Property Management Tip: Handling Maintenance Requests in Your Rental

As a landlord, having an efficient process in place to streamline requests, maintenance and beyond, is one of the best ways to maintain a positive relationship with tenants and maximize your ROI.

Looking for the best way to manage your own tenant requests? Here are five top tips from the professionals at our Property Management Company in Central Florida:

Triage Responses

One of the best practices for efficiency is to determine the magnitude of each request and respond accordingly. A landlord that gives every tenant call the same weight, whether it's a stray cat or a caved-in roof, is going to burn out. Always return calls as soon as possible, but make a plan for the most appropriate follow-up response depending on the circumstance.

“First, evaluate the seriousness of the request,” says professional Property Manager Ron Ricketts. “For example, if an elderly couple has an A/C call on a Saturday night, and it is 95 degrees in the house, you’ll want to call the A/C company immediately. It’s also important to educate the tenant to always report maintenance issues in a timely manner.”

Walk the Site and Inspect Properties

Conducting regular inspections and check-ins with tenants and your rental properties is a great way to be pro-active when it comes to preventing the frequency and severity of tenant requests.

“The key is preventative action! For example, professional Property Managers generally provide updates every 6 months to landlords with the findings of their routine inspections. This will help lessen the requests from tenants submitting potential work orders. However, whenever work orders are received, quick action is best.” Debbie Gordon, assistant Property Manager in Central Florida.

Routine inspections give you a chance to catch early maintenance issues before they require more serious treatment. But inspections can be tough as they can be seen as intrusive and bothersome to tenants in some cases. However, any kind of maintenance request is an excellent chance for a landlord to do an unscheduled inspection and look for any additional issues within the unit.

“If at all possible, have the tenant show you what is needing repaired,” says Professional Property Manager, Stephanie Frederick. “This is the perfect time and opportunity to get your foot in the door for your routine inspection without feeling awkward. Plus, you can best determine whether it is ‘normal wear and tear’ or damaged by misuse.”

Maintain Your Contractor List

Another important step is to have good relationships with contractors you trust.

At a minimum, your contractors need to be fully professional, and have the right qualifications to work on your rental properties.

"You'll want to make an appointment to view the issue promptly after receiving a maintenance request from a tenant. It's also important to always double check and be sure that any vendors you use for repairs in the home are licensed and insured." Susanne Hawkins, Professional Property Manager in Central Florida.

Having a good relationship with your trusted vendors is an easy way to make handling maintenance requests easier.

Provide Proactive Information

Another great tip is to let tenants know what your policies are. Having an outline in the lease agreement of what a tenant can expect in the event of a maintenance issue, for example, will set guidelines early on of how they can best reach you, and can help avoid unrealistic expectations.

Standardize Maintenance

This tip is a little different -- it has to do with the infrastructure of a property.

Landlords with multiple units can realize savings on maintenance over time when they standardize aspects of property maintenance.

This starts with having the same appliances in all units, and keeping parts and instructions on hand. Just this simple change can help free up time and decrease costs by avoiding each emergency call being a brand-new puzzle.

There are other ways to standardize maintenance as well -- new software programs provide ticketing systems and other tools to help organize tenants and requests. But if you don't want to spring for software, it can be as easy as writing up maintenance plans for a given unit and sticking to it.

Looking for your next investment opportunity? Browse potential rental properties in Central Florida here, or find a Realtor who can help you find the perfect property for you.

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