It doesn’t matter if you’ve owned rental properties for years, or you’re just getting started and recently purchased your first rental property in Portland Oregon, or elsewhere in the United States. Property management is important, especially how you handle maintenance because, if you let a rental property become run down you risk losing tenants and jeopardizing your cash flow.
In this article we will share with you simple tips you can use to streamline the maintenance of your rental properties so you can stay on top of maintenance, keep your tenants satisfied, and build long term, stable cash flow from your rental properties.
#1 – Be Ready For the Worst Case Scenario
One of the best things you can do as a property owner is to prepare for a worst case scenario for your rental property, and then have a contingency plan ready for how you’re going to deal with that problem.
For example: How will you clean up your rental following a major snow storm, flood or fire? Knowing the steps that you will take are important because they will enable you to act immediately, without any hesitation, and ensure that cleanup of your rental property will be handled smoothly and efficiently.
If by any chance you have more than one employee managing your rental properties when there is a crisis, you should always make sure that each employee in your organization knows what to do, and how to handle a crisis at your rental property, just so that nobody is standing around waiting for you to arrive to take charge following a flood or disaster.
#2 – Know who you’re going to Call
Besides having a worst case scenario in place for how you’ll handle cleanup of your rental properties following a natural disaster like a flood or fire, you should also have a call list in place for the people that you’re going to call following a disaster. This step is important because it insures that you’re familiar with who are the most proficient people to call in any scenario.
#3 – Don’t Neglect Long Term Maintenance
One of the keys to success with managing a long-term, profitable rental property is not neglecting the long-term maintenance needs of that rental.
Some of the most common long-term maintenance means that you should focus on at your rental property include: weatherization of the rental property, pest control and a quarterly or annual checkup of all appliances inside the rental to ensure that they are running efficiently.
Besides long term maintenance like weatherization, you should also confirm with your tenants if they are going to care for the landscaping surrounding your rental property, or if this is something you will have to do yourself, because keeping the landscape maintained will help your rental property to retain its value over time.
#4 – Keep Maintenance Paperwork Organized
Over time one thing that you will come to realize the longer you own a rental property in Portland Oregon, or elsewhere across United States, is that you are going to build quite a paper trail including bills, invoices, warranties, and other documentation from the maintenance performed at your rental.
To manage paperwork efficiently you should have it stored in a central location which can be easily accessed anywhere. Some options for you should consider are cloud storage solutions like OneDrive or Dropbox, since this will enable you to have access to important documents related to your rental properties whenever you need them.
#5 – Develop a Protocol for Dealing with Your Tenants
When it comes to maintenance issues like a leaky toilet, or backed up kitchen sink, you should develop a protocol for dealing with your tenants because, a simple maintenance issue can turn “nasty” if it’s not handled efficiently, so it’s best to have a protocol in place for yourself and your employees to follow should problems arise at your rental.
As important as it is to develop a protocol for dealing with tenants you should also make sure that you always make the effort to be honest with your tenants and not tell them things that they want to hear because, if you face a major maintenance issue at your rental like replacing the water heater, or HVAC, you want to be honest with the tenant, and tell them when they can expect those appliances to be replaced, rather than making promises that you can’t keep.
#6 – Introduce New Maintenance Companies
Let’s say that you’ve hired a new pest control company or gardener to perform routine maintenance at your rental property, you should always contact your tenants personally to introduce new maintenance companies so that the tenant will not be caught off guard when they see someone new working at your rental property.
#7 – Think About Out Sourcing Your Property Management Needs
Last of all, but most important, as you grow your portfolio of rental properties you should start thinking about outsourcing your property management needs since this will only make your life easier and give you more time to focus on growing your portfolio of rental properties.
We specialize in all aspects of Portland Oregon Property management so regardless if you are located in Portland, Oregon, or elsewhere in the United States we can make owning rental properties in the Portland area easy for you.
To learn more about the property management services we can offer you contact Property Management Systems today by calling us at (503) 515-3170 or click here to connect with us online.
