Why You Should Perform Regular Property Inspections on your Silicon Valley Rental Property

When you rent out a property in San Jose and the surrounding areas, you need to be thorough about conducting move-in and move-out property inspections. These inspections document the condition of your rental home and help you decide how to handle the return of the entire – or partial – security deposit.

While most landlords and rental property owners understand the importance of those move-in and move-out inspections, you also need to perform routine inspections even when your property is occupied. This can be difficult sometimes because tenants in California have the right to enjoy their home in private and without disturbances from their landlords.

However, a maintenance walk-through is acceptable, as long as you include this in your lease agreement and give your tenants plenty of notice before you show up.

Here’s why you should perform regular property inspections on your Silicon Valley rental home.

Avoiding Deferred and Unreported Maintenance

Your tenant might miss some of the smaller and infrequent maintenance issues at your rental property. They probably aren’t looking under the sinks a lot, so they won’t know if a leak has started. They might also shy away from bothering you. Maybe they think that a dangling cupboard isn’t really worth the trouble of a maintenance request. They might not want to complain about minor issues that don’t seem to be a big deal.

The problem is those seemingly inconsequential problems can easily become larger and more expensive maintenance issues.

Water can do some serious damage to your rental property, and if water is getting into the home without your tenants realizing it or a small drip under a sink is left unattended, big repairs can be ultimately needed.

During a routine inspection, you can check the walls and ceilings for moisture and discoloration. If you find a minor leak under a sink or tub, you can fix it economically and quickly. You want to avoid the mold and rot that can come with deferred maintenance.

Before they move in, encourage your tenants to make maintenance requests as soon as a problem is noticed, no matter how minor it may seem to be.

Routine Inspections Help Enforce the Lease Agreement

Another reason to do routine inspections is that it gives you the opportunity to see how your tenants are treating the property.

You can make sure your tenants are paying attention to the terms and requirements of your lease agreement. If you’re not working with a San Jose property management company, it’s up to you to hold your tenants accountable. During your annual inspection, you might find an undocumented pet. Or, you might notice that there are more people living in the home than are on the lease agreement. Perhaps you’ll see evidence of hoarding or pests, and you’ll need to address safety and cleanliness issues with your tenants.

Communicating with and Serving Silicon Valley Residents

Finally, the benefit of routine inspections is that you can spend some time touching base with your residents. This is a good opportunity to check in and see if they’re happy and feeling good about living at the property. Ask if there’s anything that they need or would appreciate.

The goal is to develop and maintain a positive and respectful relationship with your tenants. It cuts down on disputes and conflicts. So, have a conversation about how things are going and see what you can do to provide any extra value to your tenants, who are paying customers.

These are some of the best reasons to inspect your rental property when you have the opportunity. If you’d like to talk about our process of inspections or anything pertaining to San Jose property management, please contact us at Aborn Properties.