One of the biggest headaches for landlords is maintenance. It’s not a question of if something will break in the house; it’s a question of when. In fact, maintenance issues can be the reason landlords hire us: they are tired of late-night and weekend calls, they don’t know which repair person to call, or they are unable to get a vendor to respond quickly.
At SmartEgg, we are experts at getting repairs fixed and our maintenance coordinator, Jonathan Marasigan, cares deeply about serving our clients and tenants. Did you know we send out post-repair surveys to all our tenants and have a 95% satisfaction rating? It’s true!
Today we are pulling back the curtain so you get a rare view into what goes on behind the scenes. We have an extensive policies and procedures manual and fully 20% is dedicated to maintenance alone. We take it very seriously! This is how the Maintenance section begins:
Put yourself in the owner’s shoes: “If I were the owner…”
- How would I feel about this situation?
- What information would I want to know?
- How often would I want to get an update?
- What would I want the outcome to be?
All maintenance issues are submitted and tracked in our property management software, marked with priority level given, and tracked every step of the way (there are 11 stages of a maintenance issue). Jonathan responds same day to all incoming requests and his first order of business is evaluation: Does this issue affect health or safety, is it necessary, is it reasonable? If the issue is necessary, Jonathan refers to our extensive troubleshooting section to see if the tenant can resolve it. In fact, it’s not uncommon for an issue to be resolved through troubleshooting alone, resulting in no cost to our clients!
When a repair vendor is required, Jonathan researches to see if the issue has come up before and would be a vendor recall, or if it’s brand new. He’ll choose the best vendor for the job and send a work order to them (“Choose the least expensive person who will get the job done right”). He follows up according to a specific protocol and is tasked with doing whatever it takes to get the issue resolved. Jonathan loves what he does and is very persistent.
We won’t bore you with all the details but the manual also covers such topics as:
- Effective communication with owners and tenants
- Emergencies
- Warranties & home insurance
- Special property instructions
- Repairs over $500
- Repairs under $500
There is so much more that goes into handling repairs and maintenance on the properties we manage but we hope this gives you a window into what goes on behind the scenes. Our goal is to delight our clients and tenants—yes, even in the midst of a repair issue!
To get our tips on good maintenance for your home be sure to like our Facebook page where Jonathan gives his tips every Monday!
