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Advice for Rental Property Owners Who Want to Cut Maintenance Costs
One way to set a steady flow of income and increase profits from your rental property business is better management of property maintenance. Whether you're renting out a residential or commercial building, you need to establish a system or plan to handle the maintenance of your property proactively.
Each of your tenants has different maintenance needs and problems. As the number of tenants or properties you own increases, you may likely encounter more maintenance issues. In this case, having a capable team to help you in maintenance management is the key.
Take note of these tips on how to handle property maintenance management and cut down costs that go into maintaining your rental property.
Improve Workflow
Equipping your maintenance staff with the right tools and technology is crucial to carrying out their job efficiently. Here are two simple and affordable alternatives that rental property owners can utilize to optimize the workflow of their maintenance team.
- Using relevant apps. Management and productivity apps come in handy as you can download and use them through your mobile phone. There are apps that help you with planning and tracking your maintenance team’s tasks. Other apps can be connected to your property’s CCTVs to boost security or help in building inspections.
- Enhancing Communication Lines. Your maintenance staff should utilize the latest technology to communicate with each other. The better the lines of communication, the more chances you can improve the quality of work and increase the speed of response or completion time.
Become More Proactive
It’s much better to think ahead of time and use your maintenance management resources to your business advantage than simply responding after something breaks or when issues occur. We have a saying that prevention is better than cure, so that’s why you should embrace proactive maintenance strategies.
Here are the benefits you can get when you become proactive in your maintenance management.
- Pinpoint Ways to Cut Maintenance Costs. Adopting a maintenance plan allows you to gain valuable insights to save money in maintenance costs. This is especially when you’ve been adopting your maintenance plan for a long time. It will be easier to identify if certain installations or services are helping your tenants or adding value to your property. If otherwise, you can stop using them or replace them with better alternatives.
- Avoid More Expenses. Set a regular maintenance schedule to avoid paying double for emergency repairs. Also, take care of the more expensive installations in your rental property, such as your HVAC system, to avoid replacing them prematurely.
- Plan Long-Term Budget. You’re more able to plan a long-term maintenance budget if you have data on your maintenance expenses. As such, you won’t be shocked when emergency repairs occur along the way.
Utilize Property Maintenance Software
Using property maintenance software helps you manage, monitor, and document the operations of your maintenance team. It saves you time and lessens the costs of labor and equipment downtime.
- Labor. The money you pay for the labor of your contractors and staff is likely to make a significant part of your expenses. However, you can cut labor costs if you encourage your employees to prioritize work, minimize work efficiencies, lessen overtime costs, and estimate time frames for each task. These goals are achievable if you utilize property maintenance software.
- Equipment failure. If maintenance planning and scheduling are automated, you can take your property maintenance practices to the next level. You can minimize issues like malfunctioning equipment and prevent emergency repairs.
Keeping Proper Inventory
Ensure that you have stock of important items to avoid delays in servicing and repairs. The right balance of inventory is crucial - no understocking or overstocking. Use inventory management software to make sure that you’re keeping proper inventory.
Track Energy Consumption
Large residential and commercial buildings can potentially consume a significant amount of energy every month. If you have this problem, you should track your energy consumption and identify opportunities to reduce costs.
Make sure that you regularly maintain your HVAC system because poor maintenance of your HVAC system can increase your energy consumption. Also, consider using LEDs or automated lighting controls.
Outsource Your Property Maintenance Staff
You can hire a property management company to oversee the maintenance of your rental property. It means less work and headache on your part because the company you hire will do most of the work. Just make sure that you hire a trustworthy property management company.
Compare the property management companies operating in your area and read reviews of their former and current clients. Know how to negotiate prices and services to save money on expenses. If you’ve picked one to manage your rental property, don’t forget to track their work by doing occasional surveys on your tenants to rate their level of satisfaction.
Takeaway
Now you know how to cut down costs on the maintenance of your rental property. Make sure to optimize workflow, use property maintenance software, track energy consumption, adopt proactive maintenance plans, and keep a proper inventory of maintenance items.
