Real Estate Tip

You’ve scavenger hunted your new place, met your landlord (or real estate agent), held your garage sale, organized (or disorganized) what you still own into perfectly labeled (or perfectly unlabeled) boxes and hired a moving company. Think the battle is over? Check if there is light at the end of the tunnel because there may not be - yet.

You show up at your new abode and find that, not only did the last inhabitants leave their mark with damaged, dirty, un-homely features (wall holes, broken light-switch covers, missing nuts and bolts, stained floors, not to mention leftover junk, etc.), your landlord or real estate agent never bothered to live up to their side of the deal and do the patchwork themselves.

Your landlord or real estate agent may not have the bad intentions you may suspect at first. It’s hard to fill a real estate property with trustworthy people and some are still learning the trick. Unfortunately they made a mistake and their last tenant was a headache. But the fact is, now you’re in, and you’re stuff can’t go anywhere you want it to go until the place is ’spick and span’. So here are some tips to help you deal with compensation issues and get your dwelling in its right condition as quickly and efficiently as possible.

First, when you arrive, get out your digital camera and begin examining each room as though you’ve got a toothpick and white glove in hand. Capture every problem so you have proof to show for later. If you’ve already signed a lease and/or moved in by now, unfortunately you’ll have to face the likelihood that your own your own now and can only expect a monetary compensation at the end of it. Remember, you won’t necessarily find yourself fighting gruesome legal battles, but for clarity’s sake when negotiating a fair deal for what you had to go through, photographs can be helpful.

Next, be structured. Make a list of exactly what work needs to be done. Once that’s figured out, find out what supplies you’ll need to do the job. Maintenance supplies might include paint and paint brushes, nails, a hammer, wood finish, and so on depending on your needs. Cleaning supplies for later include rags (about two for each task), paper towels, wide-width tape or lint rollers, spray bottle-type cleaning products as well as powdered and liquid bleach, degreaser, a few boxes of baking soda and gloves.

Removing junk

If there is leftover junk, either get rid of it yourself or call a junk removal company and pass the bill on to your landlord. Junk removal companies are more common than thought and can easily be found online or in the yellow pages. If the leftover items are of any value, consider selling them at either a yard sale or through sites like Craigslist.com and E-Bay and you might make a buck or two out of it.

Getting help with the move-in

Unless you’re moving solo you can save a lot of time by working room-to-room in pairs. That way, once the maintenance person is done their task, the cleaner can follow immediately with the rags and work will be done simultaneously rather than consecutively. Of course, the more the merrier and even if you’re moving in alone, asking for help from friends, even co-workers can make this all a bonding experience for everyone involved. People are more willing to help than we often assume. Not only that, you may learn a lot about people’s skills that you never knew before. (For example, your co-worker at the office could have lived a former life as a construction worker, which for you would mean expertise at your fingertips that you won’t have to pay for or learn on your own). Resources are out there, you just have to find them.

Doors and cabinets

WD-40 could turn out to be your favourite chemical. It has multiple uses but the most common use is for fixing sticky or rusted metal parts. If you have a squeaky door, either at the hinges, in the latch, key hole or lock, this is what to coat it with.

Walls

With walls, small holes can easily be patched up while larger ones may require putting in new drywall pieces. Where there are nails there probably was a picture hanging there before. See if you can save yourself the trouble of doing patch-ups by reusing the spot for one of your own decorative items. For marks and smudges, either find out exactly what colour-code and brand of paint was used last on the wall or be clear with your landlord that you’ll have to repaint the entire thing so it matches.

Floors

You can go two ways here - either hire a carpet cleaning service or rent a steam cleaner and do it yourself. Be sure not to over soak your carpet or you may ruin the installation beneath the surface. Don’t walk on it until it has dried completely (usually about 12 hours). Fans and open windows and doors can speed the drying. If you have bleach stains, they can’t be removed but a professional carpet dying service can hide the spots so they blend in again. For crayon marks, spilled liquids and other stains, dishwasher detergent on white carpet or otherwise the WD-40 you used on the squeaky doors should do the trick.

Lorne MacInnes is a managing partner of Ferguson Moving & Storage, one of the oldest Canadian moving companies, and an industry expert in the moving and relocation sector.

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Tags: moving company, Real Estate Agent, Lease

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Tags: Lease, moving company, Real Estate Agent

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