Wyo Stays · Tenant Resources
Your Move-In Hub
Welcome home. Your lease is signed — here's everything that needs to happen next, in the order it needs to happen, so nothing gets lost between the boxes.
10 things · about an hour total · spread across three weeks
0 of 10 done
Phase 1
Before you get keys
Start these as soon as your lease is signed. Two of the three have deadlines.
01Turn on your utilities
Electric, natural gas, water, and internet all need to be in your name before you move in. Your free setup portal maps every provider that actually serves your exact Sheridan address, so you're not guessing which company covers your street. Start with electric — it has the longest lead time.
Wait until your lease is signed to activate anything. Providers open the account in your name, and unwinding that mid-process is a headache.
02Get renters insurance
Renters insurance is required for every Wyo Stays tenant, for the full term of the lease — it is not optional and not a recommendation. Proof of an active policy must be on file at least 14 days before your lease start date. If you already carry a policy that meets the minimums, you can upload proof instead of buying a new one.
Deadline: 14 days before your lease starts. Keys are not released without proof on file.
03Activate your resident portal
You'll get an activation email from Buildium — that's our resident portal. It's where you pay rent, submit maintenance requests, and pull up your lease at 2 a.m. when you need it. Set your password now, while the email is still findable, not on the first of the month.
Phase 2
Moving week
The week the truck shows up. The first item here protects your deposit.
04Complete your move-in inspection
Walk the whole place before you unpack and write down every scuff, stain, chip, and sticky drawer you find. Photograph all of it, timestamps on. Then submit the form through your resident portal within the window on your lease.
Anything you document on day one cannot be charged against your deposit at move-out. This form is the single best thing you can do to protect your money.
05Line up movers or a truck
Book earlier than feels necessary — Sheridan's truck inventory gets thin at the end of the month and over the summer, and a last-minute rental usually means driving to Billings for it. Confirm parking and access at both ends before the day arrives, and check whether your building needs an elevator or loading reservation.
06Forward your mail and update your address
File a change of address with USPS a week or two before you move, then work through the rest: bank, employer, insurance, Wyoming driver's license and vehicle registration, streaming and subscription boxes, and anyone who sends you something that matters. Mail forwarding is temporary — it buys you time to update the real records, it doesn't replace doing it.
Phase 3
Your first month
Nothing urgent. These are the things that make the next twelve months easier.
07Get credit for paying rent
Rent is probably your largest monthly payment, and by default none of it shows up on your credit report. Credit My Rent reports your payments to all three major bureaus, free to start, with no change to how or where you pay. Your resident portal also has its own built-in rent-reporting option — either route works, and you only need one.
08Set up autopay
Turn on recurring rent payments in your resident portal and the first of the month stops being a thing you have to remember. Set it a few days ahead of the due date so a slow bank transfer never turns into a late fee.
09Learn how to submit a maintenance request
Every non-emergency request goes through your resident portal, any hour of the day — photos help us bring the right part on the first visit. For a genuine emergency (no heat in winter, active water leak, no power, anything unsafe), call us directly at (307) 312-9656 instead of waiting on a form.
10Get to know Sheridan
Once the boxes are broken down, go find your places — the coffee you'll get on the way to work, the trailhead you can reach in twenty minutes, the Main Street block that still looks like 1893 in the good way. Sheridan is small enough that a couple of weekends is genuinely enough to feel like you live here.
Who serves your address
Sheridan isn't a one-company town — what reaches your home depends on where in the county you landed. Your setup portal confirms the exact providers for your street.
Electricity
Most homes inside city limits are served by Montana-Dakota Utilities (MDU). Out in the county and the Bighorn foothills, it's usually Powder River Energy Corporation (PRECorp). Activation can take a few business days — set this one up first.
Natural Gas
Montana-Dakota Utilities (MDU) delivers natural gas across the Sheridan area. If your rental heats with gas, get it connected before the first cold snap comes down off the mountains.
Water, Sewer & Trash
Water, sewer, refuse, and recycling for in-city homes run through the City of Sheridan Utilities Department. A few outlying county districts bill separately — your setup portal flags which applies to your address.
307-674-6483Internet
Sheridan has real choice here — cable, fiber, and fixed-wireless options change block to block. Save this for last, since some plans need a scheduled install visit, and compare what's actually available at your address in the portal.
Settling in
Getting your bearings
Main Street is the spine of town — the historic block, the Mint Bar, coffee, and most of what you'll need day to day within a few minutes' walk. Sheridan Memorial Hospital sits on the west side, and the Bighorns are close enough that a trailhead is a twenty-minute drive, not a weekend expedition. Winter is real: keep a scraper in the car and expect the city to plow the arterials before your side street.
Settling in
Sheridan County libraries are free with proof of address, and the farmers market runs downtown through the warm months. If you have kids, Sheridan County School District #2 covers most of town and can tell you the boundary for your address. And when you need something from us — a question, a repair, a form you can't find — there's a real team here with a real address, not a call center in another time zone.
Get plugged into the neighborhood
Gyms, salons, the mechanic we trust, the bar next door — our neighbor's list of where we actually go, plus a form to request an introduction.
About your security deposit
Under Wyoming law, your deposit is returned within 30 days after the tenancy ends, or within 15 days after we receive your forwarding address — whichever is later. That's why the move-in inspection and the mail-forwarding step above both matter: one protects what you get back, the other makes sure it reaches you.