Are ongoing repair costs for your investment home getting you down? Every home needs repairs eventually, but 65% of homeowners agree that regular inspections and routine property maintenance can help reduce these costs.
As a busy landlord, it's sometimes difficult to stay on track with necessary home maintenance, especially if you own more than one rental property.
Setting up a maintenance schedule is the best way to keep up with maintenance and save money. Read on to learn how you should go about this.
Compile a Rental Property Maintenance Checklist
A rental property maintenance checklist will guide you through seasonal, routine, and preventive maintenance. It helps you schedule tasks, manage your budget, and ensure you don't forget any aspect of maintaining your property.
It can also help you keep track of your tenants' responsibilities according to the lease agreement.
When you have a comprehensive checklist, it's much easier to allocate tasks according to a long-term maintenance plan that you can refer back to year after year.
Creating a Maintenance Schedule
A maintenance schedule flows naturally from your maintenance checklist. It sets out the necessary tasks in a logical order as follows:
Weekly Tasks
Landlords can't visit their property every day without seriously hampering their tenants' privacy, so these tasks are usually the tenant's responsibility. They include things like:
- Cleaning and dusting
- Garden maintenance
- Refuse management
- Keeping walkways and driveways clear
Monthly Tasks
Monthly property inspections are the best way to stay on track with monthly tasks. They're useful for discovering things tenants might have missed during their daily chores.
You must give your tenants 24 hours' notice before conducting any property inspection in Idaho. Include the following in these routine checks:
- Indoor and outdoor lighting
- Basement sumps and attic vents
- Window and door locks and screens
- Pest control bait and traps
- Gutters
- Walls, paving, walkways, and driveways
Seasonal Maintenance Tasks
Protecting your investment property from seasonal weather fluctuations is key to maintaining its value. The following checks apply:
Spring and Summer
These seasons are ideal for sprucing up your landscaping. You must also check your HVAC system for damage due to heat and humidity.
Fall Maintenance
Fall brings mild, dry weather in Teton Valley, so it's the perfect time for larger annual maintenance tasks. You should mend any gaps or cracks in windows and doors, inspect fireplaces and chimneys, and service heaters before winter sets in.
Winter Tasks
Check your pipes and roofs regularly for freezing and damage. Be sure to trim trees away from the house in case of breakages during storms and perform a thorough inspection before the onset of cold temperatures.
Annual Maintenance Tasks
Many of these tasks fall into a higher price range, so try to stagger them throughout the year. They're also some of the most important ones when it comes to your legal duties as a landlord.
These tasks include inspecting and maintaining major facets of the home, like roofing, plumbing, smoke detectors, and fire systems.
Stay up to Date With Routine Property Maintenance
Compiling a maintenance checklist is one thing, but completing all the tasks listed on it is a huge undertaking. You'll likely need help getting through it all.
PMI Grand Tenons can assist you with every aspect of preventive property maintenance, repairs, and renal property inspections.
Call us for solutions to all your Teton Valley property management and maintenance needs.
