay for services like move-out cleaning, review all the work done before you pay. Just because they “cleaned” doesn’t mean it was done right/well.
- If you don’t agree with the itemization of the deductions from your deposit, you can do one or all of these three things: 1) write the landlord disputing the deductions in question with thoughtful and proof-oriented documentation (like receipts for cleaning services), 2) ask the local housing office what you should do or 3) contact the local county/city housing authority and ask them about your tenant course of action.
Money Saving Tip: When every penny counts, look for deals on cleaning services. Groupon, Living Social, Angie’s List. You can get good deals on services OR post your jobs on places like Thumbtack and tell them what you want to pay.
We want to know:
What’s the toughest part of your move out clean for you?
I just graduated this year and I’ll be moving out from my current apartment, so these will really be of help, thank you so much! I hope I don’t have problems!
That's an excellent tip to look for deals on Groupon to save some money for things like carpet cleaning. That way, you can spend your time on other things like touching up paint. However, I'm not sure it costs $300 to wash windows. A hose and a windex cleaner attachment is fairly cheap from many home improvement stores. We use those to reach the second floor windows! https://www.lizotteinspectionservices.com/
I’m a renter, so I really appreciate this article’s reminder that just because something looks presentable doesn’t mean that it’s actually clean. I put off regularly deep cleaning my apartment just because it takes time and the house doesn’t look like it needs the work, when in fact it does and I’m sure my landlords would be happier if I took the time to take care of it before it reaches crisis situation. And the “landlord turnover task list” is helpful too, because I often forget to hit numbers 1 and 2. Thanks for the reminder to be a cleaner tenant!
Thanks for your tips on what a landlord will be looking for when you move out of a rental. My brother-in-law is a landlord and one thing that is important to him is the yard. If you haven't maintained the landscape you may want to hire a property clean up service. A lot of times if the renter's have the receipt, my brother in law will reimburse the tenant for the cost.
That’s a great tip, Aaron! Thank you.
Thank you for providing the turnover task list. I hadn't thought of replacing all of the light bulbs. I'm planning on hiring a house cleaning service, and I'll have to pick up some light bulbs as well.
You’re very welcome!
I'm pretty determined to always hire a professional cleaning service whenever I'm ready to move out of an apartment. I think you hit a pretty important point about that when you suggested reviewing the work with the cleaning service. I prefer to do so both before and after so that they know what to expect and so that I can make sure they didn't miss anything. I also like to make sure I didn't miss anything when I initially set forth my expectations.
Absolutely! Many cleaning services will do a walk through before the day of your move out clean and that’s a great time to make sure everyone is on the same page!
I am so glad I read this! I know a lot of people just assume they know everything that needs to be done and think they’ll remember. But, especially if your one person moving out of a family home, it’s really easy to forget things. Sure, you take everything in the bedroom, but you’re bound to forget something somewhere else in the house. Always make a sweep through the entire home before even getting started.
Absolutely! There is so much to do while moving out that it’s so easy to miss something.
I agree that it's so important to get your landlord's move-out expectations in writing. I have made the mistake of not doing that and was so upset when it cost me quite a bit of my deposit! He never even did an inspection before we were gone, so I had no chance to talk to him or figure out what I missed. These are some great tips!
Definitely! That sounds like an incredibly stressful situation!
Thanks for your tips on what a landlord will be looking for when you move out of a rental.
You are welcome! We’re here to help.
Knowing what is going to be looked at during a home or apartment inspection would be really helpful. The task list you have here is great, and there are a few things that I see here that I don't clean very often. I will have to pay more attention when I want to move out!
It’s so easy to miss the little things!
I like your tip to get a list of tasks to do in writing from your landlord. You don’t want to be charged for cleaning or repairs that you already did. Making sure that you know what the landlord will look for during the move out inspection and taking care of those items can help you save some of your deposit. Thanks for the article.
You’re very welcome Hazel!
Quite ingenious way for cleaning. Pretty sure it will come in handy some day and I will definitely remember reading about it on your fabulous blog :)))
Thank you, Ann!
Hey Kristen!
You have made it so simple .This is what a landlord really looking for.You have mentioned a very good point here , to keep the receipt when you did something.It is very rare that the landlord will trust our words .So it will be better to keep the receipts. These are small issues everyone should look after .If everyone work this way things will be better.Keep posting!
Regards
Thank you, Nelson!
From the point of view of a renter, I have found through the years that you shouldn’t underestimate home cleaning and doing it regularly makes it so much easier at the end when you leave the place – never let dirt build up or else you will have a hard time removing it when the time comes to move out.
That’s very true, Olivia, a little maintenance along the way makes it so much easier when you do the move out clean!
Great post man!I am a landlord and I look at the same things you mentioned above.Thanks for sharing!
Wow, awesome tips and advice! It is certainly also very helpful to hire a cleaning service in this particular case to make sure you are move out ready. Thanks for sharing!
Let’s just hope I will never leave my apartment until I grow old and helpless so I can have an excuse for its terrible condition.
I never knew that restoring the rental was the tenant’s job. As long as they didn’t make the place unlivable I don’t think they should be fully liable for incidental damage.
Great article! Completely agreed with all the points you’ve mentioned in this article. Keep sharing such informative articles with us.