Oh No! Tenant calls at 2 am, Toilet is clogged!

Before I began investing in real estate, I would always hear the old saying, do you want to deal with phone calls at 2 am in the morning? Or do you want to deal with tenants from hell? Well, the latter you can avoid by doing proper screenings for potential tenants. So far in my first year of being a landlord, I have never dealt with a 2 am call or tenants from hell. I would like to break down the process that I take when one of my tenants contacts me about a maintenance issue such as when a dryer was not working properly. I was on vacation in the keys, and when I looked down at my phone I saw an email from one of my tenants, that the dryer was turning but the clothes were still wet. When this happened, I was not worried because I had a process in place. So what do you do when a tenant calls about an issue?

Have Handyman/Contractors lined up

When my tenant contacted me, I already had a few handymen in my contact list that I could contact to go check out the problem for me. This is very important to have especially if you are self-managing. So when do you get those contacts? As soon as I have a property under contract and have agreed to go forward after the inspection phase, I start to line up potential handymen. There are a couple of ways to do that, one way is to just google them, you need an electrician then google electrician in town A. The problem with this approach is, it is a hit or a miss. You can look at the reviews but sometimes they are misleading. This method can cost you as you figure out which ones to avoid and which to keep.

Another way to accomplish this task which I prefer is to tap into your network and ask for the handyman’s that your fellow investors use. I usually ask around in the different meetups that I attend and also I ask around on Biggerpockets. The reason I prefer this method is because investors are only going to vouch for and refer the individuals that they themselves have used and had a good experience with. They will not recommend someone that they had a bad experience with.

Respond quickly and listen

This one is the most important step in the process; Whenever a tenant contacts you about an issue whether it be via email, text, or phone call, respond quickly and assure them that you are on it. I remember when my first tenant contacted me about an issue, she sent me a text that she was washing the dishes and turned on the washer to do a load. Once she turned on the washer, there was no water coming out of the sink for her to finish washing the dishes. As soon as I finished reading the text, she called and I had a small panic and was contemplating ignoring the phone call as I did not have an answer for her yet. Luckily I answered the phone and I listened to her and told her that I would get back with her. As soon as I got off the phone with her, I called a handyman and he headed over there and the issue was resolved the same day.

The first call can be a little scary but after you have a process in place, it becomes easier. Another important part of this step is to actively listen and listen carefully, empathize with your tenant. People like to feel like you understand their problem and perspective, that being said if the tenant caused the issue then follow your lease and inform them what has to happen per the lease. Otherwise, if the issue was not caused by the tenant then respond quickly, listen to them, and assure them that you are on it and will get back to them as soon as possible. Even if the tenant caused the issue, respond quickly, and listen before moving on with a solution per what is stated in the lease. If you never hear from a tenant about an issue then either the property just never has an issue and is perfect or something has gone terribly wrong and you the landlord just do not know about it yet, so it is important that you do inspection checks of your properties, either semi-annual or annually.

Make sure to log the issue, for future reference. If you are using a service like cozy to manage your property there is a maintenance tab where you can log the issue, pictures, and any other details including the closure of the issue. Other similar services should have a similar feature, where tenants can submit requests and follow your process. Logging the issue will help you if you are contacted a year later about the same issue or a similar issue so you can see what was done.

Repair or Replace

As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, recently I had a tenant called with a dryer that was not working properly. My first inclination was to send a handyman to check out the issue and see if he could fix it. Upon second thought, I decided it would probably be best to replace it instead. The dryer was pretty old and it would probably cost me just about the same when I factored in the part replacement and the labor to replace it. I would always advise doing a quick cost analysis to see if it makes sense to repair something or replace it. Keep in mind if the repair is not done properly, it's only a matter of time before the issue returns and when it does it is always worse than before. Once I made the decision that it was more beneficial to replace the appliance, I ordered the new dryer from home depot and informed the tenant that a new dryer would be delivered and installed on a specific date. She was thrilled as she was expecting me to just patch it up as was done by the former property manager.

As landlords, it is inevitable that maintenance issues are going to arise and when they do expect the tenant to contact you to let you know of the problem. When that happens, don't panic and make sure to respond quickly to the tenant and listen attentively to what they are saying. Inform them that you will reach out to one of your contacts and will get back to them as soon as possible. Look at your lists of contacts for handymen and reach out to them so that they can go to the property and take care of the problem. Your tenant will appreciate the customer service and the swiftness in accommodating them in fixing the issue that they are dealing with. Remember a happy tenant is a long term tenant and that is the goal we are striving for, within the boundary of the lease of course.

Good luck Hunting!