How the Gold Standard in Maintenance Support Helps You Grow Your Rental Portfolio

Home maintenance is one of the most tedious parts of managing a rental property. In a Buildium survey of 700 homeowners, 61% reported that maintenance, repairs, and replacements top their list of 16 stressors in owning a rental property. In a similar report by Porch, 78% of renter calls were about maintenance issues. This translates to at least six calls per year, with each call involving several requests. 

As a rental owner, you know you are legally bound to address maintenance concerns raised by your renters. You have to fix critical issues within seven days and less critical ones in 30 days before they can start to take action against you. Looking at the list below of the most common maintenance requests, you’ll see these are not easy do-it-yourself fixes.

List of renters’ most common maintenance requests

Whether you’re new to the business managing less than three rentals or an experienced owner with a handful of properties to run, attending to each maintenance request can easily overwhelm you. The law requires you to respond to urgent requests in 24 hours and 48 hours for less urgent ones. This responsibility gets even harder when you’re actively holding a job, managing other businesses, or living in a different state.  

Just imagine how easier it would be to manage and scale your portfolio when you have a professional maintenance service that you can easily rely on when the need arises.

Recommended Read: Top 5 Problems of Self-Managing Homeowners and How to Deal With Them

Get the Gold Standard in Maintenance

24/7 Hotline

Suppose you’re managing a couple or more rental properties you own. You’ll have to do the whole maintenance process upon receiving a request from any of your renters. That means taking their calls to fixing the problem yourself or finding 3rd party service providers and ensuring they do a good job at it. But you can’t possibly be on call at any time of any day for all these. 

Getting a property manager can solve this problem for you. They are responsible for regular maintenance and emergency repairs, ensuring work done by contractors is timely and up to standard. Property managers, however, are not created equal. 

You will want to choose one that offers round-the-clock maintenance support to free yourself from answering maintenance calls that could come at the most inconvenient time or day. You’re also assured the problem will immediately be given attention. This will make your residents happy and secure knowing there is a 24/7 hotline they can call, especially with an emergency maintenance issue.

In-house Maintenance Team

If your property manager has its own professional maintenance team, they can be swiftly deployed to make quick fixes so your residents won’t have to wait long for help. And if the job requires a contractor, they can easily coordinate with one from their network of vetted and insured 3rd party maintenance service providers. To reduce maintenance costs, look for a property manager that does not mark up on the contractor’s invoice.

The best thing about using a property manager with an in-house maintenance team is that you can keep your property in good condition at all times, protecting your rental profits and your property value in the long run.

Tech-enabled Services

The gold standard in property management leverages technology to provide seamless services to rental owners. Tech-enabled property managers like Poplar Homes provide their homeowners with an Owner Dashboard to track and monitor all updates on their property, including maintenance. 

You can view work orders, cost estimates, and invoices, and monitor the progress of ongoing repairs on your dashboard. This feature solves the burdensome back-and-forth that happens in traditional maintenance services. You can access your dashboard from anywhere, giving you a sense of control over your property investment whether you live nearby or out of state.

Value For Money

Doing maintenance the traditional way can be costly.  You can be more cost-efficient with a property management company that offers maintenance support. You’ll get even more bang for your buck if they offer features like a free home warranty and home maintenance credit like Poplar Homes. As maintenance can cost you roughly $2,000 per year, having a home warranty and maintenance coverage will help you save in the long term.