How-to-Videos for New Move-Ins

How-to-Videos for New Move-Ins                          

When renting a unit it is nearly inevitable that at some point during the term of the lease the tenant will contact you regarding maintenance. We all know how expensive paying for a handyman can be, and many of these issues can be resolved by the tenant without having to pay a repairman. A great hack to avoid costly repairs is to create a library of how-to videos that your tenant has access to and can follow to complete simple repairs on their own. This allows you to explain repairs once and keeps them all conveniently located in one place. You can create a private YouTube channel and give tenants access to the link or you can upload to a portal if you use management software. Or if you aren’t utilizing either of those options you can always simply upload to dropbox and share the link with your residents. These videos can range from something as simple as how to change batteries in a smoke detector to something as important as emergency water shut off in the case of a backup or flood. Bonus points if you create these videos using the actual units your tenants are renting from you.

Below are some ideas of the maintenance how-to videos you could create for your rentals

• Changing the batteries in smoke detectors
• Emergency water shut off
• Changing a furnace filter
• Using the thermostat
• Garbage disposal
• Backed up plumbing or leaks in the unit
• Outlet reset

This same concept can be applied to new tenants moving in. A great hack to avoid long meetings going over the lease would be to record yourself explaining the different sections of the lease in detail and allowing a new tenant to watch the videos at lease signing. This ensures all your tenants are getting the exact same information and saves you time. The tenants could then sign off or initial the lease on the varying sections after they have watched. By making this video available online your tenants would be able to reference it anytime they had a question about the lease without having to contact you directly.

The video could also explain certain parts of the lease that don’t have great written detail in the actual documents. This could include topics such as pet policy in the building, parking for tenants and visitors, and even a section on how to set up utilities in the tenant’s name.

The main point of these videos is to store them all in one easily accessible central location that tenants can view. It takes away the redundancy of the business and explaining the same things over and over again to varying tenants and allows you to say what you need to say one time. These videos also help you comply with fair housing laws by ensuring you are delivering the same information to all of our tenants. Lastly, these videos help reduce the necessity of your tenant contacting you directly and allows you to maintain the professional relationship between tenant and landlord.