The start of a new year brings on a lot of planning and organizing for Greenwich property managers. Planning ahead for maintenance, vacancy, getting your home rent-ready if needed, new appliance purchases, and most important of all, budgeting for these items. When it comes to budgeting, look back at past appliance and replacement purchases as a guide to know when these items may need some TLC. Carpet and pad in a rental home should last approximately seven years. Paint on the walls should stay in good condition for longer, but need a touch up about every two years or upon move-out. Appliances have a general life expectancy of eight to ten years, though freezers and furnaces tend to last up to twenty years. In this article, landlords will discover how they can keep maintenance costs at bay while still caring meticulously for their rental property and keeping it in pristine condition.
How Much Money Should I Keep in My Maintenance Budget?
Whether your rental property is one year old or fifty years old, Greenwich property management landlords must have a maintenance savings account. While a fifty year old home will likely have more maintenance than a one year old home, RPM Southern Connecticut recommends setting aside one to two months of the rent amount to account for maintenance and replacements during that calendar year. It is also a popular belief that landlords set aside one percent of the what the property is valued at to account for one year worth of maintenance. If a property is valued at $300,000 your maintenance savings account should have $3,000 set aside. Whichever guideline you choose to follow, the bottom line is the same: set a good amount of money aside to account for yearly maintenance costs. This will help keep your mind at ease when those 2 AM maintenance emergency calls startle you from a restful night’s sleep.
Preventative Maintenance with Greenwich Property Management
Nobody likes to spend money, especially when it is not necessary or needed at that time. RPM Southern Connecticut does not recommend doing unnecessary repairs, but it does recommend that landlords stay up to date on preventative maintenance. Doing this will keep maintenance costs low in the long run. Here are a few examples of preventative maintenance Greenwich property managers can do to keep their home safe from major repairs:
- Tune up your furnace annually.
- Change the filters monthly on the air conditioning units.
- Install and clean out rain gutters before rainy season to prevent leaking rooftops and flooding.
- Inspect roof shingles annually and climb into your attic to check for any signs of water damage or leaking.
- Adjust lawn sprinklers to ensure you are watering your landscape instead of your house. This can lead to rotting wood which attracts termites.
- Give proper care to your pipes and plumbing especially during the winter season in cold climates.
- Install a bathroom exhaust fan and require in your lease agreement that residents make us of it to prevent excessive condensation which leads to mold and mildew growth.
- Check and change smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector batteries biannually.
- Recharge or replace fire extinguishers annually.
Greenwich property management professionals at RPM Southern Connecticut have saved clients thousands of dollars annually by conducting routine preventative maintenance inspections.
Make Repairs During the Turnover Process
A quick and easy way to keep tenants happy and to keep your maintenance costs in check is to perform needed maintenance between tenants. Doing this eliminates scheduling and posting entry notices for your tenants, one less step for Greenwich property managers to worry about. It does not inconvenience anyone and the repair technicians will enjoy not having to tiptoe around other people’s belongings. Taking care of maintenance during vacancy guarantees your house will show beautifully to prospective tenants which will help you rent your home faster and to the right kind of tenants: those who respect and care for your home.
Do it Right the First Time
Saving a few dollars by choosing the DIY method over hiring a professional may seem attractive at first, but it usually ends up costing homeowners even more money in the future. Too often, homeowners and landlords find that along the way of the DIY process, it takes too much time and is difficult to do the job correctly and perfectly. If the job is done incorrectly, it can lead to more major repairs in the future which also leads to unhappy tenants. Worst case scenario is that the job is done incorrectly and leads to harm of one of your tenants. Greenwich property managers can protect themselves against liability by hiring licensed and insured professional technicians and repairman. When they are licensed and insured, they are required to abide by the laws and codes, which guarantees the work will be done properly and protects your name from a lawsuit and puts them on the hook. When rental investment property owners choose RPM Southern Connecticut, they get preferred pricing from our licensed and insured professional technicians, so they are saving money and getting professional service.
Put our experienced team to the test. Call RPM Southern Connecticut today to see how we help investment property owners stay on budget with maintenance costs and keep their investment cash flow positive.