How well are you handling your Kansas City rental property maintenance?
To successfully manage investment properties, it’s critical to maintain them. Handling repairs and maintenance at your rental property requires a plan for preventative care, emergency response, and careful documentation. Today, we’re talking about how you should handle property maintenance as a landlord.
Maintain a Consistent Process
First, you need to make sure your tenants understand how to report maintenance. Decide whether you want them to call you, email you, or do something else. Management companies often have an online portal where tenants can report repair needs. Your lease should indicate the process for maintenance reporting. Make sure you follow it. When your tenants let you know something is wrong, make sure they know you received the information and you’re working on it. Communication with tenants is essential when maintenance work is being completed at your rental property.
Vendors and Contractors
You’ll need a reliable list of professional vendors and contractors who can respond to your needs and provide excellent, affordable service. Get to know the contractors you’ll work with before you have an emergency. Otherwise, you’ll have a hard time finding a random plumber to come to your rental property in the middle of the night to stop a flood. Screen your vendors and make sure they are licensed and insured. You don’t want to trust your rental property to just anyone. Get referrals and do a little research online so you know who you’re working with.
Preventative and Emergency Rental Property Maintenance
At Key Partners Property Management, we never make repairs without obtaining approval from owners. However, if there’s an emergency, we’ll act quickly to prevent further damage and higher costs. We rely on our contractors to let us know about any preventative maintenance that needs to be taken care of at the property. We encourage owners to have their property inspected by a professional annually. They know how to inspect for immediate and long term needs. This helps us plan and budget for when we’ll need to replace a roof, paint the exterior, or install a new furnace. Taking care of preventative maintenance will reduce the amount of wear and tear in your house, protect the condition of your investment, and save you money.
All properties will need maintenance, and it’s important that you are prepared. Make sure you’re willing to take preventative, proactive actions that will keep your tenants happy, preserve the value of your asset, and provide a safe and habitable home.
If you have any questions about how we provide outstanding maintenance services to our owners and landlords, please contact us at Key Partners Property Management.