By the time we got to this client the damage was already done. They rented a multi-million dollar estate style home to a high profile celebrity tenant who caused over $200K in damages to the property that affected both the interior and exterior of the home. The lease was not written to protect them having an insufficient security deposit and the lessee was a LLC without a qualified personal guarantor. Even though this owner technically won in mediation, he had to settle for $90K and  had to pay for attorneys fees. And the delay in going back on the rental market and all the stress and time it took to fight in court and manage the repairs cost even more $$..

Annual inspections are a must on renewals as many tenants won’t look for issues or will fail to report them. We had a client who self-managed their home for years. When their tenant moved out a leak under the kitchen sink was discovered that had been going on relatively undetected for years and cause a major black mold issue and remediation that cost over $20,000. The most unfortunate part of this story was that the leak was caused by a failed washer (a $.12 part) and if caught earlier would have been roughly a $150-200 service call from a plumber to fix resulting into a 100x ROS (Return on Saving).