Suggestions To Cut Maintenance Expenses
Many landlords try to minimize expenses to the extent that they end up being penny wise and pound foolish. Rather than minimize expenses, a better approach is to control expenses in order to maximize profit. Of interest to most landlords are ways to control expenses for maintenance and repairs.
Controlling expenses rather than minimizing expenses is a particularly important differentiation when it comes to maintenance. Minimizing expenses can often result in lower net operating income. This can occur for a number of reasons, including the following:
Bad Repairs – Using the lowest price vendor is not necessarily cost effective in the long run. It is usually more costly to do a repair over than to have done it right in the first place. Additionally, the need for a vendor to return or to have a new vendor fix the previous vendor’s mistake wastes landlord time and irritates the tenant.
Cosmetic Defects – Rough drywall or plaster patches that don’t match existing texture, bad paint jobs with paint on switch and outlet plates and door knobs, and other unsightly repairs and maintenance are noticed by the type of tenant that a landlord would like to have in his unit. Tenants who don’t care about such appearances are more likely not to care about how they treat the property.
Failure to Repair – Failure to repair in a timely manner can be most costly of all. As an example, a slow leak from an under-sink supply valve can ultimately result in the need for expensive cabinet repairs or even replacement of the cabinet.
Failure to take care of repairs, particularly those related to health and safety, can result in withholding of rent, a government inspection, and/or citations with fines. There is high probability that such an inspection will result in a number of other items needing attention besides the one the tenant complained about.