Keyrenter's Minimum Property Standards: The Key To Long-Term Landlord Success

Most self-managing landlords face the same problem: they never know how long their property will sit vacant. It could be weeks or even months. Spending that much time without rental income puts most investors in a tight spot as their monthly carrying costs, such as mortgage payments, home insurance, property taxes, and utility bills pile up quickly.

Renting your house to the first person knocking on your door isn’t a better option. If you don't pre-qualify, screen, and perform a thorough background check on prospects, you could end up with residents who fall behind on rent, ultimately forcing you to file for an eviction. 

The secret to avoiding eviction and lost income and piquing the interest of highly qualified prospects is ensuring your property provides residents with decent, safe, and sanitary housing. The best way to do this is by adhering to Keyrenter's Minimum Property Standards, which also follow Housing Quality Standards, known as HQS.

In this article, we’ll review Keyrenter’s Minimum Property Standards, why it’s important to follow them, and how working with a property manager who is rigorous about maintaining their clients’ properties builds investors’ wealth over the long term.

What Are Keyrenter’s Minimum Property Standards?

Keyrenter’s Minimum Property Standards is a checklist to ensure we provide our residents with decent, safe, and sanitary properties. We deem these necessary before assuming the responsibility of managing a property and searching for residents on behalf of property owners.

These standards are divided between exterior and interior improvements. Both are key to keeping residents safe and satisfied, and they directly correlate to our ability to place long-term residents in properties.

Exterior Property Standards

• Trash, Debris, & Personal Items: A clean exterior area free of trash, debris, and personal items left by previous residents enhances curb appeal, prevents pest infestations, and provides a welcoming environment for new residents. This includes front and back yards, sheds, garages, window wells, and common areas for multi-units.

• Fencing: The property’s fencing should be in good shape, with no broken or missing sections. This ensures privacy, and security, and prevents hazards such as sharp edges or unstable posts that could lead to injuries.

• Railing: All railings on stairs, balconies, and decks must be secure and stable enough to support the weight of an adult. This is a vital aspect of safety, eliminating the risk of falls and injuries.

• Lawn: A well-maintained, debris-free lawn adds to the aesthetic appeal of the property. Regular mowing, trimming, and the removal of excessive weeds from flower beds and gardens are necessary to keep outdoor spaces tidy and inviting. Trees and shrubs should also be maintained and not overgrown.

• Windows: Windows should be intact, free of cracks or damage, and should open and close properly to ensure safety, energy efficiency, and provide proper insulation. Blinds must be present on all windows to allow privacy. Bathroom windows should be frosted or have coverings, too.

• Wooden Decks: Wooden decks must be free from rot and damage. They must be properly sealed to remove large gaps, tripping hazards, failing wood, and nails or screws protruding. Regular maintenance extends the life of the deck and ensures it is safe for residents to use. Keep this in mind for any other walking surface as well.

• Exterior/Sliding Glass Doors: Exterior doors should be secure (no hollow core), with functioning locks and no damage to the glass or frames. Sliding doors should glide with ease and lock properly, too.

• Exterior Electrical: All exterior lights, electrical fixtures, and outlets should be in good working condition, properly covered, and safe from exposure to the elements. This reduces the risk of electrical hazards and ensures the property meets safety standards.

Interior Property Standards

• HVAC Systems: Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems must be fully operational and regularly serviced. This ensures residents can maintain a comfortable living environment year-round and helps prevent costly repairs due to neglect.

• Appliances & Light Fixtures: All appliances and light fixtures should be in good working order. This includes ensuring that stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, and other appliances are clean and functional, as well as making sure all light fixtures have working bulbs (LED, preferably) and no exposed wiring.

• Professional Cleaning Standards: The interior of the property must be thoroughly cleaned, preferably by one of Keyrenter’s approved cleaning vendors. This includes carpets, floors, walls, and surfaces. A clean home is essential for making a good first impression and ensuring resident satisfaction from the start.

• Flooring: Flooring should be in good condition, with no cracks, tears, or significant wear that could result in a trip hazard. This includes carpeting, tile, vinyl, hardwood, and laminate floors.

• Smoke Alarms & CO Detectors: Smoke and CO detectors must be installed in appropriate areas throughout the property and should not be older than eight years. Regular testing and battery replacement should be performed for resident safety and compliance with Federal regulations.

• Paint and Wall Maintenance: Walls should be free of nail holes, cracks, and peeling paint. Mismatched paint from patches and touch-ups should be fixed with a fresh coat of paint. This greatly enhances the interior’s appearance and gives the property a more attractive look. If there’s wallpaper, it must be clean and in good condition.

• Plumbing: All plumbing fixtures, including sinks, toilets, showers, septic systems, and tubs, should be in good working order without leaks, drips, or clogging. This prevents water damage and provides a hygienic living environment. The unit must have access to functional hot and cold water, too.

• Functional Interior Doors: Interior doors should open and close smoothly, with functioning locks and no damage (cracks, holes, etc). Closet doors need to be on their track and function properly. We suggest no exterior locking door knobs on interior doors like bathroom and bedrooms, as this can cause unwanted lockouts down the line. 

• Safe Electrical Systems: The property’s electrical systems must be up to code, with no exposed wiring or malfunctioning outlets. Scheduling regular inspections ahead of time works wonders to prevent electrical/fire hazards.

You can read the full checklist our team uses when assessing whether a home meets our Minimum Property Standards during its initial inspection.

It’s important to note that our property standards are designed with the Federal Housing Quality Standards in mind. This means that complying with them makes a property eligible for the Housing Choice Voucher, a program aimed at providing decent, safe, and sanitary housing for lower-income families, for which the government subsidizes rent.

Why Are Minimum Property Standards Important?

Minimum Property Standards are important because they directly affect our ability to place a qualified long-term resident in a property, contributing to our clients’ peace of mind.

A house in suboptimal condition warrants an equally suboptimal rent rate, which cuts investors’ profits significantly and isn’t an attractive option for prospects who demand higher living standards. In our experience, people willing to settle for a lacking property are not the most responsible in terms of paying rent on time or taking good care of the place, either.

On the contrary, a freshly renovated, well-equipped, and properly maintained home is more likely to attract responsible residents willing to pay a higher dollar for better living conditions. That’s why it’s important for landlords to properly maintain and invest in properties: to raise the rent price, preserve the market value, and reduce liabilities.

More importantly, a clean, maintained, and well-kept property dramatically increases resident safety, satisfaction, and willingness to become long-term residents. This is crucial to building long-term wealth in real estate, as it keeps rent at fair market values and reduces the number of vacancies and expenses for owners.

How Keyrenter Takes Care Of Make-Ready Work For Landlords

Assessing maintenance needs and finding reliable and reasonably priced contractors to complete work can overwhelm homeowners, especially if they have a full-time job outside of real estate, family obligations, and other priorities.

Keyrenter makes the lives of homeowners easier by taking care of the make-ready process for them as part of our onboarding and leasing processes. After a discovery call, your dedicated property manager will dispatch a maintenance technician to complete an initial inspection, determining what (if anything) needs to be done to the property to bring it up to our Minimum Property Standards outlined above.

We’ll share our findings in an inspection report along with a punch list of items that need to be handled. In conjunction, your dedicated property manager will reach out to our network of trusted vendors, to obtain quotes for the needed work. Because of the volume of work we provide these vendors, we tend to receive preferential pricing, further contributing to cost savings for our clients. 

We’ll then share this quote with you for approval. Once approved, our vendors will start working to get the property ready for rent while we perform market research, prepare the listing, and determine a fair rent price to list the property at.

In between tenants, homeowners can take care of the make-ready and look for vendors independently. However, this takes longer, is more expensive for them, and extends the time their house is vacant, which can make them lose months’ worth of rent.

Keyrenter’s Minimum Property Standards: The Key To Landlord Success

Adhering to Keyrenter’s Minimum Property Standards is a tried-and-tested component of long-term success for property owners. It dramatically increases resident safety, well-being, and satisfaction while reducing disputes and liabilities, making long-term residents more likely.

While property maintenance seems like a hefty investment on paper, the reduced resident turnover brings results in the form of long-term savings due to fewer vacancies and the lack of make-ready work between tenants. Plus, a higher property appeal attracts qualified residents who will likely value the effort and take care of the place accordingly.

An investor's ability to find, screen, and settle for great residents is what makes or breaks their investment. At Keyrenter, we work with homeowners with a long-term vision who care about their property’s condition, so that our brand continues to be a symbol of high living standards, attracting long-term residents to our clients’ properties.

We’d love to help your property adhere to the highest living standards, attract the best residents, and answer their needs on a daily basis for you. If you’re interested in working together, schedule a discovery call with our local BDM through Keyrenter St Charles’s website and learn the many ways we can help your real estate equity and wealth grow over the years.