As a property manager or landlord, you will not just focus on getting your property occupied. You also need to prioritize maintenance requests. Focusing on how to attend to every maintenance request will not just keep the property improved but will also keep the satisfaction and safety of your tenants.
If you are juggling how to work on every maintenance request, especially if you manage multiple properties, here’s why you should push through and how you can keep your pace.
Importance of Prioritizing Maintenance Requests
You may be facing a lot of work now as a property manager but you should also learn how to prioritize maintenance requests. By learning how to prioritize which of the maintenance requests you have received, you can spend your time and energy. Fewer worries, less stress, less hassle.
As you get hold of the workflow, you will notice how you can achieve cost-effective and responsive solutions in attending to every maintenance request. You will also avoid losing track of the important things you should tackle first. As a result, you will not have any other issues with your tenants and will not spend on expensive repair costs.
Different Ways How to Prioritize Maintenance Requests
Now that you know how important prioritization of maintenance requests is, here are different ways you can manage and improve your workflow as a property manager.
Know about various maintenance issues
There are different kinds of maintenance issues. Most of the common maintenance issues that tenants complain about are electric wiring, HVAC, leaky pipes, pest problems, and roof problems. Based on these issues, you should have each of them to be inspected to know which needs prompt attention first.
Some of these might only need a few tweaks, and some may need a major repair. As long as you keep yourself updated with the conditions of the property and the tenant’s safety, you can find the one that needs the most attention.
Sort out the urgent issues
Your work as a property manager will also get easier if you can try to sort out which of the maintenance issues you are receiving you should attend to first. You can categorize each of these issues into four namely emergency, high-priority, medium priority, and low priority maintenance issues.
For example, a leaky pipe or a pest problem can be scheduled after a day or two. Therefore, they should be under low priority maintenance. But for maintenance issues like roof damage or problems with the electric wiring, you need to put it under emergency or high priority. It will depend on the current condition of the roof or the wiring. You also need to know how much you think is the tenants’ safety at risk.
Prepare to handle difficult tenants
Aside from working on various maintenance requests, you may also experience how problematic some of your tenants may be. Sure, there are kind, understanding, and patient tenants who are willing to wait for you to address their maintenance requests. However, there are also demanding tenants that will keep on bugging you to fix the property right away.
It is not easy to explain the process of how you handle and prioritize every maintenance request to one of your tenants, especially if you are managing multiple properties. Some of the requests may not need a prompt response, but the tenant will see them as something urgent. Thus, they will keep on complaining until the problem gets fixed.
Some tenants may be the opposite. As soon as they see damages on the property, they will not raise it right away thinking it is only a small problem and do not need attention. Later on, you will just find out that the same issue has turned into greater damage. And that is when your tenant informs you about it.
Since tenants have different personalities and priorities than yours, it is hard to deal with them. All you need to do to solve the issue is to consider their characters. That is why it is important for you to also know your tenants personally.
For example, if you know your tenant turns a small issue into a big deal, consider prioritizing them. In that way, they will stop with the complaints. On the other hand, if your tenant often downplays serious maintenance issues, let them show you the damages by paying a visit to them so that you can also advise them on the necessary steps you need to conduct to get the property fixed.
Above all, experience is the best teacher indeed when it comes to handling tenants’ maintenance requests. You will get used to it and know which one you should prioritize.
Seek professional help
Even though you think you can still handle your work as a property manager, you should still consider seeking professional help. You are only human, so you will have shortcomings and get burned out if you continue to shoulder all the work alone.
You can hire an assistant with excellent communication skills who can handle dealing with the tenants and the contractors. In this way, the tasks are divided and easier for you to process.
In addition, you should also seek professional help for serious maintenance issues even if you think you have the knowledge or skills to fix them. You may need to spend more when it comes to hiring professional repairmen, but it is worth the investment since they have more experience and training when it comes to property maintenance.
Avail Full-Service Property Management
If you are looking for the right people who can provide you with excellent service when it comes to property management, Luxury Property Care is the best option. We do not just simply manage real estate but also offer additional services for property owners and landlords to make their life easier such as offering the lowest maintenance and repair costs. It is the best solution to take care of both your property and your tenants.
For more information, call us at (561) 944 – 2992 or complete our contact form.
