Simply Residential Maintenance

Owners of investment properties seek out a valued property management partner for many reasons, with maintenance being one of the most common. Maintenance calls from tenants can come at any time of the day and night and typically require some expertise. Some issues are small and easily managed. Others take time and come with costs. Whatever the issue, Simply Residential is happy to take maintenance calls 24/7, 365 days a year. In an ideal world, maintenance issues would be corrected quickly and at minimal cost to our client. But often the reason a project takes longer and costs occur is outside of our control.

Project Time

Simply Residential strives to perform maintenance quickly, efficiently and safely. We’re aware that maintenance can affect liability and a property owner’s ability to maintain a city rental license. Many factors influence the speed maintenance can be completed:

• May-Sept is a busy time for contractors, which may delay specialized work.
•Tenants often want to be home for maintenance visits. Working with a tenant’s busy schedule will slow how quickly we gain property access.
• Retailers like Home Depot often need parts and products shipped from distribution centers, which can mean a delay of 7-10 days.

We do all we can to minimize the turnaround time of maintenance but some delays are beyond our control.

Project Cost

Simply Residential doesn’t relish asking our clients to approve a repair or replacement cost. But maintenance expenditures are often an unpleasant and unavoidable part of doing business in property investment.
appliance lifespanA common cost of doing business is managing home appliances. Like all things, appliances have varying life expectancies that are affected by age, brand, availability of parts and more. Sometimes they break down before they should. Perhaps there is some truth in the saying that, “they don’t make things like they used to.” While there is no definitive guide to accurately predicting an appliance’s lifespan, the graph to the right shows the average life expectancy for various home appliances and equipment. Appliance failure is just part of doing business. We advise clients to set aside 10% of their investment property income to cover maintenance.

Our Approach

It’s important to note that long before any maintenance incident, Simply Residential works to detect problems in advance. We regularly communicate with tenants and encourage reporting of maintenance concerns. We also offer our owners a preventative maintenance service package as a way to get in front of those issues. But we know that not all issues can be predicted nor avoided.
As a valued client, everyone on the Simply Residential team is dedicated to your property. We’re your property’s biggest fans! If your property was a sports team, we’d be purchasing and wearing their jerseys!
So, the next time you hear from our maintenance staff, please be patient and know that we’re working hard to facilitate positive change for your property.

Appliance Life Expectancy

Photo credit: Trace O; flickr.comphotostracy_olson

Photo credit: Trace O; flickr.com/photos/tracy_olson

One of the biggest leaps from being a renter to a property owner is the responsibility to maintain and replace household appliances. Think about the finances dedicated to those often-used, convenient pieces of equipment in your kitchen, laundry room and other parts of the house. The health of these appliances is impacted by the initial quality of the product, the amount of care and proper maintenance you provide and of course general wear and tear. Some good luck doesn’t hurt either.

Replacing those items is not only financially burdening, but also stressful and time-consuming. The best approach to being prepared for the demise of appliances is knowing their life expectancy. No appliance lasts forever. Here is a ballpark life expectancy guide for appliances:

Refrigerator: 15 years
Dishwasher: 8-10 years
Washer/Dryer: 10-12 years
Water Heater: 8-10 years
Stove/Oven: 15 years
Garbage Disposal: 10 years
Microwave: 10 years

Of course, these are all estimates. No single timeline will apply to every home. But this list should help you financially plan ahead for replacing appliances.