Summer is here again. While your tenants are making plans for vacation and barbecue, you should be thinking about your rental property. As we enter the summer months, it is easy to see all the cracks, leaks, and neglected areas that went unnoticed in the winter. Waiting for something to break in your rental property before you fix it can end up costing you a lot more money and time.
With a little bit of attention to summer maintenance now, you can save yourself a tremendous amount of headache during the summertime, and have many of your fixtures last much longer. This means your tenants will be much more likely to renew their lease at the end of their rental term because they feel taken care of. Follow the steps below for seasonal maintenance beginning now, before summer sets in.
Why Summer Maintenance Matters for Property Owners
At unexpected times, repairs and maintenance will arise in your investment property. If you own a rental property for more than a year, you know it is important to plan for these, so your overall expenditures do not become catastrophically high. Roofs do not wait until you have “extra” money; neither do air conditioning units when a tenant’s lease is coming up for renewal. Repairs happen, and they often do so at the worst possible time.
The summer months also put a different type of strain on your property. High levels of heat and humidity will increase the wear and tear on your building’s roof, exterior paint, and HVAC systems as they all work hard to keep up with the high temperatures. Tenant activity increases during the summer months due to higher foot traffic and appliance use, and as a result, everything wears out more quickly. So you must factor in these increased activities to avoid having extensive repair costs. Consult with property management team in Northern Virginia to help communicate with tenants to notify them about scheduled repairs.
In addition to ensuring the repairs are completed, there’s an even larger picture to consider: your connection with your tenants. A tenant can tell when a landlord is properly addressing issues; they certainly feel it when their air conditioning works in the heat of July, and so forth. If you can demonstrate this level of reliability, you can build trust and confidence with your tenant that may very well lead them to renew their lease instead of moving. Summer-time maintenance is simply about keeping a rental property in good condition, so it becomes a desirable place for your tenants to stay.
Financial Benefits of Preventative Maintenance vs. Emergency Repairs
Let’s examine the numbers for a moment, as this is the best place to show why preventative maintenance matters.
An HVAC service call averages $75-$200, whereas a new system costs $5,000-$12,000, depending on the equipment and building being serviced. For example, a tube of exterior caulk costs a couple of bucks with only a few hours to fix. Water-damaged wood from a slow, hidden leak can easily run into the thousands of dollars before we even consider mold removal costs. To be frank, when money gets tight and nothing seems broken, it is easier to ignore the numbers.
Something that usually isn’t mentioned when it comes to emergency repairs is that the cost isn’t the only thing we are dealing with. There are also the late phone calls, panic searching for a contractor, and paying an excessive price to get a contractor to come out that day rather than next Tuesday. Emergency situations eliminate our ability to shop around, seek competitive bids and plan. Therefore, we pay whatever it takes to get the repairs done right away.
Preventative maintenance puts control of your properties back in your own hands. You determine when to vet contractors and discover smaller problems while they are still inexpensive to repair. Over the long term, how you maintain your investment will significantly affect the cost of owning a rental property.
Communication with Tenants and Setting Expectations
During the summer months, landlords typically focus on maintaining the property and keeping the tenants happy and content. One aspect of summer maintenance that can easily fall by the wayside is communicating with your tenants before beginning any maintenance or work on their properties.
Most tenants are not unreasonable. They appreciate knowing ahead of time when a contractor will come to work on their HVAC system, when they will have an inspection, or when you will be checking the property’s exterior. Nobody wants to be surprised by anything that happens where they live, even if it is something positive.
Each and every tenant has their own reasons for needing to know what is happening to their property at all times. Therefore, it is very important to make it as easy as possible for tenants to feel informed and respected, whenever possible. Most landlords do not realize the extent of the respect that comes with keeping tenants informed about maintenance activities in their homes or on the property.
It’s also worth using this touchpoint to invite them to flag anything they’ve noticed. Sometimes, a tenant living in the property day-to-day will catch things you won’t spot during an inspection: a door that sticks, a faucet that drips, or a window that stops latching properly. That kind of ground-level feedback is genuinely useful, and asking for it signals that you’re a landlord who actually pays attention.
Final Thought
It’s not hard to maintain your property for the summer months. All you need to do to keep up with your summer maintenance is stay one step ahead, be proactive with regular property check-ups, communicate with your tenants regularly, and address small problems before they become costly ones.
Landlords who effectively maintain their properties are not necessarily doing more work; they just do it at the appropriate time. Complete your property walkthrough and contact your tenants now to ensure your property is truly ready for summer.
