What are some of the tasks my property manager should perform?

Question

Often I'm asked what are some of the tasks my property manager should perform for me as an owner/customer? Some of the tasks depend on the management agreement, but an important tasks are occupied property visits, and these visits should include the property manager viewing the interior of the home. These are important, because you the owner of the property should know how the home looks during Tenancy. You may catch a fair amount of preventative issues if the visits are performed and sent to you. Maybe the Tenants brought an unauthorized pet into the home or maybe the Tenants have additional people living in the home? You may be able to catch these issues if the home is visited during Tenancy. This is just my personal opinion, but I believe occupied homes should be viewed (including the interior) at least 1 time per year and I think for a new Tenant/lease this should happen around the 5th to 7th month of the lease. These visits may help owners save money & help catch issues before they become bigger issues.

Matt MacDonald · Answer

Thank you Vladut. I've worked in property management for 15 years and usually we can go to the house with proper notice. Usually, the leases I've worked with tell the Tenant we can gain access with 24-hour notice, but we do have emergency clauses in the lease. Usually the leases & management agreements I've worked with do not have a specific time in them for property visits, but they may say something like periodic inspections which could be every 120 days or around 180 days. I like to put all of the AC filter responsibility on the Tenant unless the filter replacement requires a ladder. Vendors can be a good source of information when they visit homes for repairs. At some point I may have to consider inhouse techs as my property management company grows.

Vladut Bujoreanu · Answer

Good post Matt! A common thing for self PM's is to incorporate a clause stating every 3-6 months they are going to change the air filter in the house...

I'd love to hear what other self PM's are doing or what expectations of the PM's other investors have. If anyone out there has a method or agreement or PM that has them do their own internal repairs versus outsourcing, please share!