Paint and Tenant Turnovers

[Jordan L.]

Hi all, I’m just curious to find out how you all handle paint scuffs and paint damage during a tenant turnover. The reason I’m asking: I have a home in North Carolina that was freshly painted before the last tenant moved in. The tenants moved out after one year, and though there are no holes in the walls or anything terrible like that, the paint is in pretty rough shape and at a minimum would need most rooms touched up. My property manager (a large and reputable company—found them on BP) told me that paint is one of the items that I just need to plan to remedy at each turnover and nothing can be taken out of the tenants’ deposit to put towards repainting. To exacerbate my dilemma, the color of the home’s interior is no longer available, and I have been told that I should just paint the entire home based on the idea that just painting a few rooms is moot due to labor expense. The home rents for $1000/mo and a new paint job is going to cost me $1800. If I have to do this at each one your turnover, the numbers will never make sense. I’m considering switching over to two-year leases because of turnover costs, but it just seems to me that something should have come out of the tenants’ deposit for this, even a prorated amount. I’m looking forward to some more experienced opinions. Also, a side note, I live in California and will not be able to fly to North Carolina to oversee any of this. I really, really would love to self-manage but I’m too far away. Thank you! Jordan