We did the move-out inspection with the tenants today. The property manager said it wasn't the worst she's seen, but not the best either.

The tenants said they paid professional cleaners but there was still 2 large burned in rings on the smooth surface of the stove. After taking a razor to the stovetop for 2 hours, I discovered lots of scratches on the ceramic framing of the stove & 2 large chips.

The stainless steel fridge was left with ONE dent in the upper panel. NOW, there are 15-20 dents in the bottom (french door style) as if they would just kick the freezer shut.

There is also a large faded circle on the laminate flooring in the master bedroom.

We put in the flooring in 2005, it had a 25 year warranty against fading. So this is excessive wear and tear.

The refrigerator was $2K and also bought in 2005. The stove was $1500 and bought in 2007.

The repair to the woodwork on the back door trim due to their dog chewing it... was shoddy. Basically they just put wood filler in and painted. It looks like putty and is FAR from a professional job.

There is paint on the siding on the front of the house with two little handprints (her kids) on there as well.

Soooo... now on to the action steps.

I spent 4 hours cleaning the place today, 2 of which was entirely on the stove. While I had myself and the girls at the rental scrubbing baseboards and stains off the wall (another reason I doubt a professional cleaning was done because there were still crayon marks on the wall and all it took was a magic eraser to get them off), DH sold our Plasma TV for $600.

With the $600 we went to Home Depot and spent $190 to get painting supplies (we're going to paint the place ourselves) and this thing called "Rejuvenate" to see if the floor could be salvaged. Being laminate, once its faded - its done. You can't refinish it like hardwood.

It looked fine once we applied it, so I'll see how it looks tomorrow. There is also some basic home maintenance that needs to be done:

Replacing some broken siding
Replacing a rotted fascia board & wood trim on another door
Replacing a broken light on the front

So not HORRIBLE. The excessive damage on the appliances is what we were mostly upset about but if we can deduct that from their security deposit to see if there is any way to get them fixed - that will be ideal.

Its all sort of a pain but I keep telling DH and myself that in the end, this will pay off. Someone else is paying our mortgage and we are just doing what is in our best interests which is to maintain what is ours. Years ago we made the decision to buy this place, so we're being responsible, going to fix it up, and even after WE cleaned it today I started feeling better.

I have a feeling that as we keep helping the property to get to what we had it to, all this will become a memory & the new tenants will be better. For one, only three people will be living there versus six. In addition, we screened over 50 people before picking them.

I look at it this way, we made some bad decisions in the past. When our previous tenants came up we just wanted someone to rent the place, and that's what we got. We learned & are making better decisions now. Now we want someone who will value this property and be great tenants, not just give us a check every month to live there. I know tenants will never treat a rental the same as their own, but I believe its perfectly reasonable to want someone who enjoys living in a well-kept home.

My property manager thinks I'm being picky and constantly says "No one will treat this home as well as you will." Which I understand, BUT I want our tenants to KNOW we value this home. I want them to know we pay attention to how it is cared for & hope that in making that statement, they will follow suit and treat it well in return.

They've actually done studies that in neighborhoods where people were proactive in maintaining their residences, people in general cared more about that neighborhood. Perhaps it is that Law of Attraction stuff, if someone else sees you placing value on something - they are likely to as well.

We'll get it done. This hasn't phased me off of being a landlord. Just taught me valuable lessons - have a proactive property manager, screen tenants carefully, document everything, and maintain your home.

When we're retired or not here, we'll just have to hire people to do this for us - but until then, I have no issues whatsoever putting a little sweat equity into it. I did receive over $30K over the past 2 years from these people and lots of deductions for it on my taxes.

So yeah, despite its occasional pains - still worth it IMO. After all, anything worth anything is worth a bit of work and investing a piece of yourself into it.