Property maintenance

Maintaining your investment is one of the most important parts of our job. Learn how (and why) we do it below.

Loss of property value (capital loss)

If your property maintenance is not being conducted to the required standard, your property will continue to lose value. Not only in your rental returns but also in your capital value as well.
Because it is an investment property, at some point you will need to sell your property or you may want to mortgage against the equity you have.

If your property requires a lot of maintenance, potential buyers, licensed valuers, and building inspectors will identify this immediately and you can expect:

A lower valuation (less equity for you)

Low or no offers from buyers

A revised offer due to a non-satisfactory building inspection

Loss of tenants

You can rightfully expect that your tenant pays their rent on time and looks after your property. In return, they will expect you maintain the property to a good and live-able standard.

If your property is not being maintained, tenants will leave or they may request rent reductions or compensation.

This starts with the very first tenant you place into your property. Good tenants want to get the best value for money so they will look for the most well-presented home, at the best price. If your property is not well presented, they will move on to the next, leaving you with either zero applications or ones of poor quality.

Once the tenant has moved in, they will expect you to quickly fix anything that has broken down. If something breaks down multiple times due to a dodgy repair or is simply not repaired at all, your tenants will label you a scrooge and leave at the first opportunity they get. This is because property maintenance is a high priority on every tenant’s list.

Then, not only will you need to find a new tenant for your property BUT you will also have to spend thousands you have not budgeted for getting your property back up to scratch.

What is the problem?

We have good news! The problem, is not you.

Most property management agencies still manage properties in the old and in-efficient way of having a single agent trying to do EVERYTHING required for the management of your property.

Unfortunately, when they’re prioritising their work from rent arrears, finding new tenants and property maintenance, property maintenance is always placed at the bottom of the pile. Sometimes it gets lost amongst the workload and is never actioned at all.

Not only that, most property managers are NOT trained effectively in communication. They are ‘scared’ to talk to you and don’t have the skills to advise you on property maintenance because it involves you spending money.

What is the problem?

We have good news! The problem, is not you.

Most property management agencies still manage properties in the old and in-efficient way of having a single agent trying to do EVERYTHING required for the management of your property.

Unfortunately, when they’re prioritising their work from rent arrears, finding new tenants and property maintenance, property maintenance is always placed at the bottom of the pile. Sometimes it gets lost amongst the workload and is never actioned at all.

Not only that, most property managers are NOT trained effectively in communication. They are ‘scared’ to talk to you and don’t have the skills to advise you on property maintenance because it involves you spending money.

The excellent solution – even more good news for you

#1 We have excellent people trained effectively in communication and property management so they have no issues picking up the phone and talking to and advising you. That’s what you’re paying them for

#2 We have an excellent system and structure to deal with property maintenance. This includes an online lodgement system for your tenants, so maintenance won’t fall through the cracks. This includes strict repair timeframes for our tradesman to ensure the work is completed quickly
#3 Any request must be actioned within 3 days except when there is an issue that is classed as an emergency
#4 All requests must be repaired within 14 days from when the request is sent to the tradesman where possible
#5 We track and measure our maintenance daily. We know as soon as it’s overdue and use this to prevent your tenants from getting upset

What to expect

There are 2 ways maintenance will be identified on your property. These are:

#1 We attend your property and notice something that needs to be upgraded or repaired

#2 Your tenant reports to us that something is in need of repair

Our trade people

We only use licensed professional tradesman who we know share our values and can deliver on the promises we make to you and your tenants. We have long-term relationships with our tradesman.

This means, your job goes straight to the top of their list AND they provide competitive rates to reward us for and keep our loyalty. It also means if anything should go wrong, they return quickly and sort the problem out.

Our trade people

We only use licensed professional tradesman who we know share our values and can deliver on the promises we make to you and your tenants. We have long-term relationships with our tradesman.

This means, your job goes straight to the top of their list AND they provide competitive rates to reward us for and keep our loyalty. It also means if anything should go wrong, they return quickly and sort the problem out.

Property maintenance reported by a tenant

We have an online system where tenants can report their maintenance to us. This means, ALL property maintenance is reported in writing. BEFORE your tenant can submit the request, they agree that they have conducted the required troubleshooting in an attempt to fix the problem themselves.

Qualification

Once we receive the request from your tenant we DO NOT move any further until we can confirm that it is a genuine request. We do this by calling your tenant and qualifying the maintenance with them. When required, we will even attend the property to check the issue personally.

Communication

Once we have identified that the maintenance is genuine, we then contact our tradesman to find out what the issue could be and how much it could cost to repair so that we have all of the information for you.
We then call you to let you know what is happening and what action we’re taking. If you’re unavailable, WE WON’T WAIT FOR YOU TO RESPOND. This is the type of expert decision you pay us to make on your behalf and by ‘waiting’ we’re only going to cause Problem Number 2 as mentioned earlier.

We will, however, send you an email outlining this information so that if you want to know, you can have a read in your own time and get back in contact with us if you have any questions. This is just one of the many ways we take the hassle out of having your property managed.

Payment of invoices accounts

We WILL NOT process any invoices on your behalf until we have confirmed that the job has been completed and your tenants are happy!
Your invoice is also processed by one of our excellent people so before contacting you, they will peruse the invoice to ensure there are no extras appearing on your bill. If we feel the invoice is excessive or identify any unexpected charges, we will question the invoice and have it rectified if required.

We will then contact you and let you know the outcome and cost of the bill.

Copies of any invoices will also be sent to you with your statement and you can also download these online in your Owner Portal.

Property maintenance planning

You would be surprised by the savings you can make and the maintenance crisis’s you can avoid by taking a proactive and preventative approach to maintenance. This is why we have an annual maintenance schedule that you can take advantage of if you chose.

Monthly special offers

In our newsletter each month we will provide you with a special offer. For example, in Winter we send out an air conditioner servicing offer and in October, a gutter clean and roof inspection offer.

We also offer specials for Tax Depreciation Schedules.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and take advantage of our preventive maintenance plan.

Monthly special offers

In our newsletter each month we will provide you with a special offer. For example, in Winter we send out an air conditioner servicing offer and in October, a gutter clean and roof inspection offer.

We also offer specials for Tax Depreciation Schedules.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and take advantage of our preventive maintenance plan.

In summary

By applying these methods to the maintenance on your property, we’re able to help you increase your rental returns and property value while protecting your investment. We’re experts and we believe it’s our job to do this for you.

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