Apartment Maintenance

Hidden on each of your apartment properties is a secret marketing weapon that can help in your never ending battle to improve resident retention: your maintenance staff.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “Well, duh Michael. Quality and timeliness of maintenance service is a key factor in resident renewals. Don’t you keep up with SatisFacts Research’s data?”

Well, Duh:

No matter what our role is within the multi-family industry, there is always one word which is used more than any other; “community.” Some of us own communities, some of us develop communities, some of us design communities and others of us lease or operate them. And chances are that many of us live in an apartment, condominium or townhome community as well. So then why is it that there is so little ‘community’ in our communities?

When it comes down to this failure’s root cause, it can really only be one of two choices;

a.       Either the management team does not expend their energies in a manner that creates a welcoming and vibrant atmosphere that encourages interaction, or

By Salvatore Friscia, San Diego Premier Property Management, San Diego, CA

For property management companies, the month of January signals a time to prepare and issue year end statements to their clients for tax preparation purposes. Consequently, each January the IRS requires that any taxpayers who have made payments in excess of $600 to workers that are not considered employees must prepare Form 1099 – Miscellaneous Income. Property management companies are also federally required to file Form 1099 for their clients regarding rental income received throughout the year. In addition, copies of this completed form must be provided to the IRS. The IRS compares the payments shown on the information returns with each recipient’s income tax return to determine whether the payments were reported as income and done so properly.

It may have taken a while to get here, but winter is upon us.  If you are lucky enough to live in a warm climate city, you don’t have to worry about snow removal.  But for the rest of us, winter means investing in a durable pair of boots, warm gloves and a shovel.

Although every city is different, most have an ordinance or code about keeping walkways clear during the winter.  As a property manager or owner, it’s important to stay informed on your city’s policies concerning who is responsible for snow removal, when it has to happen and to what extent.  It’s possible to be held liable if someone slips and falls on your property or a walkway that you are deemed responsible for clearing.  Your city should make this information public and easy to understand.  For instance, the Chicago Department of Transportation has a website, pamphlet and video explaining the importance of snow removal for residents and businesses.  The City of Denver lays out how they enforce their snow removal policies and what their consequences are, while the City of Boston gives clear Do’s and Don’ts.  Visit your city’s website to read about ordinances specific to you.

By Steven Van Zile, Total Management, New York, NY

Within the past 24 hours, here are the maintenance issues I’ve experienced at the property where I reside: the maintenance person, loyal to this building for 33 years, responds to a clogged toilet by advising us to pour bleach down the toilet. Concurrently, the intercom buzzer is stuck and won’t shut off. And, of course, the elevator renovation that started out as a one week project actually turned into a three week project, providing 6^th floor tenants the opportunity to save money by cancelling their gym memberships.

It’s always seemed simple to me; as residents, we pay rent, maintenance fees, or mortgage payments and the property management staff provide services for the resident. Building and trust owners hire those property managers based on their abilities to keep churn rates low, vacancy at zero, and tenants happy all at or below a budget designed to re-invest in the property. So what happens when we tenants aren’t happy? Well, in today’s age of instant knowledge and access, a lot of renters turn to rating sites like Yelp or apartmentratings.com to spitefully pen scathing reviews in an attempt warn others. These sites might be seen as a threat, but if you’re really good at your job, more transparency can only help you, and reviews will actually help your business grow.

You know I have read old posts about rent collections and here is one which it may not work for every community, but may work for some.

One property placed it in the contract with the personnel that if they paid their rent on time on a "by date" for 12 consecative months they would only pay a 1/2 months rent for that following month past that.

The manager ensured that each tenant on a monthly basis received a thank you for their timely rent payment and would have on each notification their status as it assisted them all to ensure that if there was a mistake it was caught right away.

This was an idea which worked for that property an to my understanding it has been working for the past two years. The on time rent collections were higher than they had ever been. There was a higher retention rate of their tenants, but I might add it was not on the discount on rent alone as they had a very aggresive maintenance repair program as well as creating a more family oriented community with social gatherings and townhall meetings that focused on community improvements.

They did not want their name shared, but I thought this was worth throwing out there. I know they have a waiting list of personnel wanting to get into their community, so they must be doing something right.

Let me begin by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. For those of you who regularly read my scribbles, you are used to some pretty meaty topics. In light of the Holidays, this one will be a bit frothier. In each blog that I write there are certain themes which remain pretty consistent. One of my favorites is that real estate development is about the coolest industry on the planet. After all, our job is to make the world a better, more usable, more beautiful place.

Often my intended audience is the real estate developer (my hope is of course that there is some part of my subject matter which translates to my non-developer audience- or at least helps you better understand those temperamental developers who constantly tell you ‘We can’t afford that.’). Today, I would like to remind us all of something that is very easily glossed over as we perform our day-to-day tasks.

Some communities struggle with great maintenance and customer service – this blog is not for them.  Instead, I’m speaking to those communities who already do a fantastic job at customer service, have low response times for their apartment maintenance, and overall have the “fundamentals” down pat.

Let’s say you live at a community with horrible service, and that is why you are leaving.  Well, that is going to be at the top of your “must have” list because it is a struggle you are having at that moment.  But if you are living at a community with solid service, then you aren’t as focused on that aspect because it’s not a concern.  And if you tour a community that talks about their great service, there is a chance you will take their word on it.  In other words, you don’t understand the importance of what you have until it’s gone.  (I’m pretty sure there is a love song in there, somewhere)

So in a strange sense, your strong customer service and maintenance program may not be appreciated until they have already moved out and learn first-hand what they are missing.  It might feel nice they they are missing you now, but that doesn’t change the fact that they have already left your community. 

How do you resolve a problem when a tenant comes in complaining about waiting so long on getting their broken item fixed? It does not matter what the item is, it just took over a week to get it repaired, and it still is not fixed. The tenant is angry and they make a statement, "I pay my rent on time, so how come you cannot fix what is broken?"

So want more specifics? It is summer, and the  temp has been between 100 & 106 every day for the last two weeks, and the A/C does not work.  So, this is a young wife with two infants and her husband is getting out of jail tomorrow.

I like throwing situations out there and hearing how different people would go about solving the issue. These cases and feedback help a lot of people even though they may not have faced and issue it could come up.

As much as we talk about the importance of recycling, the United States is the number one trash-producing country in the world.  This means that 5% of the world’s population generates 40% of the world’s waste! With last week being National Recycling Week, I thought it would be fun to show you some ways to conserve waste and save money by repairing, versus replacing, your appliances.  The below infograph, from Part Select, shows the cost to replace some common appliances.  If you click on the buttons, possible symptoms and their fixes are shown.  Have fun playing around with this and maybe next time one of your resident’s dishwasher leaks, you can save some money by repairing it.

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