Currently, I've been making surprise inspections of the property just before vacationers are scheduled to arrive.

Sue K. should use to arrive at her own MAO.

With my second and third properties I posted the realtor listing photos and noted that new furniture/photos would be in place by the time any guests arrived (both were sold to me furnished).  

I will know a lot if he does what I asked him to do:  provide first and last months rent in advance (covering me for 60 days if he bails) and provide security deposit when he arrives.  

Utilities:  Since the lease was to expire on the 30th of the current month and new tenant arrives on the 1st of the month, there would have been no gap in utilities between tenants.  

I would be signing necessary documents/Lease at thepoint of my arrival because i have got no printer and scanner herewith me.HERE ARE THE DETAILS NEEDED***Full Name:***Street Address,City,State,Zip Code:***Cell & Home #:***Total amount for move in: Kindly get back to me with the details requested so that i can getit across to my father to issue out the check for the deposit andmonth rent upfront asap, with that you can hold on the place prior myarrival.Thanks for your co-operation.

From experience I know that military moves are fast paced and stressful so I did a few things to ease their transition;Made sure they left Illinois with keys already in hand even though their lease wasn't officially started so they wouldn't have to go to a hotel or wait to link up with my agent for keys if they arrived at odd hours.Left Directv hooked up and operational so they could keep the kids entertained during unloading.Sent a large fresh fruit and snacks basket from Wine Country Gifts so they could have something immediately coming off of road trip food.Left them some furniture so they wouldn't have to get everything unloaded right away just to have a place to sit and relax after a long trip.Left them recommendations for the best vet in the area in case they had problems with their pets upon arrival.Just little things that I hope made for a little less stressful day 1.

@Graeme Ford, my pleasure, and happy to share more gems like this when you arrive!

When my handyman and myself arrived they pretended to not be home. 

The rest of the $7.5k for rent was paid via cashiers check upon arrival.