That time a small landlord changed my whole take on security deposits

I was doing some panel work in a duplex over in Woodbridge last spring, and the owner came down to talk. He's got maybe 8 units total, been renting for 20 years. He told me he started using a digital inspection app where you take photos and timestamp everything before a tenant moves in. Said it cut his deposit disputes down to near zero. I always figured small time landlords just wing it, but he showed me how he handled three separate move outs with no drama. Has anyone else seen this kind of shift with smaller property owners around Detroit?

3 comments

3 Comments

xena_bailey183d ago

Ask if he thinks that system would work just as well for a landlord with only one or two properties. I am always skeptical about tools that seem made for bigger operations but get sold to small timers. The upfront cost and the learning curve might not be worth it if you only have a handful of doors. Plus, a lot of those apps lock you into a subscription once you start using them. Has he been using the same app for years or already switched once or twice?

ivan7743d ago

Nah, I actually disagree with that. A cheap inspection app with a timestamp is way easier than trying to keep track of paper forms and hoping you remember which scuff mark was there before someone moved in, even for just a couple properties.

patricia2623d ago

Yeah, I get that concern about apps being too much for small landlords. I actually tried one of those fancy inspection apps a few years back and it was a mess for my 3 units. The learning curve was way steeper than I expected, and I ended up just going back to taking photos with my phone and saving them in a folder. What worked better for me was just using a simple spreadsheet with the move-in checklist and adding timestamps from my camera roll. I still do paper for the actual walkthrough, but I snap a ton of photos right then and save them with the date in the file name. It's not fancy, but it's free and I never lost a photo yet. I feel like the app thing is overkill unless you're managing 10 plus properties and need to share stuff with a team.