Self PM for now on my 1st property

[Marc S.]

I would like to get some advice on a topic that I will be handling with my 1st property. I purchased my first out of state property and decided to self-manage for the time being. Currently there is a tenant in the property for at least the next 10 months per the lease. I have introduced myself to them and the property was re-done in 2022 hitting all the big Capex categories. With that being said, can anyone provide some advice on how I should let them know how I want them to handle small maintenance request and what time frame should I expect to tell them they will be addressed? Do I say I will reply back to you within a few hours, a day or 2 etc. Obviously, this will be a case-by-case basis on the size of the issue, but if it is not urgent or an emergency. I've already let her know in the meantime if there are any legitimate emergencies to contact me via my cell phone. Everything that I've learned so far about them, I've been informed they are quiet, non-complaining tenants that don't reach out to the landlord very often. I've been provided a list of handymen (electrical, plumbing, HVAC, do it all, etc.) and contractors from the area by my real estate agent who is from there.

I was going to go the route of stating that if you have any maintenance request that you may send them to me via email or text and I will respond at my earliest convince or should I establish a time frame to make it seem like I'm not going to just ignore them for a few days.  

Any advice or suggestions are appreciated! 

[Randall Alan]

@Marc S.

Hi Marc,

We self manage our 37 properties.  Usually tenants don't reach out on the real little things...they just ignore them, so it seems... the drippy faucet, the weatherstripping around the door, etc.  So when they are reaching out, it is usually something impacting them... the AC, the hot water, the stove, the refrigerator, etc.  We have our tenants trained to text us with any issues.  Almost every issue that needs an immediate response we can dial a phone number and schedule an appointment for.  I don't think you need to worry about telling them what your response time will be, as long as you can handle the big things immediately. Otherwise if it is something really minor I would probably say, "Ok, thanks for letting us know, we'll take a look at that the next time we are close by." (presuming it doesn't require a quicker response).  Just try to be a good landlord and pretend it was you calling on the phone with the issue.  If I'm going to lose all my groceries, or can't take a hot shower, or it is 97 degrees in the unit, it is a priority and I expect as close to immediate action as possible.  Realistically, how hard is it to reply to a text?  Takes less than a minute.  Barring leaking water, a tenant won't freak out if it takes you 20 minutes to an hour to reply to a text.  But don't leave a tenant hanging for days on an important request.

What we do is call the service provider and say,"We need you to contact our tenant to schedule a time to come out that works for them."  This way we aren't playing 'landlord in the middle' trying to coordinate a service call. (Obviously we are paying the bill, but I don't want to have to handle it after I call for service.)

All the best!

Randy