How Preventative Maintenance Saves Lancaster Property Owners Money
Posted on: Mar 08, 2019
Investors and new or accidental landlords are often concerned about money. We understand that; you’re investing in a rental property in order to earn money, not lose money. However, maintenance is an important part of preserving the condition of your investment. Deferred maintenance can be expensive, and ignoring small repairs can end up costing you much more.
At Susquehanna Realty Management, we provide residential property management for the central Pennsylvania area, including Lancaster, Harrisburg, York, Lebanon, and Mechanicsburg. We promote preventative maintenance with the homes we manage, and we do that because we believe in helping our owners earn more and spend less.
Maintaining the Condition of Your Home
A well-maintained home earns you more money because it attracts better tenants and helps you to retain those tenants. When your home looks great and it’s on the market, the tenants who come to see it will immediately understand that you’re an owner who cares about the condition of the property. This will tell tenants that you’re responsive to maintenance needs, and willing to provide a home that is comfortable, maintained, and habitable. A home that looks and functions well will not stay on the market long, and it will earn a higher rent than properties that aren’t well-maintained. So, you’ll save money on vacancy costs and you’ll make more money on rent.
Maintenance also matters to tenant retention. When a tenant requests a repair, you want to take care of it right away. It’s better for your property and it’s better for your tenant satisfaction, which means it’s better for your bottom line. Turnover costs are expensive, and you will lose money when you lose good tenants. Keep your tenants in place by taking care of repairs immediately.
Routine and Preventative Maintenance
Emergency repairs will be anything that includes fire, water, or endangers the safety of your tenants or others. Those will obviously need your immediate attention. Try to be just as fast with routine maintenance requests. When you take care of smaller repairs right away, you keep your tenants happy. You also save money because you aren’t giving the problem an opportunity to grow. No repair has ever become cheaper with time. Things that are old or broken only cause additional problems. The repairs become more complex and more expensive.
Conduct regular inspections so you can be sure your home is being well-maintained. Make sure your tenants know how to effectively report maintenance issues. And, schedule routine inspections of the HVAC unit, the roof, the plumbing, and other essential functions of the home. These inspections might cost you a couple of hundred dollars every year, but they’ll also enable you to catch small problems before they become disasters.
Work with Excellent Vendors
Working with the wrong vendors will cost you money. Put together a list of preferred vendors who offer you discounts and provide good work. At Susquehanna, we have a sister company that does maintenance, so our repairs are cost-effective and completed quickly. When necessary, we outsource the work to vendors we’ve been working with for years. They’re licensed, insured, and professional.
If you have any questions about preventative maintenance or how to keep the repair costs down on your Lancaster rental property, please contact us at Susquehanna Realty Management. We’d be happy to tell you more.
“For years, I used another local management company to run my property. One unit sat vacant for more than two years at great financial hardship to me. Within two months of SRM managing my property, the unit rented. They are consummate professionals and are very responsive to my residents and to me.”