HVAC service agreements

[John Kennedy]

I'm looking for advice on how to handle HVAC maintenance for my rental portfolio of 30+ units.  I have signed up for annual service agreements for some of my properties but not all.  I have agreements with a few different companies just based on who happened to install the unit at that particular place. 

At my own house I have never had service agreements - I just change my filters every now and then and have rarely had an issue!  

I cringe every time they call to set up an appointment for the annual furnace check or a/c check because they always seem to find stuff wrong! ($) In my mind I know it's probably the right thing to do to have the routine maintenance, but I sometimes wonder if I couldn't just deal with issues if and when they arise.  In this market it costs around $200/yr for a twice-a-year check up (furnace in fall, ac in spring).

I guess I'm leaning toward putting out requests for quotes for the whole portfolio to see if I can get a quantity discount on the checkups.  Alternately, I may just bag the checkups by HVAC vendors and have my handyman schedule filter changes on a regular basis - then deal with breakdowns when they occur.

Any suggestions? (be kind, haha!)

[Allan Smith]

this is bananas. You are paying them to come to your properties to upsell you. So you are throwing away an annual fee, plus you are getting up sold on maintenance request. Unless these units are pushing 10 years old, you should not have to do anything to them each year. Just call them when something goes wrong and they will fix it.