What Kind of Maintenance is 'Routine?' Advice for Farmington Hills Landlords

You know you need to do "routine" maintenance on your Farmington Hills rental property, but what does that mean? What kind of maintenance is "routine?"

Typically, it means:

• You fix things when they break.
• You do inspections when tenants leave or move in.
• You perform seasonal inspections as well.

What more should you do as a landlord to keep your rental property in excellent condition? What are some signs you might not be doing enough day-to-day maintenance?

• You get a lot of maintenance calls from tenants.
• You find yourself fixing things too often.

An Outline of Routine Maintenance

Routine (or preventative) maintenance is the general upkeep of your rental property. Tune-ups, inspections, updates, and seasonal preparations fall under the category of “routine.” 

If you are not spending time at your rental property to regularly inspect and repair small issues, you could be setting yourself up for more significant (and expensive) repairs later. 

What Kind of Maintenance Is Routine?

If you’re a new landlord or you didn’t realize your landlord tasks should include checkups on your property, here are a few maintenance tasks to add to your essential checklist. Keep in mind that many of these activities are year-round and not limited solely to move-in and move-out.

Pest Extermination

Whether monthly, quarterly, or on a customized schedule that works best for your Farmington Hills rental property, treat for pests. Your tenants shouldn’t deal with bugs or rodents in your rental property. Set up a schedule to prevent pest invasions. Whether it's ants or wasps in the summer or squirrels in your attic in the winter, routine pest prevention is essential to providing a comfortable home.

Text Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Make this task easy on yourself. Help tenants avoid the dangerous health effects of carbon monoxide! When it’s time to move the clocks forward or back, use that as your reminder to check the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in your rental property. Replace the batteries when you check them. 

Change the Air Filters

Get your tenants to help you with this one! Depending on the quality of your filters and the MERV rating, change your filters monthly or quarterly. Set up a regular filter delivery and ask your tenants to change the filter when it arrives. Check Grout and Caulking

It doesn’t take long to walk through the interior and around the exterior of your property to take a look at grout and caulking. Take a caulking gun and some grout with you. Stop and fill gaps when you see them. 

Clean the Gutters

Do this once or twice a year, depending on the debris that gathers in the gutters. Use ladders with caution and be careful when blowing out gutters or using the hose to run water through them. While you’re on the ladder, take a look at your shingles and check for gaps between the gutters and the edge of the roof. Flush the Water Heater

You’ll save your tenants the torture of cold showers if you flush the water heater once a year! This task helps extend the life of your water heater. Flushing the sediment from the water heater also helps prevent clogs in pipes and faucets. 

Make a schedule for taking care of these routine tasks. Alert your tenants that you need to stop by for an inspection and preventive maintenance so they can schedule it with you. Keeping up with these maintenance tasks helps prevent more significant repairs at your Farmington Hills rental property. 

What Is an Emergency Maintenance Issue?

An emergency repair can happen any time—despite routine maintenance. Emergencies can threaten the safety of your tenants, plus they're often expensive (and timely) to repair. 

• A burst pipe that floods the basement. 
• A fire from bad wiring or a lightning strike. 
• An HVAC replacement after a scorching summer night.
• Roof damage from a storm or fallen tree branch.  
• A water heater that leaks and requires replacement. 
• Water damage that then requires you to replace any flooring.

While you can't predict when an emergency will happen, you can prevent some emergencies or expensive repairs with consistent preventive maintenance. A great example of this in Farmington Hills would be the consistent removal of ice dams from your roof and making sure your tenants understand how to care properly for the attic if your property has one.

It can feel like a time-consuming task to keep up with routine maintenance, but you’ll save money by preventing significant and expensive issues at your rental property. Neglecting regular maintenance causes your property to fall into disrepair. You’ll have a hard time keeping good tenants if you don’t take care of your property throughout the year!

We’re Your Routine Maintenance Experts!

Preventive maintenance is part of our expert property management services. You don’t have to take care of your property throughout the year—JMZ Management does it for you! 

We understand the value of keeping your Farmington Hills investment property in excellent condition. It’s a full-time job that takes place year-round. If you’re always fixing the same things over and over, it’s time to let an expert property manager in Farmington Hills provide routine maintenance to minimize your "time sink" in fixing that leaky bathroom sink!

Our team can enhance the value of your property with our maintenance expertise and vetted professional contractors. Your tenants will stay longer, and you’ll benefit from a better bottom line when you take advantage of our full-service property management services. 

Not sure property management is worth the expense? Consider the value of your time: use our savings calculator to find out what an hour of your time is worth—then let’s talk!