How Do You Prepare a Rental Property for Showings?

To prepare a rental for showings, finish repairs and cleaning first, confirm that smoke and carbon monoxide alarms work, and decide how you will run every showing before the first one. If a tenant still lives there, give the entry notice your state requires, such as 24 hours in writing in California. During showings, the federal Fair Housing Act requires you to offer every prospect the same units, information, and terms.

What should you fix and clean outside?

Prospects see the outside first. Work through this list before you post the listing so the photos match what people see in person:

1. Clear trash, leaves, and debris from the sidewalk, yard, driveway, porch, and entry.
2. Mow, trim shrubs back from walkways and windows, and pull weeds.
3. Replace burned-out porch and walkway bulbs. A motion-sensor light at the entry helps evening showings.
4. Make sure the house number is visible from the street and the doorbell works.
5. Repair loose steps, railings, and cracked walkway sections, since a visitor can trip on them.
6. Wash the front windows and the entry door.
7. Repaint peeling trim or siding if the paint is failing, but check the lead rules below first if the building is older than 1978.

What should you fix and clean inside?

A prospect is judging whether the unit is ready to move into. Fix what a tenant would otherwise report in the first week:

• Clean every room, including inside the oven, refrigerator, cabinets, and closets, plus bathroom fixtures and grout.
• Run each appliance, faucet, toilet, and the heating and cooling system, and fix any that fail.
• Deep clean carpets or floors. Replace flooring that is torn, stained through, or smells of mildew.
• Repair or replace broken blinds, then open them for showings so rooms get daylight.
• Patch holes and repaint scuffed walls in a neutral color.
• Treat any sign of pests before the first showing.
• Test every lock, and rekey or change the locks after the last tenant leaves.

If the building was built before 1978, the EPA lead renovation rule applies to repainting and repairs that disturb paint. It covers residential rental owners and managers. Work that disturbs more than 6 square feet of paint per room inside, or more than 20 square feet outside, must be done by an EPA-certified firm using lead-safe practices. Window replacement and demolition of painted surfaces are covered even below those limits. Components documented as lead-free by a certified inspector or risk assessor, or by a certified renovator using EPA-recognized testing, are excluded. If the repairs are large, a home renovation loan is one way to pay for them.

Which safety devices must be working?

Check smoke alarms and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms before anyone tours the unit, not after a tenant signs. State and local codes set what you must install, and the rules differ by state. Two examples:

• Washington: State law makes the owner responsible for installing smoke detection devices and requires the owner to make sure they work before a vacant unit is reoccupied. The tenant then maintains them, including batteries.
• California: State law requires the owner to install a CO device in each existing dwelling unit that has a fossil-fuel heater or appliance, a fireplace, or an attached garage.

For smoke alarm placement, testing, and replacement, the U.S. Fire Administration recommends:

• Alarms inside each bedroom, outside each sleeping area, and on every level, including the basement.
• A test of every alarm each month, which you can do at turnover and at each showing.
• A new battery at least once a year in alarms with replaceable batteries.
• A new smoke alarm 10 years after its manufacture date.

Follow the manufacturer's instructions for CO alarm testing and maintenance. Replace a CO alarm when it reaches the manufacturer's replacement date, signals the end of its service life, or fails a test.

Also check that any fire extinguisher you provide is charged, and that bedroom windows open. Write down what you tested and the date, since that record also supports a move-in inspection later.

How much notice does a current tenant get?

If the current tenant has given notice and is still living there, you can usually show the unit, but only with the notice your state requires. Entry rules come from state statutes and your lease:

If your state is not listed, look up its landlord-tenant statute on entry and check your lease's entry clause before you schedule. Batching showings into one or two time windows a week reduces the number of entries you need to notice. Ask the tenant to secure valuables and pets, and leave a note after each visit saying who entered and when.

How do you run showings that meet fair housing rules?

The Fair Housing Act bars discrimination in renting because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status (having children under 18), national origin, or disability. In a showing, the rule is that every prospect gets the same treatment:

• Same availability. It is illegal to tell someone a unit is not available for inspection or rent when it is.
• Same information. HUD's steering rules bar discouraging a prospect by exaggerating a unit's drawbacks or leaving out its good features, and bar assigning people to a particular floor or section of a building because of a protected trait. Do not tell a family with children that a unit with a pool or stairs is a poor fit for them.
• Same terms. Quote the same rent, deposit, application fee, and screening criteria to everyone, in writing if possible.
• Accommodations. Refusing a reasonable accommodation in your rules or practices for a person with a disability counts as discrimination. Examples include allowing an applicant to bring an assistant, or taking an application in another format.

Use one script for every showing and keep a log of each prospect, the date, the units shown, and the terms quoted. Avoid comments about the neighborhood's residents or about who the unit would "suit." For screening after the showing, see what counts as unlawful discrimination in a rental application.

How do you handle vacant and self-guided showings safely?

A vacant unit lets you show on your schedule, but it needs checking. Visit regularly, run the taps, and keep the heat on in cold months. Before a turnover that may run past a month or two, ask your insurer how vacancy affects your policy, as covered in whether you need landlord insurance.

Self-guided showings, where a prospect opens the door with a code, let in anyone who has the code. Your listing can also be copied: the FTC warns that scammers take over real rental listings, repost them with their own contact details, and ask renters to pay before seeing the unit. To limit both risks:

1. Verify each prospect's photo ID and phone number before you send an entry code.
2. Use a code that works only during the booked window, and change it after each tour.
3. Remove anything of value, and keep keys and garage remotes out of the unit.
4. State in your listing that you never collect money before a showing or by wire transfer, gift card, or cryptocurrency.
5. Search your address on major listing sites while the unit is on the market, and report copies to the site and to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

For writing the listing and choosing where to post it, see how to market your rental property.