Occasionally, property owners will ask us how we reduce demands and calls from tenants. Often, this comes from past negative experiences with their investment properties. We don’t frame the problem as how to reduce after-hours calls from tenants. Our philosophy is not to dodge phone calls. Instead, we want tenants to have no reason to call.
Most tenants don’t want to call their landlord or property manager regularly either. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that most people rent a home and want to enjoy it in peace. We see it as our job to help them do this by making sure the property remains in good repair.
Reduce After-Hours Calls from Tenants
One of the best ways to keep your tenant is to keep your tenant happy. Tenant retention is a fundamental component of successful real estate investment, because every turnover costs you money. Therefore, instead of asking how to keep your tenant from calling you, the better question is to ask yourself how you can keep your tenant from needing to call.
One way to keep your tenant from calling is to keep up with repairs around the property, and create a preventative maintenance schedule.
It’s the obligation of the owner to ensure a rental property is safe and in good repair, of course. It makes good financial sense to go beyond just keeping up with things that break. Ensuring future problems don’t arise is a good way to avoid after-hours maintenance incidents as well as protect the value of the property.
A Pinch of Prevention
Certainly we find repair emergencies still come up, but being proactive definitely keeps them to a minimum. We work with a group of talented and reliable tradespeople to address small problems before they turn into large headaches with large bills attached.
This also fosters a positive ongoing relationship with tenants. When they see us keeping their home in good repair, they feel valued and appreciated and are more likely to take pride in the property’s upkeep themselves.
Some of the regular maintenance we recommend includes:
- Ensure furnace filters are replaced quarterly.
- Ensure vents are cleaned every three years or so.
- Annual visual inspection of all water sources to check for drips and leaks.
- Inspect grout and caulking and refresh as needed.
- Clean the gutters.
- Trim back any trees or bushes as needed. (with advice from an arborist on what time of year to do this)
- Flush your hot water heater annually. This is particularly important in Calgary because of our hard water. Tankless hot water heaters especially need to be flushed in order to operate properly.
A Long-Term Investment
It can seem like a waste of money to bring in service people when there isn’t an acute problem, but it’s quite the opposite.
All of these tasks and other preventative steps can save you from large repairs later. And of course, they also save us from fielding calls from frustrated tenants. Regular maintenance is truly a win-win-win plan.
