Most real estate investors understand the benefits of working with a professional Baltimore property management company. You need the established systems, the local market expertise, and the time and resources that are required to effectively lease and manage your home. Property managers provide all of that and more.
When you’re thinking about maintaining your home, however, you have to be selective when you choose your property management partner.
You need someone who will do more than call a plumber when there’s a leak at your rental home. You need a maintenance professional who can preserve the condition of your home, keep an eye on preventative maintenance, and ensure there are no deferred or unreported repair items lingering at the property, waiting to become more complex and expensive.
Working with a Baltimore property management company that also offers maintenance services is the best thing you can do when you want to maximize the value you get from your professional partners. Your home should be maintained by the same team of professionals who manage it.
At Stripe Management, we come from a professional background of maintenance and project management. From janitorial services to capital improvements, this is what we’ve done for much of our careers. Bringing that expertise and those systems into the way we manage residential and commercial properties has been a natural progression of our work.
Here’s why that matters.
Maintenance Professionals Who Know Your Baltimore Rental Property
When your property needs maintenance work – whether it’s a heating issue or a cosmetic problem in the kitchen – you need professional contractors and vendors who are experts in their fields. You want them to be licensed and insured if they’re plumbers or electricians.
Even better is if they’ve been to your property before. There’s less of a learning curve. They’re already familiar with the home or the unit, and they might have some historical knowledge of how the systems tend to work and where their typical glitches or challenges might be most frequently found.
When your property manager is also the party providing your maintenance services, you know that they’re going to be familiar with your property.
A Baltimore property manager will know your rental home inside and out. They’re the ones who helped you get it ready for the rental market. They took marketing pictures, created a listing, and inspected the property before tenants moved in. They know the home. They know how everything inside the home works.
When you work with a property management team that also provides maintenance services, you’re saving some valuable time and money because you don’t have to introduce your vendor to your property. They’ve been there. They know what to expect. If they’re really good, they keep a detailed list of all the concerns and potential maintenance issues as well as the anticipated lifespans of each system, appliance, and function.
You’ll be several steps ahead when a repair is needed.
Faster Maintenance Work with Baltimore Property Managers
Maintenance work isn’t always easy to find, especially if you’re experiencing an emergency and you need someone to help right away.
Skilled and professional workers are in high demand and prices, therefore, are going up. If you think you’re going to be able to pick up the phone and have a plumber or a drywall contractor at your rental unit in a matter of hours – think again. You may find yourself waiting days, weeks, and even months for big projects like kitchen remodels or installations.
This labor crunch is contributing to longer wait times, and it can be frustrating for owners who cannot respond to the needs of their tenants or their properties as quickly as they’d like.
This is where it can help you to have a property manager who is also capable of providing maintenance, repairs, cleaning, and capital improvements. You won’t have to wait longer than necessary to have your work done.
At Stripe Management, we’re in complete control of how we schedule maintenance. We don’t have to waste time collecting bids, comparing quotes, and waiting to get on the schedule of contractors who are in high demand. We can schedule the work that’s needed as soon as possible.
Being able to control the timeline goes a long way in keeping our owners and our tenants satisfied. This will impact your tenant retention numbers. Residents will become irritated when the work they requested weeks ago still hasn’t been completed. No one wants to live with broken appliances, air conditioning problems, dripping faucets, or toilets that won’t flush. If you cannot respond to their maintenance needs in a timely manner, they’re going to look for somewhere else to live.
Property Management Maintenance and Repairs are Cost-Effective
Time is important, but even more important is money.
As we mentioned, maintenance costs are only going up for Baltimore rental property owners. Materials are more expensive and so is labor. You will need to budget a little extra for the repair needs your investment properties will have in the coming year.
If you’re managing on your own or working with an inexpensive property manager, it’s hard to know what you should expect to spend on repairs. You might receive a quote and think it’s a bit high, so you’ll go with a vendor who has a lower price tag. But, what if the service isn’t as good? What if you’re paying for a lower quality of work?
We take all of the guesswork out of that when we’re performing maintenance for the properties we manage. Our rates are established, fair, and consistent. There are no surprises and no hidden charges. You will not have to argue that what was quoted is different from what was charged.
Working with a property manager who also provides maintenance allows you to budget more effectively. It allows you to save money.
You’ll know exactly what work will cost, and because you trust your property manager, you can also trust that you’re paying a fair, competitive, and reasonable price.
We negotiate the best possible rates with our suppliers. We can deliver high quality work for less money. It’s a benefit you’ll have trouble accessing if you’re not working with a full-service management team that also takes care of maintenance.
There’s also a volume discount that property management and maintenance professionals are able to access. Here’s an example:
Let’s say you have five rental units in Baltimore, and you’ve decided to put in-unit washer and dryers in each home because you know that will increase what you’re able to charge in rent and it will also attract tenants who are looking for such amenities. When it’s time to buy and install those appliances, you’ll be in a much stronger position when you’re working with a property manager who can negotiate a deep discount on the items you need. Perhaps your property manager is buying additional appliances for other homes they manage. You’re going to benefit from a lower price tag than you would find if you went out to buy your own washers and dryers.
Keep your maintenance budget accurate and updated. You can do that with a great property manager who is in charge of all the maintenance that’s needed now and your future repairs.
Property Managers Providing Maintenance Have Project Management Skills
As a property owner, you will likely have a number of maintenance projects that need either immediate attention or long term planning. You may have capital projects and improvements in a building you own or some smaller upgrades planned for a variety of single-family homes. Whether it’s a new roof or interior renovations, you’re going to be better off with a property manager who has previous experience managing similar projects and overseeing all the work that’s done. Your process will be far more efficient.
As we’ve said before, there are three important pillars that impact any kind of project or maintenance work at your rental property:
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- Scope
- Cost
- Time
Your property manager will speak to all of those facets when they have maintenance and project management experience. You can expect them to oversee multiple subcontractors at one time while accomplishing the work that’s required at your property. Specific skills are needed for this to work.
Coordinating work and keeping the project on time and on budget is extremely important. Look for a property manager with systems and procedures in place or newly created to serve all of your maintenance needs. You want deadlines to be met. You want the right partners in place to ensure a good outcome, no matter how big or small the issue.
Leadership is required for collaboration. You need a network to effectively maintain your property, and a management company with project management experience can provide that.
When you’re looking for a Baltimore property manager, think about more than rent collection and tenant placement. Consider who you’ll want working on your behalf when it’s time to make a repair or put together a schedule for preventative maintenance. You need a project manager who provides these maintenance services.
Please contact us at Stripe Management. We work with owners, investors, and properties in Upper Marlboro, Prince George’s County, Washington, D.C., Capitol Heights, District Heights, Baltimore, and anywhere in the DC metro area