Between tenants: the small repairs worth doing before the next move-in

When a tenant moves out, the unit finally sits empty long enough to clear the small repairs that piled up during the lease. Worked from a consistent list, those fixes keep the next tenant from calling in the first week. One note on who does what: a whole-unit refresh or renovation is a project, and Nevada’s handyman exemption does not cover pieces of a larger project, so that work belongs with a licensed contractor. What we take are standalone small repairs, each one under $1,000 for labor and materials together, with no permit and no plumbing, electrical or HVAC work.

Walk it first, with the move-out condition in hand

Before any work starts, walk the whole unit and document it against the move-out inspection. Photograph everything. This is what separates normal wear-and-tear from tenant-caused damage when it is time to reconcile the deposit — and it turns a vague "fix everything" into a short list of separate, itemized repairs.

Holes, dings, and touch-ups

Patch nail holes, anchor holes, and any dings or gouges, then prime the patches. Touch-ups rarely blend on a wall that has aged a few years, so repainting the one damaged wall corner-to-corner usually looks better than a patchwork of spots. Repainting a whole unit usually runs past $1,000, and then it is a job for a licensed painting contractor.

Doors, hardware, and trim

Check every interior door for proper latching and swing, tighten or replace loose hinges and handles, and have a licensed locksmith re-key or re-core the locks for the new tenant (in Nevada that takes a sheriff’s locksmith permit; we don’t change or re-key locks). Look at closet doors and tracks, cabinet doors and drawer slides, and any trim or baseboard that has pulled away or chipped. These are small fixes individually, but a door that will not latch is the kind of thing a new tenant notices on day one.

Plumbing and electrical: a licensed pass

Run every faucet and flush every toilet; look for slow drains, running flappers, and drips under sinks. Test every outlet and switch and confirm GFCIs trip and reset. Anything that turns up here goes to your licensed plumber or electrician — in Nevada, plumbing and electrical work needs a licensed contractor at any price. Replacing dead smoke and CO detector batteries is the exception anyone can do. A running toilet or a dead detector is cheap to fix between tenants and expensive to ignore.

The small leftovers, then the final walk

Clear the small leftovers — the loose toilet-paper holder, the missing door stop, the sticking window, the bifold that jumped its track. Each is a small, standalone fix. Then walk the unit as if you were the incoming tenant. The goal is a unit that needs nothing on day one, because the small things that get skipped become mid-lease maintenance calls.

Managing rentals and tired of tickets that sit? Small standalone work orders under $1,000 are what we do for property managers — a fixed price from the tenant’s photos, vetted crews, before-and-after photos, and a one-year workmanship warranty. LV MVP Handyman Services LLC is not a licensed contractor, so we don’t take unit turnovers, permit work, or any plumbing, electrical or HVAC work. You can see how we structure it on our property managers page.