Do you inspect your rental with or without tenant being there?

[Nathan Vu]

Hi everyone. I'm still kind of a newbie at this and just trying to see how everyone's doing it. When you're doing your routine inspection for a SFH, is it better to schedule your visit with the tenant being at home? Or it doesn't matter if they're at home or not as long as you give them an advanced notice? What about 2-4 units?

[Filipe Pereira]

Originally posted by @Nathan Vu:

Hi everyone. I'm still kind of a newbie at this and just trying to see how everyone's doing it. When you're doing your routine inspection for a SFH, is it better to schedule your visit with the tenant being at home? Or it doesn't matter if they're at home or not as long as you give them an advanced notice? What about 2-4 units?

We do move out inspections without the tenant present. Regular inspections it doesn't matter. The reason we do move out inspections without the tenant present is to ensure our safety. Some tenants can get quite combative when you point out damage and they want to know right on the spot how much it will cost. And heave forbid if you don't catch something while they are there and later on bill them for it.

I have a move in / move out condition form that we use here in CT and MA, happy to share it with you (and anyone else reading this) if you think there's value in it.