viernes, 2 de septiembre de 2022

Property Maintenance at Its Best

 Either a first time investor in the real-estate market or just too busy to take care of your own properties you will find yourself on the lookout for the services of a property management company. To make sure everything runs smoothly from top to bottom, from the lease to the next bid on your property make sure the property maintenance company you pick to manage your properties and buildings is experienced enough to work with your assets and to increase your property's value.


You can't expect everything to run smoothly or fall into place from day one, however experienced your property management company is. They need time to learn all your property's characteristics and to get acquainted with your expectations from them. Keep though a close eye on their feedback and progress to make sure that they meet all deadlines and project specifications.


There are five things you should keep track of to make sure you have the services of an efficient property maintenance company https://myelitepropertymaintenance.com/. First of all such companies are required to have a total quality assurance program as to provide you with high quality maintenance services all day long, the entire 24 hours of it. The best way to make sure you receive that kind of service from your maintenance company install a pay per task program, which is far more motivating than the common pay per hour system.


Your second concern should be inspections and feedback towards the maintenance staff and the maintenance company workers. As such, perform daily or weekly spot checks to keep the employees well performing and consistent in their job fulfillment. For a greater impact you can even take pictures and insert them in they're paychecks along with the praises or rantings towards their work.


Third of all make sure you set tight deadlines for even the smallest tasks in your property maintenance schedule. Each task is registered either in a property management software program or in a calendar and pinpointed a time for completion. The payment for that particular task is approved only if the response in given within a certain time from the completion of the task. That will ensure that you have the most up-to-date view on your property management tasks and progress.


As the fourth keyword for the best property maintenance we pick availability. It is quite uncommon to have a maintenance company all for yourself or to have them on your property 24/7. It is important though that you get a hold of the maintenance staff for the quickest solving of your problem. Therefore if you notice at 6 o'clock in the morning graffiti painted on the parking lot signs you should be able to reach someone to forward the task to at 6:01.


Last, but not least, make sure you are working with an honest, ethical property maintenance company. For this respect only your maintenance company should provide you with legal advice as to make sure you receive all that you pay for.


As owners, investors, and managers, we can easily jump to the conclusion that a great maintenance program is about fixing the broking stuff. This falls far short of the great maintenance program that should be our objective. A great maintenance program delivers great customer service, increases the project asset value, reduces ongoing maintenance cost through improved systems, and enhances the marketability and leaseability of a rental property or multifamily community.


How do we achieve these themes with our maintenance plan? What characteristics should our maintenance staff have?


First, let's consider the skill requirements. The maintenance team ideally will have:


Some experience managing bids and bid selection;

Proven project management skills;

Some proven contractor oversight skill;

Subsystem maintenance skills such as carpentry, pool operations, appliance repair, painting, landscaping, air conditioning, and plumbing, electrical; and

Certifications for pool operation and maintenance, air conditioning, and lead paint management.

The next consideration is the level and type of these skills relative to the rental management they support. A very large property of over 300 units may have as part of the staff an electrician or a plumber. And, your maintenance plan should call for more of these qualifications the larger your property or portfolio. Properties over 100 units should always hire at least one maintenance technician with air conditioning certification.


If the portfolio is large and growing, the maintenance plan should include plans to continually improve the certifications and skills of the management team.


Next, let's consider service level performance. For a property of over 200 units, having maintenance staff living on site can substantially improve customer service. Additionally, properties should have a plan to provide emergency maintenance around the clock. Larger portfolios should have a running standby list for coverage 365 days per year. The standby maintenance staff should provide response at the issue location within 30 minutes for larger properties. This level of service improves rentability and strengthens your property reputation.


Third on our list, a well planned property maintenance plan includes preventive maintenance. The staff should develop plans, inventory, and seek information and education to extend and improve the lifecycle performance of all property subsystems as a means of decreased maintenance effort and reduced capital cost.


Property Maintenance at Its Best

 Either a first time investor in the real-estate market or just too busy to take care of your own properties you will find yourself on the l...