Have you ever wondered what it is that that your property manager is looking at when they come to inspect your property? Would you like to know what you can do to put a smile on their dial and have your landlord grinning from ear to ear? Whilst some of this might seem obvious to you the following tips might help you to get yourself off to a great start.
A property manager can tell if you’ve left it to the last minute and given your place a lick and a promise. What we are looking for is to see that you are maintaining the property in the condition that it was leased to you and doing this is far easier if you clean as you go along. It also means cleaning when your lease ends a much easier and potentially cheaper task.
Have a tidy up on the day as much as you can before the inspection. It is really appreciated if we don’t have to step over your dirty laundry sitting on the bedroom floor or look at last nights dirty dinner dishes sitting on the kitchen sink. A clean and tidy house goes a long way to you getting an impressive report and makes it much easier for us to be in and out of your home quickly and leaving you to enjoy your space.
Unfortunately the two places that should be the cleanest in our homes are often the dirtiest. Ensure that you have a regular cleaning routine for your shower screens. This is imperative to be able to avoid spending half a day on your hands and knees scrubbing soap scum off glass. We are particularly fans of Aldi’s shower cleaner, but use what you know works for you, and you don’t have to spend a fortune in chemicals to keep things looking sparkling and clean. If you have a ceramic or glass cook top we would recommend investing in a Cerapol cleaning kit. These are normally available at the supermarket or somewhere like Harvey Normans. The blade and cleaning cream work wonders at cleaning up your stove top and a special protective polishing cream will make it easier to to the job next time.
This means cleaning the top of the ceiling fans and air conditioners, wiping the front of your kitchen cupboard doors, cleaning your light switches, cleaning the dishwasher filter and doing the ‘yuck’ jobs like your oven, stove top and range hood. Don’t forget to make sure you’ve replaced any dead light bulbs, batteries in remote controls and cleaned the filters in your bathroom fans.
Nothing says rental house quicker than a poorly maintained garden and lawn. Gardens can sometimes be the most expensive bits to fix if you haven’t taken care of them and a pain in neck/back/legs if you have to do a massive job last minute. Set up a maintenance schedule for yourself or see if you can find someone willing to earn a few dollars to do the job for you. We are always happy to recommend someone to you. Even courtyards need care as particularly in NSW weather they need water blasting from time to time. Please remember that trimming the hedges and shrubs is part of garden maintenance. Equipment to do the task is not expensive, particularly if you look at buying it second hand through eBay or Gumtree. If you don’t need it at the next place you move to then you can always sell it the same way.
If things are broken, even accidental damage, you are far better off telling your property manager about it upfront and working with them to get it fixed than letting them discover it on inspection day. We provide you with maintenance forms but are quite happy for you to call or email us about the problem when it occurs. If you have forgotten anything then please just note it on your repair request form and leave it on your kitchen bench and we will action it.
If you rent through Ray White Coast Edge, this is a part of every lease we hand out to give you a check list of what to clean and prepare for when you have a routine inspection.
Your property manager is working on behalf of the owner of the property that you live in to ensure that it maintains its value and standard to be liveable long after you might be living somewhere else. At Ray White Coast Edge we believe that means working WITH you to help you in maintaining this standard and it can only be successful through completely honest communication between the property manager and tenant.