Everything you need to run your rentals

Smoke and CO alarms, extinguishers, and escape ladders. Buy these before a tenant moves in rather than after an inspection, and keep spare detectors on hand so a dead unit is a same-day fix instead of a scheduling problem.

Filters, thermostats, and condensate treatments. Filters are the cheapest preventive spend in a portfolio: a clogged one drives up the tenant's power bill and shortens the life of the system you own.

Deadbolts, knobs, keypads, and lockboxes. Rekey or replace between tenancies. A keypad retires the key handoff entirely and lets you issue a code per contractor.

Bulbs, fixtures, and motion lights. Buy one color temperature in bulk and stay with it, so a turnover never leaves a unit lit in three different shades of white.

Flappers, fill valves, supply lines, and faucets. Running toilets are among the most common tickets you will get and the cheapest to fix. Stock the parts before you need them.

Outlets, switches, GFCIs, and wall plates. Tired, discolored devices make an otherwise clean unit read as worn out, and a plate costs less than a roller cover.

Paint, rollers, tape, spackle, and drop cloths. Standardize on one white in one finish across the portfolio so a touch-up never turns into repainting an entire wall.

Cleaners, wipes, bags, and cloths. The make-ready consumables. This is the category where per-unit cost drops fastest with pack size, so buy it in bulk.

Drills, bits, tape measures, stud finders, and caulk guns. The kit that turns a scheduled vendor visit into a ten minute fix you handle on the way home.

Refrigerators, ranges, microwaves, disposals, and window AC. Measure the existing opening before you buy: an apartment-size cutout will not take a full-size unit.

Traps, baits, and encasements. Act on the first sighting. Pest reports escalate quickly and spread between units, so a same-day response is what keeps one ticket from becoming five.

Planks, tiles, transitions, patch, and pads. Flooring decides how a unit shows. Choose something you can replace one plank or one tile at a time, and keep the offcuts.

Blinds, screens, weatherstripping, and door sweeps. Blinds are a standard turnover replacement and the fastest way to make a unit look finished. Weatherstripping pays for itself over one winter.

Gutter guards, hoses, ice melt, house numbers, and outdoor cords. Curb appeal drives showings, and the upkeep here quietly prevents the expensive water and slip claims.