Property management comes with lots of responsibilities, and property maintenance is one of the most commonly recurring issues you must be ready to tackle. Failure to have an efficient plan can lead to complaints from your tenants, and if it prolongs, they may decide to vacate the properties under your management.
You're probably familiar with plenty of things that require routine care and repairs, from broken appliances, leaky ceilings, and more. The best way to address these issues is to have a good maintenance team who can manage things smoothly.
Check out these strategies to upgrade your team maintenance processes, skills, and services using our expert property management consulting experience!
Training Boosts Your Maintenance Services
One of the best ways to improve your team's skills is through training. Bring in a trainer to your premises or send them to a training facility to harness their skills. Training your team with the right company also ensures that they get accreditation when necessary and stay up-to-date on the latest resources for delivering expert maintenance services. Their competence levels improve, and you won't have to worry about delivering poor-quality maintenance services to property owners who rely on you for excellent care of their investments!
A quality employee training program is a long-term investment, and it makes property management more effortless. It's worth the time and expense to eliminate the stress of high turnover for your maintenance team or delivering services that don't stack up to the competition in your market.
Equip Your Team
Once your team has critical maintenance skills for success, provide the supplies needed to accomplish each task. Use quality equipment while setting and maintaining an appropriate budget for your maintenance expenses. You'll also need a corresponding fee structure that clients can handle and make sense for your services.
Don't forget to provide a place to store the supplies safely and have a regular dialogue with the team about new supplies. Remember, you aren't an expert in this field. Your trained maintenance technicians might be better informed about new equipment in the market that could assist them in performing tasks more efficiently.
Have a Schedule
With an excellent maintenance team that can fix almost everything, you minimize the complaints from tenants and reduce vacancy rates. However, every rental property has recurring maintenance needs that can lead to more significant problems without preventive care.
As a property management consultant, we know that it's easy to ignore the small things when concentrating on big projects. The best property managers have a year-round schedule for routine and seasonal maintenance to handle things like pest elimination, potential plumbing issues, electrical work, and appliance repairs.
To make sure everything is at its best, come up with (and stick to) a schedule for maintenance activities. For instance, you can check for broken light bulbs during inspections, replace air filters quarterly, and monitor landscaping during your seasonal maintenance tasks.
Better Maintenance Benefits Properties (and Owners)
By upgrading your teams' skills for different types of maintenance, you and your clients enjoy benefits, including:
Keep the Best Renters
One of the biggest reasons tenants don't renew is poor maintenance. If you have an efficient maintenance team, you will keep renters happy and attract ideal tenants. When a resident moves into your property, you also expect them to take good care of it, keep it clean, and pay rent on time. An unhappy renter could decide to vacate, which could cost you more in lost rental income than the repair or maintenance.
Keeping renters happy leads to more lease renewals, and they will be more appreciative of your efforts. When happy renters stay for more than one lease term, your property owners enjoy higher rental returns.
Reduce Costs for Property Owners
Property investors appreciate expert maintenance that also helps them reduce costs. While lease agreements require tenants to notify you in case of a maintenance issue, sometimes an issue can be overlooked and lead to a more costly repair down the road.
Even if it's a minor problem, responding immediately with your well-trained maintenance team helps renters feel cared for and can minimize significant repair costs for your clients. Saving money for property owners is excellent, but skimping on low-cost or DIY solutions could lead to repeated repairs for the same problem and increased complaints from unhappy renters.
Prevent Large Scale (and Costly) Repairs
When you keep a close eye on the condition of a property, it lowers the chances of needing large-scale repairs. Many repairs are inevitable. However, having a skilled team means you won't miss minor repairs with a schedule or routine maintenance and inspections.
Work With a Property Management Consultant to Boost Maintenance Skills
Knowing how to upgrade your team's maintenance skills is easier with the insights of an expert property management consultant! Take the guesswork out of delivering better-quality maintenance services for your clients, and keep your company ahead of the competition with the best maintenance team in your market. Let Real-Time Consulting Services review your current operations and deliver a training program to help your team become the best in the business!
We will review your business plan and make sure you are on track.