Over the years, we've found that owners trying to have their own rent-ready repairs done is one of the situations most likely to lead to misunderstandings later on during the repair process or after, so we like to go over a few key items whenever a client mentions that they want to do this, just to avoid any confusion and prevent unhappy situations later on:
- Please keep in mind that our vendors are not willing to do partial rent-ready work. They have frequently run into situations in the past when there were disagreements over who was supposed to do which items, so it is best to make sure that only one party is responsible for the entirety of the rent-ready work. This means that you will need to take care not only of the repairs, but also the carpet cleaning, house cleaning, and other work that needs to be done to bring the property into a rent-ready condition. We cannot have our vendors do part of the work when you're doing another part of the work. It has to be all or nothing.
- We will not be able to list your property for rent until after all rent-ready work has been completed and inspected by a member of our staff to ensure that it meets our usual standards. Please understand that we cannot list a property for rent that has not been cleaned, has unfinished or spotty painting, has not had the carpet cleaned, or is just generally in a dirty or unfinished condition. This is not only to protect our reputation as a reputable property management firm but also to ensure that your property rents quickly and to a high-quality tenant. Nothing causes extended vacancy periods like a property that isn't completely finished or cleaned when shown, and even when an applicant says that they don't mind, we always find that they complain and are unhappy tenants if they move in when all work wasn't completed to acceptable standards.
- There will be a $110 Rent-Ready Inspection Fee for a member of our staff or a third-party inspection vendor to go out to the property and confirm that the property is rent-ready prior to listing. We have to charge this fee to cover our costs in completing this additional inspection that would normally not be necessary if we were using one of our own vendors.
- Please remember that every week that goes by without your property rented, you lose roughly 2% of your potential rental income for that year. We find that most owners vastly underestimate how long it will take them or their vendors to do the work. Our vendors can usually get rent-ready jobs done in just a few days. We typically find that owners who do their own rent-ready work expect it to take them two weeks, and actually end up taking three or more. You are almost certainly losing money by doing the work yourself. We feel obligated to point this out to our clients in case you want to reconsider and ask us to have our vendors get the work done promptly.
- You lose any benefits from the Pet Damage Guarantee if you do your own repair work. In order to receive payment from the guarantee, all rent-ready repairs must be done by The Revolution Firm's vendors.
