Wesley Snipes is a great actor. Watching him in White Men Can’t Jump, Major League, and other films is some good theater.
But Wesley got some bad advice at
tax time in the late 90’s. His accountants
told him there was a loophole that would allow him to avoid $7M in taxes; in
fact, he didn’t even have to file tax returns.
He thought that sounded pretty good.
And besides, everybody knows the IRS isn’t really paying close attention
with the sheer amount of returns they have to log every year.
Well, the IRS was paying
attention. And they got Wesley’s
attention with a 3-year prison sentence that ended in 2013.
It was sad for everyone: his many
fans, his accountants (who received even stiffer jail sentences), the IRS who
had to use limited resources to prosecute his case, and especially for Wesley
(who had reputedly earned over $40M from 1999-2004).
There were a lot of questions in
Wesley’s case, but one almost undeniable certainty- Wesley’s tax returns now are the most truthful and timely documents he
files every year.
This logic spills over into residential property
management and periodic home inspections.
If landlords can show tenants that they are paying attention to what is
going on in the house and whether maintenance is being done, they will
undoubtedly get a better conditioned house when the tenant eventually vacates.
So, yes, this means going over to
and inside the rental house. I’d highly
recommend giving the tenant a week or so notice of when the home inspection is
and letting them know what you are specifically planning on looking at
(e-mailing them a list is helpful).
- What should a landlord include in their home inspections?
- Anything they care about.
Some general things I care about:
- Do the keys still work?
- Is the lawn and landscaping being kept up?
- Are the air filters being changed?
- Are the fire and CO detectors still there on each level of the house and are they functional (aka is the tenant changing the batteries when they die?)
- Is the home clean?
- Does it smell like smoke?
- Is there evidence of a pet if there isn’t supposed to be one?
- Does anything look weird?
Feel free to add anything else of
interest. I also think conducting the
home inspections twice a year (roughly on month 3 and month 9 of the lease)
works well. Paying attention is good,
stalking is bad.
Wesley has some well-maintained
tax returns now and periodic home inspections should lead to some
well-maintained rental homes.
Happy Landlording!
Brett Furniss is a property manager at BDF Realty (Charlotte Residential
Property Management), the trusted real estate advisor for Charlotte
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