6 Important Maintenance Tips for Landlords and Property Managers


 

If you’re a landlord or a property manager, you’re probably familiar with all the stress that comes with the job. After all, there are many things you need to think about, and you never know what could pop up the next day. However, there are ways to make your job less stressful by maintaining your property correctly and regularly. With that in mind, here are six maintenance tips you should follow for better relationships with your tenants and less stress.

Choose your tenants wisely

It’s completely understandable that you want to fill any vacancies as soon as you can in order to keep the revenue flowing. However, it’s important to choose good tenants – those who will stay in your property for longer, always pay everything on time, and keep the property in good shape. In other words, quality is more important than quantity. So, even if you lose a month due to weeding out the bad tenants, it’ll be worth it if you end up with good ones.

Know when to call the professionals

No matter how good of a handyman you are, there are still things you cannot and should not fix on your own. For example, leaking pipes, pest control, mold removal, and electricity issues are all things that you should never try to repair on your own. Attempting to do so could actually make the problem worse – and make you spend more on fixing the problem you’ve made. In other words, spending a bit more on an expert can actually save you a lot more in the long run.

Technology is your friend

If you’re managing more than one property, it can become tricky to keep track of everything. In those cases, turning to technology could be the best thing you could do. There are many helpful apps on the Internet made specially for managing properties, and there are also many useful property management software solutions. Some of the benefits of using property management software are greater accessibility, easier collaboration and communication, reduced costs, better security, and simple storage. In short, everything you need would be in one place, safely stored, and easily accessible.

Have an emergency plumber

When it comes to managing a property, having a go-to plumber is a must. This way, if anything happens, you would be able to take care of it quickly – and you would know it would be done well. You wouldn’t have to search for plumbers and hope they are good enough. Just make sure to choose one that is relatively free, so you actually can fix any issues fast instead of waiting for days.

Manage your time

No matter what kind of property you’re managing or how many properties you’re managing, your own time management is key to doing it successfully. This is because, unfortunately, one thing that most tenants lack is patience. Even the best tenants will not have much tolerance for procrastination, especially if they too are on a tight schedule. Plus, taking your time addressing any maintenance issues could damage your relationship with the tenants as well as your reputation. In short, do your best to make yourself available when needed, and don’t take too long to fix any problem.

Be honest

Speaking about the relationship with the tenants, the best way to keep them happy is to always be honest with them, especially when talking about something unpleasant. So, if you know that the repairs might take longer than a day or two, tell them. If you know that you can’t get something fixed until the next week because your handyman is not available, let them know. Never try to sugarcoat the problem – there’s no point. Your tenants will inevitably find out that you were lying to them. So, always tell them everything you know, and even if the news is bad, their expectations will be the same as yours, and they will be much less upset about any inconvenience.  

 

Being a good property manager or a landlord is a lot about maintaining your property. This implies communicating with your tenants when there is a problem, being honest and quick about the solutions, and doing your best to fix everything as soon as possible. Of course, this is not always easy, but if you organize your time and have a few professionals on speed dial, your job should become much less stressful.

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