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3 Challenges You Will Face & How to Handle Them When Scheduling Maintenance Jobs with Vendors & Tenants

Keeping a property well-maintained must be a priority for all landlords, investors, and property managers. It helps with tenant retention and it also preserves the condition of one of your largest investments. Sometimes, it’s difficult to manage the maintenance process smoothly, especially when you’re dealing with these issues on your own. Today, we’re explaining the three main challenges you will face when you’re trying to coordinate maintenance work with vendors and with tenants.

Working with Your Vendors

Vendors in San Diego are busy. You need to have excellent relationships in place with contractors, plumbers, electricians, and other professionals so that when you call to schedule a job, they are willing to give your work priority. This can be difficult if you only have one house that you’re managing, or two properties. Vendors will place a higher value on the jobs and the clients that pay more. So, when you’re trying to schedule work with a vendor, make sure you’re not calling them for the first time at 3:00 in the morning on a Saturday to see if they can get out to your property and stop a leak right away. It’s not going to happen. Establish relationships, build trust, and then you’ll be able to schedule the maintenance work you need to be completed in a timely fashion.

Working with Your Tenants

Scheduling with tenants can be even more complicated than scheduling with vendors. There can be a lot of hassles with the back and forth that’s required when you’re trying to pin down a time and a date with your tenants. They might be uncooperative or they might not want to have maintenance professionals in the house when they’re not home. They might have pets or children under the age of 18 who are home alone, making it difficult for contractors to show up whenever it’s convenient. Talk to your tenants before they move in about the importance of being available and cooperative when you need to have repairs made. This work benefits them too; make sure they understand it’s a priority and that you need their help maintaining your home.

Paying for the Work

Another challenge you’ll need to face as a landlord is how to pay for the maintenance or the repairs. You might have to prepay with a credit card or establish an account. Otherwise, the maintenance company is not going to want to go to the property, do the work, and then wait for payment. The tenants aren’t going to pay for work that’s the owner’s responsibility. So, unless you’re going to be there at the property to meet the vendors and supervise the repairs, you’ll have to set up some kind of payment arrangement that everyone agrees to. It can get complicated.

professional property manager - thumbnailWhen you work with a professional property management company, you don’t have to worry about any of these challenges. Your property manager will coordinate everything with tenants, and we already have a great relationship with a team of local vendors and contractors who we know are licensed and insured. We also handle the payments and share all of the invoices, receipts, and expense reports with you through your online portal.

If you have any questions about how we can help you with maintenance coordination please contact us at San Diego Residential Property Management. We’d love to tell you more.