Controlling Tenant Expectations

[Nick M.]

Hey All,

How do you control tenant expectations around repairs?

Some repairs are small, some are medium in size and others are large.

Every tenant wants a repair done yesterday.  How do you set expectations as to when the repair will be done?

Do you for instance have varying categories of urgency  ?If so, what maintenance issue goes into each bucket and how many days do you give a repair?

Thanks!

[Kyle J.]

I've found that the best way to manage their expectations is through good communication.  By that I mean that I acknowledge their repair request promptly and work on coming up with a mutually agreeable day/time to complete the repair.  If a tenant notifies me of a repair that's needed, I may or may not actually start the repair the same day (depending on the type/severity of the needed repair), but I will always acknowledge the repair request so they know I'm aware of it and have a plan for responding to it.

I also explain the repair process so they understand any delays or why it may take longer to complete a repair than they expected.  For example, if their A/C goes out in the middle of July when everyone else's A/C goes out and the repair guy is going to take an extra day or two to get out there, then I just explain that to them.  Or, let's say there's a drywall repair or a cabinet that needs repainting, they may be under the impression it should be an easy one-visit fix.  However, I will explain to them that I may have to go over there once to do the repair, again to apply primer, and again to paint it after the primer dries.  I've found that if I explain all this to them upfront that I never get any pushback, but if you don't explain it then they may not understand why a particular repair is taking so long and just assume that you're not taking it serious or you don't care.