Is outsourced maintenance a thing?

[Allen B.]

Does something like a "property maintenance company" exist?

I'm self-managing ~60 units on the south side and for the most part, doing great. However, maintenance is killing me. I'm a computer nerd and spent much of my life doing heads-down work with as few interruptions as possible. So the asynchronous nature of tenant requests, coupled with trying to get them handed out to the right handyman, plumber, etc, are driving me insane.

Is this something that can be outsourced without going to a full 3rd party property management arrangement? Ideally there would be a number for tenants to call, they would take the calls and deal with them. Some repairs would be approved automatically, others would get run by me for the "OK" first.

Does this make sense? Does it exist?

Thanks,
Allen

[John Clark]

"Some repairs would be approved automatically, others would get run by me for the "OK" first."

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Devil. Details. How is the repair company going to know if things need your approval first before someone goes out there and checks? What happens when the repair company says it was an "auto-approve" repair and you say it was a "permission first" repair?

If you had a full time experienced repairman who knows how you think and can size jobs up accurately, you might get away with an ad hoc arrangement. I doubt it, though. Bite the bullet and get a property manager.

[Davartay Miller]

Allen,

I am not sure what you are willing to take on or not. But from the sounds of it – maintenance is a pain. Typically, a property management company that offers full-service can lighten that load – tremendously. But in your case, it doesn't appear that you are looking to relinquish the property management duties. Correct me if I am wrong. However, you might be better off negotiating with a local company who can service that unit on a as need basis. The problem is going to be comparing the value of it compared to outsourcing it altogether. Look at your options. 

My thought process is you have the contact information for the residents living in the units, they are precious jewels, and most importantly their experience should matter. Hiring a maintenance company who doesn't have that relationship with the resident may or may not work. Only trial and error can be the deciding factor – perhaps. Your residents, living in your housing, should be priority on top of their average length of stay. Not having the correct team and systems in place and totally damage your reputation as a property owner/manager, if your team (the maintenance company) does not have the same vision as you.

Perhaps there is someone out there and if so . . . I surely hope it works for you and your team. 

Best of Luck! 

[Ron S.]

I think handling the maintenance is 80%+ of a property manager's job.

I treat property manager's like I do insurance.  Yes, it can feel like "wasted" money on months where rent is auto-paid and there is no maintenance to be done, but when you get a bad tenant or two or when deferred maintenance finally catches up to you, they certainly earn their keep.

At your scale, you might be able to get a bulk discount with a good PM, especially if you can show how well your current systems are working and how they'd be needed less than usual.

[Dan Velez]

@Allen B. If you're using RentRedi as a managing software you can add Latchel as a maintenance service. I personally haven't used Latchels service but as I look to scale, its a route I am looking to explore. I hope this helps

https://rentredi.com/latchel-p...

[Francis Rusnak]

And to take it one step further off Dan's suggestion; you can contact Latchel directly if you didn't want to go on the RentRedi platform. They do have a minimum number of doors they require which is probably close to where you're at now. 

[Allen B.]

Thanks, all. I appreciate everyone's insight and suggestions.

Cheers,
Allen

[Drew Sygit]

You may want to try hiring a local handyman that you can email jobs to do and speak with 1-2 times weekly, meet 1-2 times monthly.

Most will put on a good show for a few months then either get lazy and cut corners or start raising prices. Warn them upfront you won't put up with it and the monitor. 

Isn't easy, but welcome to property management!

[Matthew Olszak]

@Allen B.

Since it sounds like you already have a maintenance team, consider hiring a virtual assistant. I've found those in Central and South America are solid in the $10-$12/hr range. Setup a Google Voice number so tenants can call or text the number with their requests. You can set your auto-approve vs. needs-reviews standards, as well as instructions on who to call for what. Some of the hiring systems will allow you to see screenshots of when the VA claims to be working so you know they aren't cooking their timesheet as well. You pay actual hours worked with no taxes/unemployment/insurance expenses, just straight time. And since you control the phone number, if you need to change people its easy to simply change the login without having to issue new instructions to the tenants. I've also used my VA for following up with past-due tenants, lease renewals, and to setup inspection times such as when the bank wants to walk through.

[Paul De Luca]

@Allen B.

I agree with @Matthew Olszak, it sounds like you're mostly looking for an admin or assistant to handle tenant calls and work orders. You can either go the route he suggested by hiring a VA or you can look for a local admin or assistant that can do things such as answer the phone, compile a list of preferred contractors, and coordinate tenant service requests. Give the admin a dollar limit threshold in which all expenses under that limit will not need your approval and expenses above that will require your approval.

[John Warren]

@Allen B. you have entered what I like to call land lord hell. Once you have more than 50 units, it is like death by a thousand paper cuts with the minor maintenance calls. They always come after 5 p.m. and on weekends. In my mind, this is the point where you either build out your own management in house by vertically integrating, or you go to a 3rd party management company. There is no right answer, but I can tell you that having a full time employee to help with maintenance has made my life so much better! 

[Mary Aviles]

I think these are your two best options.  I'm not a fan of VAs, for several reasons. Both of these allow you to stay in control and use your own contractors, while eliminating the time and hassle.

Property management software:  There are many free or low-cost PM software companies that have a maintenance section. The way it works is you set up your tenants and contractors on the software.  Tenants send a maintenance request through the software; it's really cool because tenants can send pictures and videos. Your contractors receive an automatic email with all the information.  They handle talking to the tenant, getting the information they need, coordinating repair schedules, etc. Then you work with your contractors as you normally would to set up rules of automatic approvals or running them by you first. 

Latchel or NestEgg: Both of these companies are similar, because they both handle maintenance requests. The company handles all tenant phone calls. They do an initial assessment of the problem, run through common solutions, etc, to get info about the repair. You can set up automatic approvals with them, or they contact you or the contractors. You can use their network of preapproved contractors, or register your own contractors with them. So they are essentially your VA, but they are specially trained in maintenance, so this is much better than hiring someone you don't know and have to train. The only difference I've seen between Latchel and NestEgg is the cost.

[John Matarazzo]

@Allen B. interesting post. What have you decided to do. I have also considered using Latchel from Rent redi. That seems like it could be a good fit for what you're looking for. You give them a spending limit and everything else is mostly automated it seems, but I haven't done it so can't say from experience. 

[Albert Wright]

I am still waiting on Latchel to explain why they seem to be ok with a "Preferred Vendor" middleman (who pays to be assigned work by Latchel as an FYI) materially altering a subcontractor's invoice for repairs at one of my properties. 

The company who actually fixed the HVAC charged $268 but the "Preferred Vendor" middleman modified that invoice to include 6lbs of freon (not on the HVAC sub's invoice) and charged me $700.

Latchel probably works fine if you force them to only use your vetted contractors, but I have zero respect for Latchel's "Preferred Vendors".

[John Matarazzo]

@Albert Wright that is pretty crazy. Makes me want to stay away from using Latchel then. Is there a way you can set it to only use your list of contractors and not go outside of that?

[Albert Wright]

It is my understanding that you can give Latchel a customized vendor list although my solution was to fire Great Jones (who outsourced maintenance to Latchel) and hire a local PM with real people and real local vendor relationships.

[Matthew Metros]

Happy to make an intro to the CS Outsource answering service team that does our late-night support.

They help with 24/7 emergency support, overnight coverage, troubleshooting issues, dispatching approved vendors & local staff, tracking and managing maintenance work orders, and other back-office tasks.

[Adam Bartomeo]

There are definitely programs out there that can assist you with maintenance. We use Appfolio for our software and they offer a maintenance program that sounds like it would fit your needs. Our company has outgrown their maintenance platform and we run with a maintenance coordinator but for the first few years it was very helpful. Someone does have to monitor it but the majority of the workload is handles by automation.