Tenant moving- walkthrough and deposit

[Kay M.]

My tenant will be moving out soon. I was wondering what things wear and tear does not cover? For example, do you typically charge for:

1) rug cleaning
2) dings on the walls

How do you figure how much to charge? Any advice appreciated.

[Jon Holdman]

If the carpet was clean when they moved in, and its dirty when they move out, I charge for cleaning. Before and after pictures are a good idea. If its clean and the tenants have left the place generally clean, I'll pay for cleaning. I like to have both a professional cleaning and carpet cleaning before new tenants because that gives me a good baseline for the new tenant. That said, carpet and rentals are a bad mix, IMHO.

Dings in the wall definitely get charged for.