What’s in your Landlord Toolbox?
Check out These Unusual Items and Save
Conducting inspections or scheduled maintenance at a rental property is your chance to check for signs of trouble around the grounds or in common areas. Whether you handle maintenance yourself or hire a handyman for the bigger jobs, you might want to cover the small fixes yourself—it’s a good way to save money.
Landlords are never bored because there is always something to fix, tighten, touch-up, clean up, or patch. Beyond the basic tools you’ll want to carry with you (channel lock pliers, hammer, measuring tape, wrenches) here are a few unusual items you might want to include in your landlord tool box:
Old English Scratch Cover: Use on natural or stained woodwork to cover minor dings and scratches that tenants inflict on your molding, cabinets, or paneling. It really works—use the light or dark shade to match the woodwork, dab it in and let it dry, then wipe off excess.
Touch Up Paint Applicators: We like the plastic bottles with shoe-polish-type spongy applicators. Just fill them with your rental units’ paint colors, label them and refill as needed. Or, just load up a small, air and water-tight container with paint and throw a clean paintbrush into your toolbox to cover inevitable paint scuffs and chips.
Garbage Bags: You will likely encounter some trash around your rental property every time you go to inspect, so be prepared with a selection of bags--try paper compostable bags for yard waste, and help your business go greener.
Cordless screwdriver: Keep one, along with several different sizes of bits, in your toolbox. There is always something loose in a rental property!
Rhino Glue: Reports we get say this is one of the best bonding adhesives on the market. Temperature changes and moisture don’t affect its durability--landlords find hundreds of uses for this product.
FastCap 2P-10 Adhesive and Cover Caps: another strong adhesive product, and caps that stick to just about any surface, so you can cover holes in walls, cabinets, countertops and floorboards quickly and easily. They come in many colors and wood grains.