A small ritual that prevents most disputes
Most disputes between landlords and tenants at move-out are about move-in. Was the wall already scuffed? Was the carpet already worn through in that one spot by the door? Was the screen already torn? Without a clear record from the start of the tenancy, the answer becomes a he-said-she-said, and either the resident loses some of their deposit unfairly or the owner eats damage they shouldn't have to. Both outcomes erode trust.
We try to prevent that with a careful move-in walk-through, every time, in every home we manage. Here is what it looks like.
The walkthrough itself
On move-in day, Jules or Maren meets the new resident at the home. We've already done a turnover walk a few days earlier — paint, deep clean, and any deferred maintenance addressed — so the home is in known-good condition. The move-in walk is shorter, and the resident is doing it with us.
We work room to room. In each room we look at:
- Walls: any existing marks, nail holes, scuffs we missed
- Floors: scratches, worn spots, edges of carpet
- Windows and screens: cracks, tears, hardware function
- Doors: hinges, locks, latches, weatherstripping
- Ceiling: stains, sagging, missing texture
- Outlets, switches, light fixtures: function and condition
- Specific to kitchen and bath: appliance function, faucet leaks, caulking, grout
Anything we find gets noted on a written checklist that we both sign at the end and photographed in detail.
What we photograph
Every room gets at minimum: one wide shot from each corner, plus close-ups of anything noted on the checklist. Kitchens and bathrooms get more — every appliance, the inside of every cabinet, the inside of the oven, the dishwasher rack. Floors get photographed in long sweeps. Yards get photographed if the home has one.
All photos are timestamped and uploaded to the resident's portal the same day. They're also saved on the owner side. At move-out, the same photos come out and we walk the same path. Anything that's changed is identified specifically; anything that's the same is the same.
Why we do it this carefully
Two reasons. The first is fairness. The resident knows exactly what they signed up for and exactly what they'll be assessed against. The owner knows the same. There's no ambiguity to relitigate at the end.
The second is that the documentation, in our experience, almost completely eliminates move-out disputes. In the eight years Cedar has been operating, we've had two formal disputes go to small claims. Both involved homes where the move-in walk-through wasn't done as carefully as it should have been — early in the firm, before the process was as tight as it is now. We learned. Now every home gets the full walk and the full photo set, and it's the cheapest insurance we have against the kind of disagreement that nobody wants.