Should landlords spend a bit more time in their rental properties getting to know the home's flaws? Or do landlords already try their best?

Why exactly would you camp out at an investment property when it has no furniture, not even a kettle? Why indeed I wondered as I bunked down on the floor with a roll mat, sleeping bag and my four-year-old for "camping out" company.

For my little one it was a chance to go indoor camping, complete with strawberries and chocolate milk. No roasted marshmallows unfortunately. For me, I wanted to get inside the head space of my next renter.

After five years of leasing out this property (which I used to live in, and spent long weekends renovating) to the same family, I wanted to be a tenant for a night, and see exactly what the tenant sees. What opens, shuts, sticks? Where is the paint peeling? Does the exhaust fan work?

Camping out might sound bit drastic – and probably not something every landlord would opt for – but I reckon if you keep properties in the best condition you can, they repay you – both with lower maintenance costs overall as things aren't allowed to deteriorate, and in good tenants who appreciate that you go the extra mile, and who then feel more eager to pay their rent on time, and also tend to want to stick around because they are being looked after.

Which is probably why I found myself, at 2am, re-grouting the tiles.

I'm not sure about other landlords, but I always feel a bit funny on those fleeting housing inspections. Like a complete intruder who doesn't want to open the drawer lest you are faced with an embarrassing situation like the tenant's undies tumbling out.

Inhibited by this, inspections don't really give you a chance to truly see what is right – and wrong – with the property, beyond the very surface, or what the tenant has alerted you to. And although I'm sure many tenants will dispute this, they don't always tell you everything that goes wrong, maybe because they simply don't notice things that creep up over time, like the damp seeping through the back corner or the carpet slowly fraying.

One thing never ceases to amaze me though. Even though I work in the property space day-in day-out, it's still pretty easy to be shocked about the state that some rental properties are let out in. Mouldy ceilings, ragged curtains, gardens unkempt. I always worry too when you can only see an outside photo of the property on an ad – what lies beneath, I wonder. But with rental markets remaining very tight around the country perhaps many landlords feel they don't have to do much to bring in the next tenant and keep them.

More than that, it feels like there's a whole industry out there pushing the view that "it's only a rental". When I called one company to enquire about retractable fly screens for a couple of tricky windows, I mentioned it was a rental property. The response: "oh, that's a bit much for a rental isn't it?". A silly attitude really. It might be a rental but it's still someone's home, and it's not uncommon for people to live in the same rental accommodation for years.

Regardless, maintenance and improvements are all tax-deductible in one way or another, and usually add some value to the home as well. So assuming landlords have the cash flow to fund reasonable improvements, they really are a no-brainer.

Still, I was gobsmacked when I saw the state of the property next to ours. Five years ago it was owned by a young couple with a child who always kept it in immaculate condition. Now though, it is rented, and has deteriorated to a state that it looks barely lived in. It's quite sad, really.

So was camping out useful? Yes because it gave me time to comb through everything, high and low, inside and out. It's amazing what you notice at 2am with your hands covered in grout.

Source: domain.com.au, September 20, 2011 - 12:17PM

For properties for sale or lease in the Bondi Beach area and surrounds, contact Raine & Horne Bondi Beach on (02) 9130 5262.

Should landlords camp out?