Maintaining your rental property is just as important as maintaining the home that you live in.
Failure to maintain the property brings on a number of potential consequences, including:
- Lack of tenants/ Unhappy tenants
- Significant damage to your property
- Costly repairs
- Structural damage
- Codes violations
- Bad reputation
These
are just a few examples of what can go wrong when your rental home is not
properly maintained. Rather than face these issues, ensure that you are always
on top of maintenance at the property; it is that simple. Although you might
think that maintaining a home costs an arm and a leg, maintaining property is
much less expensive than those costly repairs and definitely much less of a
hassle. If you are too busy to maintain your property you can always hire a property
management company to take care of things for you.
Annual Checkup
Each
year, call in a heating and air contractor as well as a plumber. Each of these
professionals can perform an inspection of your unit, both on the interior and
the exterior, detecting any potential problems early while they’re still small
and easily repairable. The inspection may also reveal major problems that
should be repaired immediately to prevent any further problems. The cost of
each inspection is small, but very much worth the cost.
Pest Control
Cockroaches,
ants, termites, fleas and a host of other pests can quickly set their home up
at your rental property, bringing along all of their friends and family and
even adding to their additions. A pest infestation is nothing pretty for a
renter, nor for a homeowner. Rather than struggle to get rid of pests, prevent
them with regular pest control. Professionals can come into your home once per
month, once every three months, or on a schedule that suits you best.
Clean the Air Ducts
Air
ducting cleaning is needed only once every few years, but it is well-worth your
time and money to initiate the service. With clean air ducts your tenants will
breath better, but you’re also protecting your HVAC system. Dirty air ducts
push air back into the unit, causing an array of trouble. You don’t want to
replace the HVAC unit in your home, that’s for sure! By sending someone out for
air duct cleaning, you prolong the lifetime of your unit.
Home Inspections
According
to state laws, a landlord may enter a rental dwelling unit on a monthly basis
for inspection of that unit. A notice of 24- hours must be provided to the
tenant before arrival. Although you might not desire to check the unit once per
month, you do want to make it a habit to get out at least once every three or
four months, checking for any signs of damage to doors, windows, gutters, etc.
Most tenants happily oblige your request to inspect the unit as long as they
know that you’re doing it to ensure the property is always in best condition.
Also, if you are planning to become a section 8 landlord you will want to make sure that that your rental property passes code standards.
Also, if you are planning to become a section 8 landlord you will want to make sure that that your rental property passes code standards.
Clean the Gutters
Our
final preventative maintenance tip is to keep the gutters at the home clean and
free of debris. Although the tenant should take care of this on their own, it
never hurts to double check that it is being done so that no further problems
develop. Clean gutters are happy gutters; keep them happy.
The Bottom Line
Prevention
of problems before they occur is a far more viable option than repairing after
disaster strikes. As a landlord you owe it to yourself as well as to your
tenants to ensure that your property is always in the best possible condition. Keep
the tips and information for preventative maintenance above
in mind and ensure that your rental property is always at its very best.
If you are
interested in hiring a property management company please check us out at http://www.mysuttonpm.com/property-management-vancouver.
