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Business delivery service is growing rapidly growing industry that is expected to grow at a rate of 8.2% in 2022 and reach a market size, measured by revenue, of $149.6 billion in 2022.

It is an industry that has shown fast growth, and the market size of this industry has increased faster than the transportation and warehousing sector.

All online businesses rely heavily on delivery services, and due to the rise in online businesses, delivery business is also seeing exponential growth year on year. More and more delivery businesses are required daily to fulfill the demand of this aggressively growing industry.

If you’ve been considering starting your own delivery business, now might be a good time to do it. You might have a number of questions about it, though.

In this article, we will shed light on how you can start a small business delivery service.

What Are the Types of Small Business Delivery Services?

When it comes to business delivery services, the options are unlimited. There are multiple types of profitable delivery businesses that you can start and embark on your business journey. Here are some of the most well-known delivery services.

1. Courier services

Courier services are necessary for most businesses. Whether it be B2B or B2C, all businesses need courier services. The E-commerce market is growing rapidly, and with it, the demand for more delivery services. It is one of the most successful forms of delivery service. Not just businesses but individuals also require to send and receive parcels.

If you are looking to start a courier service, start small. Start with deliveries within a county or a state and grow from there. Doing so will require less capital, and expansion can be planned out as the business grows.

2. Food delivery business

Food delivery services are a market growing daily, and it is one of the types of delivery businesses that will require fewer resources. Since food delivery is a business confined to a city, the resources required will be minimal, and if you utilize the best available tools, the profits will be higher.

The only major obstacle here would be to plan our deliveries to decrease your operational cost and increase the profits. This can be done using intelligent route planning software, which will do all the hard work for you.

3. Medicine delivery

The medical courier business is estimated to be $7.1 billion and is forecasted to grow at a rate of 5.5% over the next 5 years. This service includes not just delivering medicines but also lab specimens, laboratory equipment, surgical equipment, and many others. You can begin catering to local customers and expand as the revenue increases.

4. Groceries delivery

Grocery delivery is one of the most profitable business delivery services with the most recurring customers. The customer base will keep expanding if the products are of high quality and the customer experience is outstanding.

What Are Some Delivery Challenges that Small Businesses Face?

There are multiple challenges that delivery companies may face in the delivery business. These can be related to day-to-day operations, resource management, delivery fee, or delivery drivers. Here are some of the obstacles delivery companies may face.

1. Route planning

If not done correctly, route planning can be the most troubling part of a delivery business. Moreover, it is a process that takes hours to complete. This task can get more complex if you don’t have any experience, especially if you offer same-day delivery.

However, the right tool can help you reduce the time and optimize multiple routes to fulfill more deliveries and increase profitability.

2. Dependency on human resources

Delivery business depends highly on human resources. Hiring a large team to fulfill the delivery demands can become a challenge. A large team means a higher operational cost. Without proper management, a delivery business may lose more money than it will make.

3. Delayed deliveries

A delay in delivery can lead to a bad customer experience and even loss of clientele. Delays can happen due to an error in planning, the delivery person, or any technical issues in the delivery vehicle.

4. Without damage delivery

Any delivery business needs to make sure the product is not damaged. Any damage to the product can lead to a bad customer experience, and the business may be liable to pay the price at times.

Delivery Options for a Small Business

If you are deciding on an option for your business, make sure you understand each method’s pros and cons before you choose the one for you. Put your mind at ease and go through the options below to find your answers.

1. Outsourcing to a third-party delivery service

In this method, the delivery service is outsourced to a third party. This may seem like a viable option to small business owners, but third-party service comes with its issues. For instance, the business will have no control over the shipping accuracy and shipping experience attached to it.

The situation may get even more complex if there are some additional parameters attached to the shipping. For example, if you run a grocery business, it is very clear that shipping should be instant since everybody wants fresh groceries. But if you have no control over delivery, it will be tough for you to ensure fast delivery. As a result, the business may lose customers.

2. Maintain control by optimizing your own delivery

If you are a small business, optimizing delivery by yourself may be the best bet using an in-house delivery service. It will help you to have full control over the delivery and will help you to create a better experience for your customer base. Many businesses are now choosing this option and are fulfilling delivery orders faster without paying additional fees to third-party delivery services.

Steps to Start Your Small Business Delivery Services

Starting your own delivery business from scratch may seem strenuous, but with the right information and tools, you can start a new business and guide it toward profit. To make it easier, we have laid down the plan in the easy steps mentioned below.

1. Business plan

One of the essential parts of starting a business is creating a business plan by understanding the various aspects of a business. Any business plan should be designed through extensive research on the various business models and market research. Going the extra mile and studying the competitors will only help create a better and more solid business plan.

2. Take care of the legal aspect

A business needs to be registered with the local governing authorities. Ensure you understand all the legal implications of starting a business and registering your company. You will need to register for taxes, open a business account in the bank, and get the necessary licenses and permits. One important aspect is to get your business insured.

3. Designing a delivery process

The next important step is designing a delivery process. This extensive job will require expertise and knowledge of the delivery business. If someone new to the delivery business is trying to design a process, it may become a tedious job, and the chances of error will increase multiple-fold.

All the profit in a delivery business will depend on how well the delivery routes are planned. You wouldn’t want to spend more on resources than you make by completing deliveries. A delivery business needs to run keeping in mind that the operational cost is as less as possible. The best possible results in a delivery business will only come if the delivery routes are planned efficiently and resources are utilized to the best of their capabilities.

If you are starting your delivery business, achieving such an optimal efficiency level may seem like a dream, but that’s not true. We at upper have sworn an oath (literally) to help new business run in the most efficient manner possible.

Upper software comes equipped with a highly intelligent algorithm that will help you by reducing the time required to create an optimized route and create effective routes with multiple stops so you can fulfill more deliveries in less time. The properly optimized routes will not only help you in reducing fuel costs but will allow you to make more deliveries in a single trip.

4. Hiring drivers

The next crucial part is hiring drivers to do the delivery. Depending on your needs, you can start with a single driver or even hire multiple drivers. Many small businesses start with one or two drivers and increase their teams as revenue and demand grow. Many business owners resort to driving the vehicle by themselves to complete deliveries to keep operating cost low. Also, it helps them to get a better understanding of their business.

Deliver Parcels with Finesse through Upper’s Route Optimization Planner

All delivery businesses thrive on efficiency. The more efficiency, the better the results. Efficiency comes by designing routes that will help you reduce delivery time and costs.

Even for people who have done this for years, it is a very time taking process and is prone to errors. So, starting your new business may need more expertise, time, or resources to pull this off. Don’t worry if you are a new delivery business owner facing the same issues, don’t worry. We have got it covered.

We at Upper have successfully been able to help businesses solve the problem of efficiency. Our software is a one-stop destination for all your business-related needs. Upper would be your perfect companion for starting a delivery business.

1. Route planning

Upper software comes equipped with a powerful route-optimizing algorithm that helps create efficient routes for all your deliveries. It factors in the required multiple stops and designs the route so that the least time is required to complete the deliveries. This will help you to reduce the time required, and you will be able to complete more deliveries in less time.

The advantages are not restricted to that; an efficient route will also help you to utilize your resources to the fullest and will help to reduce costs as well.

2. One-click dispatch

Upper comes equipped with a one-click dispatch option by which you can send the routes with multiple stops to your drivers with just one click. In case of any issue with the driver, you can reassign the route to another driver so deliveries are completed without hassle.

3. Proof of delivery

This feature will help you collect signatures digitally and allow the drivers to click pictures as proof of delivery. It reduces the manual work, and the signature and the images are stored in the software for future use. Even in the case of unsuccessful deliveries, the driver can mention the reason for the same.

4. Upload with excel

Upper comes with a feature to add multiple through excel with one click. The software also identifies duplicate stops. If you want to keep the duplicate stop, you can, and if you want to erase the same, it can be done in a jiffy.

Don’t spend another minute going to the cleaners! We will come to you! Experience our convenient Pick Up and Delivery Service and you will never go back to those trips to the cleaners. It’s simple and easy. Here’s how it works:

• Put the items you want cleaned in the express bag we provide, and on your pickup day, leave it in a pre-determined area of your choice (front, side, or back door, porch, garage…) on your pick up day.

• Our driver will come by, pick up the items you’ve left for us, and deliver any finished items.

• We will professionally clean, press, and package your items and return them to you in 3 days.

• Your credit card will be automatically billed and an invoice will be attached to each order. If you have a question or a special request, you can attach a note to your pick up order or contact the driver or store directly.

Guest service experience is vital in an industry as high-pressure and competitive as hospitality. Guests are spoilt for choice, which means that offering outstanding customer service can be the turning point that can lead to loyal guests who keep coming back thanks to impeccable, stress-free service.

In this article, we talk in detail about why guest service experience and management are so important and how guest experience insights can help you put your best foot forward.

What Is Guest Service Experience Management?

Guest service experience management is the process of using sentiment analysis to track and measure guest service satisfaction. The guest experience analysis platform ascertains the performance of different aspects of your business so you know exactly what you need to do in order to improve them and increase customer satisfaction.

To effectively manage guest experience, it is important to use a platform that can give you high-precision customer review analysis. Being in a business that can attract people from all backgrounds, it is vital that the tool is able to extract insights from a variety of data sources such as surveys, OpenTable, TripAdvisor, GoogleMyBusiness, etc.

It must also have native natural language processing capabilities in order to analyze comments and reviews in different languages.

Why Is Guest Service Experience Important?

A study conducted by Deloitte shows that 60% of guests who have a positive experience go back as return customers. This one detail in itself indicates how important guest service experience is for the hospitality industry.

Below you will find more points that showcase the importance of guest experience and how they can be used for business growth.

1. Build customer trust

Top-notch guest service experience can help you build trust with your customers who will be more than happy to give you recommendations and reviews. You can use this information to build better-targeted marketing strategies and make sure there is no discrepancy between what you advertise and what you offer. This further strengthens your credibility in the market.

Additionally, a machine learning tool can also help you segregate guest profiles by the different things they mention in their comments and reviews so that you can attract different types of guests through different tactics.

2. Become more competitive

Personalizing guest experience sets you apart in a highly competitive service industry. Customer insights from guest feedback data can give you ideas to strategically design personalized guest experiences based on not only guest profiles but also for occasions such as honeymoon deals, romantic getaways, corporate packages, leisure travelers, family and kids specials, leisure activities for the elderly, and so on.

3. Attract new customers

Insights from guest service experience feedback can tell you what kind of promotions will get you the most results through your email campaigns, digital advertising, and website/online offers. Once you have the insights and formulate a plan, you can use the guest profile data in your customer relationship management (CRM) tool to send push notifications and emails to the right guests, appropriately.

4. Increase sales conversions

With new tactics that you develop by listening to data-driven insights from a guest experience analytics tool, you can keep track and measure how many new and return customers you have, and what they have in common. This will help you find a pattern in customer behavior and figure out what aspects of your hotel, restaurant, or service are attracting them the most.

Is it the Spa facility, family-friendly services like children’s play area, daycare, or kiddie pools? Or is it your corporate facilities like conference rooms and workstations? Knowing what works best for you can help you enhance those facilities more in order to get more sales conversions.

5. Drive customer satisfaction

Guest feedback is a goldmine that you can take advantage of if you have a truly brilliant sentiment analysis platform that can sort and segregate guest experience feedback into granular categories of the degree of likes and dislikes. The best customer experience analytics tool lets you analyze not only comments and reviews on sites like Google, TrustPilot, or TripAdvisor but also gives you the advantage of analyzing detailed responses in surveys.

Thus, you get to use all kinds of data sources in order to understand what’s deterring your guests from having a good time at your business and what’s working in your interest.

6. Increase guest engagement

You should use different techniques to reach out to your guests before and after their stay. For example, Instagram social listening can give you insights as to what people want from a business in hospitality or what comments are saying while tagging you. You can do the same with TikTok insights.

Using social media also gives you a better opportunity to engage more actively with your guests and respond to mentions promptly regarding their guest service experience. This can be very advantageous, especially in case of a negative experience. It not only tells potential customers that you are aware of what’s happening at your establishment and you are taking responsibility for it, but also that you care what your guests think of you.

7. Maintain a loyal customer base

Loyalty points and incentives for being loyal customers can go a long way in capturing new clients as well. Offering a holiday discount to guests who have had a long stay before or offering additional services free of charge such as access to the golf course or Spa facilities, tells your guests that you appreciate their business. On the business side, this is a clever tactic because as research says, obtaining new customers is 5 times more expensive than maintaining old ones.

8. Use guest insights to improve staff training

Guest service experience insights can also tell you important information about the quality of your staff and the service they provide. Based on guest comments, you can decide if your cleaning staff needs to be more mindful, if your kitchen is understaffed, if the reception is not being responsive enough, and if your online booking systems are not as efficient as you’d like it to be. Being on top of things before they escalate can help you manage your business reputation and enhance your brand experience immensely.

9. Streamlined operations

Guest experience review analysis can also help you streamline your operations for smoother task management. Whether it is special arrival requests, pet services, self-checkouts, restaurant bookings, or Spa reservations, you can keep a track of all these operations and make sure there are no issues related to them that can irk guests. This increases customer delight.

Repustate’s guest service experience analytics solution’s aspect-emotion co-occurrence capability gives you deep insight into these areas so you know how to improve things in a timely manner.

10. Sell additional services

Knowing your guests and their preferences can help you sell additional services to them. This not only adds an additional revenue stream to your business but also gives guests the opportunity to have something that is a bonus. For example, a gift shop, pet knick-knacks, a business center, tour and cruise packages, special diet menus, clothing and accessories, and makeup and hair services can all add towards making your guest service experience exemplary and thus attracting more customers.

11. Enhance brand perception

A very important reason you should measure and track guest experience is so that you can use the insights to enhance your brand perception. Brand perception is much more than just the service you provide but the feelings that a guest experiences after being in touch with your business.

Research shows that guests are peeved and not likely to recommend a hotel if there is a marked difference between what’s advertised and promised and what they actually experience. A customer insights tool can help you dodge a fiasco like this and ensure that your brand has a great reputation both online and through word-of-mouth.

12. Build lasting relationships

When you are able to connect with your guests in a meaningful way and cater to their needs even before they ask, there is trust built. This customer trust is the foundation of a lasting business and makes for a sustainable business strategy for longevity.

Through social media listening and performing tasks such as YouTube comments analysis, AI-driven survey analysis, Reddit and subreddit thread analysis, news monitoring, etc, you can find a treasure trove of guest service experience insights that can help you build relatable content for your marketing campaigns as well as personalized guest communications.

How Can You Measure Guest Service Experience?

You can measure and track guest service experience most efficiently through a machine learning platform that analyzes all data types from all data sources, across different languages.

Once the model is trained for your business, it will give you precise insights based on your guest experience, which you can use to build a better brand experience.

The platform measures guest service experience by following the below steps.

Step 1 – Data collection

You can input the URL of any review platform from which you want to analyze your customer experience. Based on your demographic or how you collect guest experience feedback, you can choose Reddit, TripAdvisor, Google reviews, or any other. You could also choose to upload your survey responses in an excel file.

Step 2 – Data processing

All the data from the various guest reviews forums including video and audio data is analyzed. All non-text data is transcribed and included in the text pipeline. This includes emojis.

Step 3 – Data analysis

Guest reviews and comments are now processed for sentiment analysis. The platform for guest service experience analytics applies several ML tasks such as multilingual natural language processing, semantic clustering, sentiment analysis, and such. Within seconds, it gives you overall sentiment scores for your guest experience and your business as well as for individual aspects such as price, rooms, service, convenience, cleanliness, etc depending on the data.

Step 4 – Data visualization

All the insights are now shown in the form of charts and graphs on a sentiment analysis dashboard. You can also set alerts in this dashboard for mentions and keywords.

The relationship between landlords and tenants requires honesty and accountability. But, that is not how things always pan out. As a landlord or commercial property manager, conducting thorough commercial space inspections is necessary foresight before a new tenant moves in or a current one moves out.

Why Are Move-In & Move-Out Inspections Important?

Creates Traceability Of Conditions

You can never be too sure how long tenants will call a rental space home. By the time the lease is over, it can be difficult to remember the initial condition of the space.

Having a move-in inspection protects you from accountability over damages caused by the tenant. With all the details that a move-in inspection should cover, many property companies use an inspection checklist. This way, you can trace back to the initial conditions of the rental space.

For example, if there is water damage on the floors, note this on the checklist and you can make the necessary repairs. If a tenant leaves a giant hole in the wall that wasn’t there when they moved in, you can include this in your deposit deductions.

From a financial standpoint, this means you won’t have to pay for any repair costs that were not your fault. From a legal position, this protects your business from undue legal claims.

Inspections at the handover of the premises hold all parties responsible and accountable for the care and proper maintenance of the property.

Images Tell A Thousand Words

While a simple checklist can be enough for property companies, visual evidence is vital when managing a property. As with the checklist, images or videos record the condition of the property. Images also allow for a visual comparison of the condition before and after occupation.

This makes it easier to consider the normal wear and tear of the space. Normal wear and tear are the changes to a space that occur as a result of people using the space. An example is scuff marks on the floors.

Taking pictures when accepting the premises back is just as important. Include those pictures in your final correspondence with your tenant. These pictures are important evidence and safety nets for both parties. If your former tenants make false damage claims, you have the visual proof and communication to back you.

Pictures are also particularly helpful if both you and the tenant cannot be present for either inspection and/or third parties are used for inspection services.

Digital Signatures Provide Proof Of Agreement

The keyword in any agreement is communication! Sending pictures of the condition, emailing the complete checklist, forwarding written concerns or issues – you must do all of the above.

Your digital correspondence with the tenant is proof of an agreement between you. The exchanges also serve as proof if there are any issues and disputes that occur.

It is important to have interactions written via email, or visually documented so that you can access them if necessary.

It’s not just for your organisation – tenants expect it too

With too many arguments, disputes and tweets about unjust landlords, tenants have started to expect move-in and move-out inspections too. Nobody wants to work or live in a space where you have to fear that any scratch or mark may end up getting taken from your bank account – even if they were there before you!

By providing detailed, transparent inspection checklist reports with good quality images, you end up starting the relationship with new tenants with proper experience and congratulating them justly when they move forward from your lease. Make sure to get the most of these two customer touchpoints.

Last mile delivery is defined as the movement of goods from a transportation hub to the final delivery destination. The final delivery destination is typically a personal residence. The focus of last mile logistics is to deliver items to the end user as fast as possible. Last mile logistics has become a popular area of interest for retailers due to the growing demand for fully integrated omnichannel retailing. Evolving omnichannel needs have forced retailers to evaluate current transportation network capabilities and make adjustments accordingly.

Focus has been placed on last mile logistics because, in many cases, this is a key differentiator for retailers. Because consumers can easily shop for product alternatives retailers and their supply chain partners must provide exceptional service to gain market share and build brand loyalty.

Last mile delivery is becoming more important than ever due to the surge of online orders. E-commerce sales are expected to reach $1.35 billion by 2018, an increase of 28.8% from 2013. These expected increases span across a variety of product types including apparel, entertainment, food, health & beauty, electronics and more.

Retailers must begin to prepare their transportation networks for traffic fluctuations caused by the expected growth in online sales. Traditional transportation methods such as UPS, FedEx and USPS are not successful in all regions and retailers are beginning to search for alternatives to satisfy their needs. In order to accommodate faster shipping times, changing regulation and infrastructure limitations retailers and their transportation partners have started to research delivery alternatives including click-to-collect locations, local regional carriers, drones and much more.

The order fulfillment industry is continuously facing new obstacles, one challenge is providing a timely delivery service to customers. Customers expect to receive their order as soon as possible. Therefore, it is extremely important to ensure timely delivery service to customers, regardless of the sort of eCommerce business you run.

According to Havard Business Review, in 2021, just 20% of customers were prepared to forgive eCommerce businesses for delivery delays caused by supply chain concerns. As a result, consumers are not willing to tolerate delivery delays. Timely delivery services are critical to meeting customer expectations many eCommerce firms struggle to meet customer demands on time to provide accurate and timely delivery of goods

The Impact of Poor Delivery Services:

Providing poor delivery service to customers can have a damaging impact on businesses. The result of poor delivery services can lead to:

• Negative Customer Reviews

When a customer is unsatisfied with a delivery service, it will trigger them to create a negative review. Poor customer reviews harm the reputation of businesses. Customer reviews influence the purchasing behavior of 68% of customers.

Customers will be unlikely to purchase from an eCommerce business with a negative brand image therefore, it is important to ensure timely delivery services to customers to maintain positive customer service. It is extremely difficult to recover from a poor reputation therefore, it is important to continuously provide timely delivery services to customers and keep regular communication to restore customer trust.

• Lose Loyal Customers

Regular customers are a valuable element to your organization. Loyal customers provide repetitive orders and promote your business via word by mouth. Not meeting customer expectations with timely delivery services to provide accurate and timely delivery of goods results in losing loyal customers.

Consequently, it is important to keep the promise of ensuring a timely delivery service to retain customers and potentially attract potential customers.

How to Improve Timely Delivery Services:

You can relieve strain on your drivers and ensure timely delivery service by providing an on-time delivery improvement strategy and the use of relevant technological solutions:

• Maintain accurate inventory records

Ascertain that your purchasing and receiving operations are reliable and error-free. Before releasing a production order, do stock counts on key product lines to confirm they are in-house.

Accurate inventory counts increase satisfied customers ensuring they will receive their orders on time. Visibility is further enhanced by accurate and reliable inventory data, which allows managers to identify data trends and estimate future demand.

• Create a realistic journey schedule

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to service delivery timescales. These timetables must be created on a case-by-case basis with representatives from each client’s company if you want speedy, high-quality services that meet each client’s individual demands.

Creating a realistic journey schedule can also help with improved communication throughout the service delivery process by defining milestones that may be used to track progress and increase transparency.

• Build relationships with suppliers

Supplier relationship management is extremely important for ensuring timely delivery of services to customers. Regular communication with suppliers is critical to ensure accurate and timely delivery of goods. Any delays can result in providing a poor delivery service to customers.

If you want to send a package from home or work, you’ll need to book a courier pickup service. This is where a courier will come to your door, pick up your package and deliver it to its destination.

Package pick up services allow you to send packages without the inconvenience of a trip to the post office or a courier drop-off point. All you need to do is pay for your shipping online, attach the shipping label and wait for a knock at the door.

Learn what tenants and landlords can expect from these inspections

Rental property inspections often happen when a tenant is moving in or moving out of a unit. A move-in and move-out inspection looks at the state of the rental unit and notes any damages or needed repairs.

Move in and move out inspections benefit both the landlord and the tenant as they hold everyone accountable for the damages and the maintenance the unit may need.

Continue reading to learn more about these inspections and why they’re important.

What is a move-in inspection? 

Prior to a tenant moving in, both landlords (or property managers) and tenants should perform a move-in inspection. These inspections create a record of the state of the rental property as the tenant received it.

Both tenants and landlords should take note of any existing wear and tear that the previous tenant may have caused. It’s also a good idea to take pictures along with notes of the damages, that way there is a written and visual record. Some important things to look for in a move-in inspection include previous damages, broken appliances, and working fire and security alarms.

What is a move-out inspection?

When a tenant’s lease is over and they are moving out of a rental unit, landlords (or property managers) will schedule a move-out inspection with the tenant where they will walk through the unit looking for any new damages or unapproved changes.

While tenants are not required to be present at move-out inspections, it’s usually a good idea that they are. When tenants are not present, it becomes a case of one person’s word against another. Ideally, a move-out inspection should be a streamlined and efficient process where everyone is in agreement at the end.

Landlords (or property managers) will have the move-in inspection form with them, so that they can compare the condition of the unit prior to move-in with its current state. This allows both the landlord and tenant to be sure which damages were caused during the current tenant’s lease.

Pre-Move-Out Inspections (and Why You Should Care)

Yes, you still need to do a Move-Out Inspection as well. A lot can change between ‘someone’s home’ and ‘no one’s home!’

One of the more annoying aspects of property management is the need to perform inspections when the tenant is still living in the home. Sometimes, it’s easy — but more often than not, the tenants don’t cooperate with the desire to inspect. That means coming in to do an inspection is always a gamble, even if you give warning that you’re coming: no one wants to take the time to actually have an inspection performed. No one likes an interruption! But the benefits of consistently doing pre-move-out inspections outweigh the risk by a solid margin.

What Is a Pre-Move-Out Inspection?
Hopefully, everyone reading this knows what a move-out inspection is: it’s what you do after the tenant is gone, to figure out what all needs to be done before the next tenant can move in. A pre-move-out inspection is actually remarkably similar — but you do it while the tenant is still there.
Your inspector, with or without the tenant (more on that in a moment), goes through the house and notes everything they can find that would cost the tenant a part of their security deposit. They compare that list to the list of problems that existed when the tenant moved in — you did perform a move-in inspection, right? — and cross all of those pre-existing conditions off of their new list.

The Second Reason for Pre-Move-Out Inspections
That new list gets turned over to the tenant so that they can fix up everything they care to fix up (so as to get back as much of their deposit as possible). This saves the owner time and money on fixing easy problems, and makes the tenant happy to get more cash in their pocket. But that’s only the second reason.

The Main Reason for Pre-Move-Out Inspections
The main benefit is that the inspection will tell you the condition of the property, which reduces turnaround time when the tenant moves out. If the place is a mess, showings aren’t an option, which means advertising isn’t an option. On the other hand, you know you need to line up contractors for maintenance, and you can arrange them to start the day after move-out (or as close as possible). On the other hand, if the place is nice enough to show, you can start advertising as soon as you have the ability, which will also help reduce vacant time.

Tenant’s Option
We mentioned above that you can end up doing a pre-move-out inspection with or without the tenant on hand. This isn’t up to you! You are legally obligated to give the tenant the opportunity to walk through alongside your inspector (which means you must adapt to the tenant’s schedule as far as is reasonable). If they choose to let you inspect without them present, that’s fine — but in our experience, few of them will.

It’s a Trap!
There is one major legal trap you have to beware of when you send an inspector out to a property for a pre-move-out inspection. Many times, a tenant will try their hardest to get your inspector to make any sort of statement to the effect of “here’s what you need to fix up in order to get your deposit back.” It is 100% mission-critical that your inspector not say anything of the sort.
The reason why should be obvious: you don’t want to give the tenant a leg to stand on should they decide to try to take you to court because they didn’t get their security deposit back in full. It’s ridiculous to think that a pre-move-out inspection could possibly catch every single issue that might require you to withhold a portion of the security deposit — heck many post-move-out inspections don’t do that!

So leave the tenant with some official documentation that specifies that these lists will help them get their rental up to snuff before they leave, but in no way constitute an agreement that you will be returning any portion of their security deposit. Avoid that one trap, and getting pre-move-out inspections done regularly will help your owners minimize the downtime on their properties, and your tenants will appreciate your efforts as well