Three different jobs, three different sheets
A walkthrough at a viewing, on day one, and on the day you leave are not the same document.
Viewing is about the questions you cannot ask later and the things you cannot see in photographs — water pressure, noise, signal, what the utilities actually cost, and how the building is run.
Move-in is about evidence. It has one deadline: before you unpack.
Move-out is about matching that evidence and handing over cleanly.
At a viewing, the apartment is not the most useful thing to look at
Ten minutes in the common parts tells you more than an hour in the unit.
The corridor, the bins, the parking, the mailboxes and the state of the entrance are a direct readout of how the building is managed, and management is what you are actually buying with a rent payment. A beautiful apartment in a badly run building is a bad year.
The other four questions worth asking out loud:
- Twelve months of utility bills, not an average. This is the cheapest information about insulation and running cost you will ever get.
- What is the heating and cooling, and who pays for it.
- How long did the last tenant stay, and why did they leave.
- What happens when something breaks — who do you call, and how fast do they come.
Then stand still in the main room for a full minute and listen. Noise is the most under-noticed and most regretted factor in a rental, and it is inaudible when you are talking to an agent.
Day one: photograph before you unpack
This is the whole thing, and it has a deadline measured in hours.
- Every room, empty, from two corners
- Every defect close up, however small
- The meters
- The keys you were given
Then fill in the condition sheet and email a copy to the landlord the same day, whether or not they asked for one. The email is a timestamp that neither party controls, which is exactly what a filled-in form in your drawer is not.
Once there is a sofa in the living room, the floor under the sofa is undocumented for the rest of the tenancy — and the floor under the sofa is what gets disputed.
What to describe, and how
Describe, do not grade. “Fair” is an opinion both parties will remember differently; “two-inch scuff left of the window, four nail holes above the desk” is evidence.
Record what is missing or broken, not just what is damaged. A missing window screen, a dead bulb, a blind that will not close — all of these turn up as deductions at the end, and all of them are free to note on day one.
On the way out
Empty first, then clean, then photograph, in that order. The same two corners as day one.
Ask to attend the final inspection — many states give tenants that right — and give a forwarding address in writing, because most deposit deadlines run from a written address rather than from the day you handed the keys over.
The deposit is decided on day one, not on the day you leave. Everything else is just cleaning.