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When Should I Go for Rental Home Inspection?

Magnifying Glass Being Held in Front of a Regular Sized House

If you are a smart homeowner, you won’t go too long without inspecting a rental property. You won’t be waiting for the problems to grow from small to large, once visited your rental home and found your tenant messy. Alas!

That was the moment you decided to often conduct a home inspection and kept yourself safe from hard knocks. However, due to any reasons, you are not able to do so, you may miss some potentially grave problems that could have otherwise been noticed.

If I ask you, how often do you conduct rental inspections? Do you go through a thorough vetting process before considering prospects for tenants? Some of you would answer “ I follow a good rental history as an important tenant screening criteria to avoid this problem” and some would say “ I ask of keeping the rental property clean and preventing it from any damage” while others would say “ I only visit when my tenant asks to inspect particular unit”

Nevertheless, if you are a busy landlord, you won’t have an answer to these questions. Following the qualified, licensed, and experienced professional home inspectors won’t darken the doorway for years. Your rent a property business would go smoothly if given in their hands.

Some Common Problems Your Tenant Might Face

There are multiple reasons for which you can go for the home inspection. It is suggested that both tenants and homeowners should co-operate with each other.

  • Sub-floor plumbing leaks onto wooden support beams, causing wet rot on vital structural components that go unnoticed for years.
  • Pest control in the unit every month.
  • Someone crawled into the crawlspace with a flashlight.
  • A tenant has maintenance and neighbor issues.
  • Water system not working properly.
  • Mold growing around the kitchen and bathroom tiles.
  • A non-operational heating system and many other major and minor issues.
  • House ceiling and flooring need renovation.

How Often Can a Landlord Inspect a Property

It depends on several factors. Some landlords don’t do inspections at all which is totally a bad idea. You will collect a pile of problems if you do not realize the importance of conducting a routine inspection. Like if you have basements or crawlspaces, you might have to invest in the rental home investment every 3-4 years.

As a landlord, you put your faith in tenants to keep your properties in good order. That said, you still need to do inspections on a fairly regular basis. These should not be done at random but when there is a definite reason for doing so. These are sometimes when you need to do a rental property inspection. You inspect a rental property to merely keep tabs on your investment.

Most of the landlords do a move-in and move-out inspection with you. It is done to see the place if there is some damage or condition of the home is the same. However, it is better to inspect your property during the lease term so that you can take better care before things worsen. To avoid problems, mention the inspection schedule in the lease. Landlords often inspect once a year, twice a year or quarterly, but you can set your own specified inspection time. Being said that you can come over only for specific reasons and can’t come over excessively. Whatever the case is, you are entitled to give a notice, usually 24 to 48 hours prior to visiting the home for inspection.

You may inspect the property on random to check if your tenant secretly brought in a pet without paying pet rent, if he moved someone else in or if there are some maintenance issues that you weren’t aware of.

The best approach to avoid these regular inspections and make it done professionally you should look for a property manager in your area.

What To Look For in Home Inspector

There are a couple of good reasons to hire a professional home inspector. Few of us have specific knowledge of home construction materials, methods, and building codes.

Furthermore, professional home inspectors who are members of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), the National Society of Home Inspectors (NSHI), or the National Association of Home Inspectors (NAHI) generally carry errors & omissions insurance—a kind of malpractice insurance for professional services. If you are financially harmed because they overlook something they reasonably should have caught, their E&O insurance policy can protect you against financial damages. If you try to do it yourself, you get no such protection.

It’s a good idea to get verification that their insurance is in force prior to hiring them. And if you are a Cape Cod resident, your problem is half solved. Real Property Management Associates is all there to assist you and lessen your burden. You can also contact us if you have any rental or vacation property management needs in Cape Cod or the surrounding areas. We’ll look after this and do regular inspections, along with tenant screening, property advertising, thus protecting your investment.

 

We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.

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