As a rental property owner, you will consistently seek ways to reduce property maintenance costs. While there are a handful of things that are okay to skip, re-keying your rental property’s locks is not one of them. No matter how peaceful your last tenant left, be sure to have your property’s locks re-keyed between tenants. There are several reasons for this, but the most crucial being the security of your property, the safety of future tenants, and helping boost your rental’s appeal to new tenants.
Secure Your Property
Security should be a serious concern for landlords, whether your property is currently inhabited or not. Even non-permanent vacant rentals can become targets for criminal activity and burglary. This is more likely to happen if your previous tenants made a copy of their key and gave it to someone who was not on the lease. So that your property remains secure and will not encounter criminal activity, you need control over who has access to the property and when. This is done quickly by re-keying your property’s exterior doors as soon as a tenant moves out.
Tenant Safety
Unreturned keys become an even more central problem for your future tenants. To feel safe in their rental homes, that’s what tenants want to feel. But if your past tenants still have a key to the house, that feeling of safety may be challenged. If a previous tenant or a person they gave a key to does a break-in, you may be liable for any damage or injury that occurs. On top of that, this could lead to canceled leases and costly turnover because you lost the trust of your current tenant. To meet tenant safety, it’s important to re-key the locks.
Increase Appeal
While the expense of re-keying the locks between tenants can make you hesitate, you can always use it as a selling point for your property. If a likely tenant is troubled about safety, you can lessen those fears by guaranteeing that their locks have been re-keyed; and they may choose your property over other rentals in the area. If you can grow the demand for your property this way, you may even be able to charge more for rent and easily recover anything you paid to have the locks re-keyed.
Alternatives to Re-Keying
Present landlords are seeking other options to help ensure the safety of their property and tenant. For example, in place of re-keying the locks each time a tenant moves out, some landowners find it more cost-effective to install an electronic keypad or smart key product instead. While such solutions can cost more upfront, the benefit is that you can simply change the key code or smart key tool yourself. Perhaps the most challenging part of these alternatives is remembering to do it as part of the move-out process.
DIY or Hire a Pro?
If you are skillful enough, you may be able to re-key the locks of your rental property yourself. It does take a bit of know-how. However, it can be a challenging thing to do. You may instead choose to hire a professional to come in and do it for you to ensure the task is done accurately. It may be less costly than replacing the entire lock, knob, or deadbolt. The most crucial thing to note is that it is done accurately and that you have a brand new set of keys to give to your new tenant.
Tenant move-out can be a frantic time for property owners. How about letting Real Property Real Estate professionals do it for you? Our Rochester property managers are skilled at handling all aspects of the move-out process requires and can find you an awesome new tenant as well! To learn more, contact us online or call us.
In Conclusion
Tired of doing it yourself? Why not give Real Property Real Estate a call? It doesn’t matter if you are endowed with one rental home or several; our goal is to protect and maximize your real estate investment. Backed by over 30 years of nationwide experience, our property managers are here to help rental homeowners grow their rental income while lessening expenses and inefficiencies. Contact us online or call us.
