What to do when your renter moves out (& how much it will cost you)
I recently experienced a huge first milestone in my real estate investing career - my first renters moving out!
After they gave notice that they didn’t plan on renewing the lease, I started to wonder SO many things…
how do I get my keys back and give the security deposit back?
what kind of damages will I need to repair and how much will they cost?
what exactly do I need to do before a new tenant moves in and how much do those services cost?
should I list it for rent as “coming soon” before my renter has moved out?
if I list it before they move out…
when would it be available by?
how long do I need to complete repairs, rekeying, and cleaning appointments?
should I risk showing the place the day after move-out without knowing what the place looks like?
should I risk signing a lease with an expected move-in date not knowing the condition of the house?
As I went through this process, I took notes on everything from time to schedule an appointment, to cost of the appointments.
I hope sharing all the things that I did when my renter moved helps you streamline your own rental move-out process and get a new renter in as fast as possible WHILE saving money - or at least bracing yourself for the costs.
I’m going to break this process into three parts: Pre Move-Out, Pre Move-In, and Move-In Day & cover what you should definitely do and what you can skip to save a bit of money. Be sure to check out the “Key Take-Aways (& Ways to Save)” section at the end!
Hopefully, I can help you guys out so this process isn’t so intimidating.
Let’s get started!
PRE MOVE-OUT
Okay, so in pre move out, your renter gave you written notice that they don’t plan to renew the lease. At this point, you’re going to want to do these 10 things.
UTILITIES
If you renter is paying utilities, schedule to have those placed back in your name. Electricity first then gas, as gas usually requires electricity to be on at your place. DON’T depend on your renter have the electricity on at the end of the lease to do the connection. You usually can’t schedule this for next-day, so do it early (and ask about setting up a landlord account).
KEYS
Communicate with your renter how you’re going to get the keys back. At my rental property, there’s a keypad and I have my own copy of the house keys. I asked for the code to the keypad and for them to leave the actual keys on the counter. You can also agree to meet to get the keys back if you want, but I find that leaving them in the house is the quickest and easiest way to do this.
SECURITY DEPOSIT
While you could do this AFTER they move out, you might want to figure out WHERE you’ll be sending the security deposit while you’re already communicating with them about the keys. My renter and I used Zelle, but you can work out mailing checks or some other app to transfer the funds.
Obviously, do NOT send this money until you have seen the property yourself and know if you need to keep any of it to cover damages. This step is just to have the knowledge of what to do with the money once they move out so you can return it minus any damages. It also reminds your renters they have something to lose by not cleaning up the place and making any simple repairs on damage they may have caused.
DECIDE ON AGENT FOR RE-LISTING OR SELF-LISTING
Decide if you want to work with a real estate agent to get your property rented. There’s a lot of factors that go into this decision which deserves an article of its own. An agent will handle creating a new lease template for you, but Zillow Rental Manger can do this as well. An agent will also handle incoming messages and appointments for showings which lets you focus on getting the place cleaned up or on your full-time job.
LIST
If you are going to list it yourself, go ahead and update the listing & post it a week before the move-out date. I was able to rent my property without the new renter even seeing it! Unfortunately this also meant that I had a set date that the new renter wanted to move in by and I had no idea what condition the property was in and what repairs were needed. The pressure was definitely on once move-out day arrived to make sure everything was in good condition!
Another con to listing early is that if you schedule showings for the day after and your tenant damaged your property, it can scare away potential renters when they see it before it’s repaired.
SCHEDULE KNOWN REPAIRS
If you’re aware of the state of the property and know certain repairs are needed, perhaps because your renter texted you pictures of things going on with the house, go ahead and SCHEDULE those repair appointments now or get the supplies you need if you’re doing the repairs yourself.
SCHEDULE REKEY
If you’re not aware of any repairs needed, you’ll want to at least schedule for the house to be rekeyed. This is the ONLY, SINGULAR, DO NOT SKIP appointment I recommend you do.
Rekeying appointments are available in a hurry because they’re also meant for people who get accidentally locked out of their homes - go ahead and schedule this the day of the move out for the day after move out (or whatever works for your schedule).
You may want to skip this if it’s not required by law in your state, but that leaves you open to being found negligent if anything happens between the old tenants (and whoever they shared the keys with) and your new renters. DO NOT skip this.
Call in for your appointment early if you’ve never rekeyed the property before. I was told by the company I called that they weren’t sure if they could do my front door lock (Schlage keypad + deadbolt lock), or my sliding glass door because those can require ordering special parts and that sometimes they will charge extra for more difficult locks. Call ahead to find out if they can do the job. Once you find someone you KNOW can do it, write their number down and keep it for future move-outs. Don’t wait to schedule in case they need to order parts for your unique door.
BUY BATTERIES FOR SMOKE ALARMS
If you don’t know what batteries you need, you can wait until your renter moves out to do this, but the earlier you can prepare the better and the less stressful the whole process is. Definitely write it down for next time.
Do NOT skip this. My lease is written up by an agent who works for a large real estate company and so it is very thorough and has a LOT of legal jargon. When I read it, I was surprised to see that smoke alarm battery replacement was part of my responsibilities. While I’m not sure if this is required by law, you don’t want to be negligent if anything goes wrong over the cost of a few batteries and less than 10 minutes of your time to replace them.
Other things you may want to buy
Now all of this is optional, but I like to leave items that increase the likelihood my renter will take care of my property.
AIR FILTERS - Not replacing air filters can cause significant damage to a home if not taken care of soon enough. I like to leave 4 of each filter needed to cover a replacement every 90 days.
CLEANING PRODUCTS - My rental property is a new construction and they specifically stated which cleaning products were considered safe for the hardwood floors. I always leave a bottle of the cleaner they specified and make it clear which cleaner I was specifically asked to avoid in a care sheet.
GARAGE OPENER BATTERIES - Garage opener batteries need to be replaced every 1-2 years. I did not actually replace this at my rental because the garage is small and hardly in use compared to the parking in front of the house along the street (plus I accidentally bought the wrong batteries, oops).
PAINT - Magic erasers will get A LOT off your walls and paint touch ups can be a significant paint in the butt (ha, this was a typo but I’ve decided to leave it in!) to get right - I should know, I touched up 17 walls with what I soon discovered was paint a shade too dark... oops. If you know the exact paint match for your rental, go ahead and leave it at the house. If they decide to paint before they leave, it’s less work for you. If not, it’s still there at the house ready for you to use after move-out. Just keep in mind that opened paint lasts only 1-2 years.
GARDEN HOSE - My HOA will mow the lawn but not water it and unfortunately I’ve yet to invest in sprinklers. I decided to leave a hose this year to make it easy for my renter to take care of the yard. She already owned one hose, so this lets her leave one in front and one in back for easy care. This is a one-time cost I shouldn’t have to repeat.
While you could skip this entire step of optional products, it just makes it easier for your renter to take care of the house which benefits you in the long run when you go to rent to someone new, have the house appraised, or re-sell the home. It also makes your renter feel well cared for, giving a better impression of you as their landlord, which could make it more likely that they renew a lease with you in the future.
CARE SHEET
Make a care sheet with your contact info, all the products needed like floor cleaners and filter sizes, paint codes, mailbox numbers, utility providers, etc. relevant to caring for the house. Once you set this up, it will probably be good for the entire time you’ll own the house. Just switch out the name on the doc and re-print!
Again, totally optional, this just makes it easier for your renter to properly care for your home and keep your property in good condition whenever you’re ready to sell it or re-rent it. I have plantation shutters on the sliding door at my rental and the slats need to be closed if you want to slide it so that it doesn’t break or scrape against each other, so this is something that I would list to cause less hassle for myself replacing or repairing them in the future.
PRE MOVE-IN
Alright, so your renter has moved out. This is a mad dash to get the place looking great for showings to attract another renter or to get it ready for your new renter if you’ve already signed a new lease!
REKEY THE HOUSE
The appointment you scheduled last phase is here, so now it’s time to actually rekey the place and make sure there’s a copy for yourself. The company I used provided 2 copies of each key, but those copies go to my renters, so I needed to go to Home Depot and get a copy for myself. This cost me $75 in a service fee for them to come out to the house, plus $15 per lock. For 6 locks, the total labor was $165 and tax was $11.96, for a final total of $176.96. Plus $5.36 at Lowe’s for a copy of each of the two keys. For a final total of $187.68. The appointment lasted almost 2 hours and was one day to call and schedule, and the next day to have the actual appointment. In case you’re wondering, I did not attempt to rekey my USPS mailbox.
WALK THROUGH AND RETURN THE SECURITY DEPOSIT
You usually have 30 days to return the security deposit. Go ahead and do a thorough inspection of the property. If any damage is not normal wear and tear, get a repair estimate as early as possible and subtract it from the security deposit. Send the security deposit back from where you and the renter agreed to send it pre-move out with an explanation as to why you kept some of it - have proof of the estimate available in case they ask. You may want to wait until after you do some regular touch-ups to send the security deposit back because you’re bound to notice more things the longer you’re in the house repairing normal wear and tear.
CLEAN
While I don’t know what it would cost to professionally clean my over 1,700 sq ft rental home, my primary home is similar in square footage and number of rooms (which is 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath) and it cost $375 for a deep clean and $165 for a basic clean. I imagine an empty home costs less because there is no furniture to work around or things to organize, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it still cost you $165+ for this sized home. I recommend you skip this cost and clean it yourself.
CARPET CLEAN
The service, which took a quick 45 minutes, happened 2 days after I called to get an appointment. You may be tempted to do this the morning of a showing so the house is in the best condition, but you won’t be able to walk on the carpet for several hours so DON’T do this a day that you plan to show the house. I used COIT and it would have been around $135 for two bedrooms - one had staining from a flooding early after the home was built (if you guys want to know all the nightmares that happened with my new construction let me know, it took 4 months before I could list it for rent) and a small red stain upstairs. I decided to do the whole house which included a third bedroom, a loft area off the stairs and the stairs themselves for a total of $245.
RESTOCK AND REPAIR
Place all the items you bought in the pre-move out stage, such as filters and floor cleaner, in the home and replace all the batteries. Start magic erasing, patching, and painting the walls. I had a large settling crack and reached out to 3 drywall people. I was ignored by all of them so I fixed it myself - be ready to do this if you need to! Joint compound takes 24 hours to dry before you can paint or reapply another layer which has to dry for another 24 hours. Paint can take 1 hour to dry to the touch and up to 4 hours to re-coat. Give yourself at least 3 days for 2 layers of joint compound and for painting after the compound has dried. I also had to caulk some other settling cracks from baseboards and windows, which is really easy to do yourself using products from Amazon.
APPRAISALS
While you can do this when your renter is in it, it’s much better to do this once you’ve made all the repairs and have your house looking spotless for showings. Go ahead and do any refinances or other processes that require an appraisal now while the house is empty and you don’t need to schedule with someone living in the home or spook your renter into thinking you might sell the property.
UPDATE RENTAL PICTURES
Remember how I rented my place without it being seen? Those were using last year’s pictures. These become out of date as the house becomes more worn and the landscape around the area changes. For example, they were planning on putting shops behind my townhome before covid, so the land was cleared out. After covid, they let the land go and the grass is pretty tall now. I recommend you update your pictures now so you can rent it with accurate images if your new tenant moves out next year potentially without needing to do a showing before signing that lease.
LOCK UP & CLOSE THE BLINDS
Be sure to lock up and close your blinds before you leave the house each time. An empty house is an unguarded house and you don’t want anyone to come in and take appliances or fixtures. This has happened to my dad.
FOLLOW HOA RULES
My HOA requires a copy of the new lease PLUS that I send the HOA handbook to my renter. Be sure to take care of all of this ahead of move-in.
SCHEDULE UTILITIES SWITCH & STAY ON TOP OF HOME MAINTENANCE
Ask the new renter to schedule to put utilities in their name on their move-in day because you usually have to schedule a bit in advance. In the meantime - stay on top of mail, gardening, cleaning away the spider webs, and utility bills while your rental is vacant.
KEEP RECORDS
Keep receipts of ALL your expenses - utilities, repair materials, appointments, etc. These are all tax-deductible. It is the cost of running your rental business and come April, it will help you pay less in taxes and maybe even get a refund.
MOVE-IN DAY
Your home is repaired and beautiful - it’s time for your new renter to move in. There’s only one thing to do: give, give give:
CARE SHEET
Provide care instructions and your contact information for any future questions and/or concerns (over e-mail or printed out)
WALKTHROUGH SHEET
Give them a printed out walk through sheet where they can list any existing damages they don’t want to be on the hook for after they move out to be returned to you within a certain amount of time, 15 to 30 days
HOA RULE BOOK
e-mail over the HOA rule book if you didn’t pre-move-in. This may be required by your HOA but, even if it isn’t, it’s good to document that your renter is aware of all the rules and regulations (on this thought: make sure the lease specifies that they are responsible for any costs or fines associated with breaking HOA rules)
KEYS
Provide two copies of each key set (front door, back door, storage doors, garage doors, mail keys, etc.) and one garage door opener - or whatever amount of keys is specified in your lease. Do NOT give the keys early/the night before (unless you are really sure of your new renters’ trustworthiness… but even then you should keep a set of processes and stick to them for every renter you have). Giving keys prior to the lease commencing can lead to damages outside of your lease terms which YOU are responsible for, not them.
Total Move-Out Cost Breakdown
Rekeying
$75 Service Fee
$15 per lock, 6 locks total, 2 different types of keys
$90 for actual lock rekeying
$11.96 taxes
$176.96 total service fee
$5.36 to copy each key, $10.72 total for copies
$187.68 total
50 ft garden hose
$24.98 total (hopefully a one-time expense)
Filters
$127.73 for a total of 16 filters, a one year supply
Batteries
$34.45 for a total of 16 batteries which covered the smoke alarms (two varieties of batteries needed) and the garage opener (ended up being the wrong battery, so did not use but could not return since it was opened)
Taxes from the hose, filters, and batteries
$14.15
Carpet cleaning
$245 for the entire second floor (2 bedrooms with closets, a hallway, and large landing area) and one master bedroom with a walk-in closet
Real estate agent
$800 - included handling messages on Zillow Rental Manager, listing on NMLS (ended up skipping), and all communications with potential renters pre-move-in day, showing the property to the person who did sign the lease, providing a lease with addendums and facilitating signing between myself and the new renter over DocuSign, and facilitating move-in day introductions between myself and my new renter.
NOTE: This is normally half of one month’s rent plus a finder fee. I would have spent $1,200 for half of the rent plus $200 as an agent finder fee, or $1,400 total, but my place rented quickly without being seen and with me handling a lot of initial communications on Zillow Rental Manager. The lease was already templated out from my previous time renting with the same agent and was never listed on the NMLS - in fact, I made the listing and posted it myself. My agent offered to only take $500, but, having worked with her 4 times over the last two years and her now being my parent’s agent as well, I gave her $800 in good faith for our original agreement.
Paint
$25.68 Lowe’s total for paint and supplies
$14.98 for 31 fl oz of paint (that didn’t match despite giving exact code, could be returned)
$2.98 mini roller for painting
$5.98 painter’s supply kit
$1.74 taxes
Professional painter to fix my touch-up mistake
$174.30 - included 5 gallons of paint (only size that the contractor store would sell to me and the only place with the exact paint color match I needed due to a base paint shortage at other stores local to me), drop cloth, and roller (if the professional couldn’t do it day-of consultation or day-after, I fully intended to paint the place myself)
$100 fee plus a $20 tip for doing it the same day as consultation (and for being so nice and humorous about my horrible DIY touch-up job)
$194.30 total
Utilities
While I don’t have the exact bills, I’m assuming something around $25 for gas and electricity for the short time these services were in my name and any connection fees plus a lighter than usual water month always kept in my name at around $50 for it being vacant 1/3 of the month.
$75 estimated total
Mortgage
$1,143.52
Includes principal interest, property taxes, and insurance
HOA
$155.25
Total costs:
Non mortgage/HOA/util: $1,653.97
Mortage/HOA/util: $1,373.77
Combined, total cost for August: $3,027.74
Income received for August to offset these costs:
$300 pet fee
$1,625.81 pro-rated rent
$1,925.81 total income
Net loss for August: $1,101.93
This loss will be offset by September profit, with still $50-100 of the loss remaining to cover from October profit.
This makes it two months of essentially just breaking even - except, of course, for the growth in property value. Because I’m going through a cash-out refinance, my mortgage will go up about $200 per month as well (something I’m fine with as monthly rent increased from $2,100 mid-pandemic pricing to $2,400 somewhat more normal pricing I was told to expect pre-pandemic).
Key Take-Aways (& Ways to Save)
Graduating to the next level of real estate investor knowledge…
My net loss did not have to be so high! I was just a rookie and made a lot of mistakes, which is why I made this article - to help you make less mistakes, save money, and save time!
Here are ways I plan to save in the future:
$24.98 - Skip the garden hose (it’s a one-time expense, so once it’s at the house, I shouldn’t need to replace it for awhile)
$800-$1,400 - Skip the agent. If your house is brand new or in good condition, you may be able to rent it out with minimal work using Zillow Rental Manager (i.e. with someone signing a lease without even seeing the property). Once you’ve chosen a tenant, Zillow Rental Manager will even provide you a standard lease and a portal through which you can collect monthly and one-time payments. (This post is NOT sponsored - they’re just who I use to list my property, screen tenants, and collect payments). However, I can’t say I’m 100% sure I’ll skip the agent next year - it depends on how hot the rental market is and how demanding my 9-5 job is (i.e. if I have time to communicate with interested renters myself and handle showings all while fixing the place up and working as a software engineer).
$194.30 - Skip the professional painter. I shouldn’t need a professional painter next time - painting touch-ups in the wrong color (despite giving exact paint code) without spot testing was just a rookie learning experience I had to go through. My dad told me that, with over a decade in the rental business, he’s only ever had a paint match work for him once. Save yourself the trouble and stick with magic erasers for scuffs, leave the scuff if it isn’t too bad, and if you absolutely must paint - PAINT THE WHOLE WALL. Hopefully I won’t need 5 gallons of paint either - that was unfortunate timing with non-contractor stores not having been delivered the white base paint they needed to make the exact paint I needed plus contractor stores only being willing to sell 5 gallons to me at a time.
You could also save the $127.73 on filters or the $245 on carpet cleaning, but I think filters are a good idea and and they made my new renter feel very cared for. The cleaning is sometimes needed (whether its carpets or a maid service) so it’s better to budget it in now and be pleasantly surprised on the times you can skip it. I could have also saved $50+ if I didn’t insist on keeping water in my name, but I find that service is a pain to transfer and I’d rather my renter and I only deal with transferring 2 services.
Shop around - now that I know what filter sizes and types of batteries I need, I can shop around on Amazon or in stores way ahead of the new move-in date, rather than feeling intense pressure to get everything done last minute, no matter the cost.
Saving on just the first three things would have brought my non mortgage/HOA/util costs down from $1,693.57 to $674.29
Well, that’s it! If I left anything out that you do when your renter moves out, leave a comment below and share the knowledge.
Also, let me know if you guys found this helpful and subscribe to my newsletter for more articles in the future!