Charlottesville, with its high student population and reasonably low rental vacancy rate, is an excellent place to own investment properties if you can keep up with all the hard work associated with owning rental units.
Being a landlord involves many essential tasks that can lead to feelings of overwhelm and stress. Maintenance coordination is one of the most time-consuming of all these responsibilities.
Hiring a property management service is an effective way to alleviate some of these pressures, but they don't pay your rental property maintenance costs.
Read on to discover what they do offer and how they can help you.
What Is Included in Property Management Fees?
When you hire a rental property management service, they take care of a broad range of landlord responsibilities. These include:
- Property marketing
- Lease negotiations
- Tenant screening
- Rent collection
- Record keeping
- Property inspection
While full-service property management fees don't include maintenance costs, they usually include maintenance coordination.
Why Is Maintenance Coordination Important?
Property managers set up a property maintenance schedule for each property they manage. This includes all seasonal, routine, and preventive maintenance tasks necessary to keep your home in good condition and preserve its value.
These essentials include things like:
- Servicing fire extinguishers
- Roof inspections
- Landscaping
- Pest prevention measures
- Checking batteries on smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
When you wait for things to break down before repairing them, you always end up paying more and causing inconvenience to your tenants. A proactive approach to rental property maintenance prevents small problems from escalating into more serious and costly repairs and replacements.
Maintaining your property carefully keeps your tenants happy and encourages lease renewals. It's also a requirement under the Virginia Landlord-Tenant Act.
Tenants rarely pay for any aspect of property maintenance except for damages they cause.
The Role of Property Inspections
Property inspections are a vital part of effective rental property maintenance coordination. During these visits, a property manager works according to a comprehensive checklist, including items like:
- Safety equipment
- Plumbing
- Lighting and electrical systems
- Roof leaks
- Pest infestations
- Window and door seals
If they notice anything out of place, they can act quickly to rectify it before it becomes a bigger problem. Property management companies either employ an in-house maintenance team or have ongoing relationships with local contractors.
This ensures you get the best prices and service for maintaining your rental home. Your property manager will compare quotations, oversee the work, and inspect the outcome.
Once they're satisfied, they forward the invoice to you for payment or deduct the cost from your next rental check.
Keep Your Rental Properties Profitable
Maintenance coordination can quickly become stressful and time-consuming for landlords, especially when you own more than one investment property. Property managers don't pay for repairs or maintenance, but they can still save you money on these necessary tasks.
PMI Commonwealth is backed by over 20 years of experience in the Virginia real estate market. We can assist you with a complete range of property management services, including property inspections and maintenance coordination.
Discover an easier way to optimize your investment property management today.
