Long-Term Maintanance Routines

[Gabrielle Martin]

Hi BP family! This question’s for the seasoned Landlords/PMs... For your properties, is there any preventative maintenance (or updates) that you make sure gets done after a certain number of years have passed?

For example, “Every 5 years I replace the water heater.”

Another Example, “Every 10 years I get the property tented for termites”

This question stemmed when my tenant of five years asked if I could re-paint her unit. Her unit is in solid condition (a few marks here and there) so it didn’t make sense to me. However, when I ask around, some landlords repaint units after 5 years as maintenance.. even if the tenant is still living in it.

So Landlords, what are some of the things you do annually, every 3 years, 5 years, etc to keep up your property?

Thanks for your time!

[Wesley W.]

I would not repaint an occupied unit until at least 7 years, and I would probably bawk at that.  I have not painted the walls of my primary residence in almost 20 years and it looks just fine.  Any damage to the paint is most likely from that particular tenant.  Painting an occupied space is a real PITA.  Any non-repair based tasks I do after the tenant has moved on.  If a tenant is really insistent, I would figure out the cost and offer to charge them half.  That always makes the request go away.

To answer your other question, whenever I am at a property I always have my eyes open for deferred maintenance of things that will need my attention in the near future.  I put them on a maintenance schedule (which is prioritized).  I work from the top of the list when I am doing maintenance.  I always save for capital expenses (3.5% GSR) regardless of what I see or don't see at a particular property.  This is apart from my maintenance reserve (10% GSR).

I keep an eye on the water heaters, but I usually don't proactively replace them unless they are in a living space or not on the ground floor.  Most are in the basement and there are floor drains in case on goes.  I keep a new water heater in a box in one of my properties in case I need to replace one on a holiday or the plumbing supply place is out.

Regular maintenance items are furnace filters, seasonal activations of basement/crawlspace heating, distributing salt buckets, and gutter cleaning.  I also do semi-annual inspections where I check smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and plumbing for small leaks.