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Ryan G. WrightSep 8, 2023 12:57:47 PM2 min read

Property Management 101 Part 1: Smoking Tenants

The first installment of a short series where CEO Ryan G. Wright of The Investor's Edge takes you onsite to one of his rental properties that he manages. In this video Ryan discusses his thought on what happens when the tenants of a rental are smokers, the effects it may have on the property, and what can be done about it. 

How to fix your rental property after your tenants have smoked inside

My first recommendation is to never rent to smokers. With that said, you can't guarantee that your tenants won't actually smoke inside.

If you find out after the fact, this is what I recommend based on my own personal experience.

I had a property for about 10 years that had tenants who smoked inside and the smell was really hard to get rid of after they moved out.

It was so bad we actually had to get a professional duct cleaner to come out and he was bringing black soot out of all the ducts. It was disgusting.

I also had to hire a company to ozonate the house with a machine that changes the ions in the air. I had the carpets removed and had the interior repainted.

I put the property up for rent, but I kept getting feedback that the property still smelled like smoke.

The problem is that the smoke can even seep into the sub-flooring.

What I had to do next is hire a contractor to pull up the sub-flooring and apply the product KILZ primer to remove the smoke smell. It is supposed to kill all the odors and entrap it.

I also had KILZ applied to the walls.

After doing this, I started showing the property again.

Instead of asking them if they smelled smoke, I asked if they noticed any odors or Aromas in the property because we don't want to lead them to tell us that yes it smelled like smoke or put an idea in their head.

I also used scented plugins around the house. I always use the same scent throughout the house.

I was able to rent out the house and this time I made sure that my new tenants were not smokers.

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