Key Notes: Preventative Maintenance

Key notes property management newsletter

Is it me or did it feel like we blinked and May was here? These months are going by way too quickly. The 10th falls on a Thursday this month so you funds should be in your account by Monday the 14th midnight. I will have your statements our Monday morning.

There are quite a few owners who have your properties inspected and looked after every month. It has been going real well and we have been able to cut off a lot of small issues before they became problems as well as curbing a lot of needless maintenance calls. My main goal was to get the tenants to take care of the water systems and A/C systems. However, I am finding more and more we are hanigng notices for lack of salt in the water systems and then going back out to check the system. So I started tryng to find a better way.

Water Systems

I shopped around and found a water company that will go out and put 80 lbs of salt the salt tank for $15 per month. They are a licensed and insured water company so when they go out they will also make any minor adjustments to the system and will be keeping eyes on it to prevent a major meltdown. We can also use it in our advertisements to justify increase in rents both with resigns and new rentals. And like the lawn companies, the will report any violations they see on the property while they are there.

A/C Systems

I also shopped around and found a company that will reduce their annual service to $60. This includes cleaning of the coils, filters and drain lines. They also agreed to reduce their service calls to $65 from $85. The unit should be serviced once a year any way. My thinking is to have the A/C serviced once a year either on lease renewal or new lease for preventative maintenance and then warranty any service calls for 30 days. After that, the tenant will be responsible to call the A/C company. If it is a mechanical issue like Freon leak or condensor, it will be covered. If it is dirty coils, which is most of our calls, it is their responsibility. I have several owners who supply their tenants with a years supply worth of filters any way. At that point, we have done everything we can do to help and they need to take responsibility. And we used our buying power to make it more affordable for the tenants when they make a mistake.

Inspections

I have gone out with these guys all but one month and made sure it was done and hung plenty of notices. I did not see any violations on the inside with the exception of the occasional pet that was not authorized or a broken blind. Outside of that, they were all pretty good and the things we saw were outside. If you would rather use the water company to go out, I will still do a quarterly interior inspection myself but unless you still want to pay both companies to go monthly, I could not do more and effectively take care of you. If you would like neither, that is fine as well. We do not make any monies off of maintenance as you know.

I am getting the signs printed and laminated and should have them this month for the back splash above the sinks explaining to the tenants what NOT to put into the sink. As always, if they have a garbage disposal and it goes bad, we are taking them out. If we can control the water, A/C and septic systems or at least curb their expenses, I should be able to hit that 25% increase in net revenue this year.

All in all this would reduce your monthly expense, increase rents and have two companies, lawn and salt, with their eyes on the property in an effort to reduce major expenses along the way. Please let me know your thoughts and what or if you would like to do anything with these ideas.

As Key Real Estates property management company grows, we will continue to leverage all of our properties to get better deals for the owners. In hopes that as we all grow, we can all benefit from each other.

Whatever you do don’t blink. It will be Christmas. Talk to you soon in next months Key Notes.