Summer brings more emergencies, more calls, and the real test of whether your property management company can handle the volume.
Hey, this is Tom with Peace of Mind Property Management, and today I want to talk to property owners about how to keep your tenants, or as we call them, your residents, happy during the summer months.
I am focused here on the property management side of keeping residents happy with their home and the service around it. Summer is a critical time for this. The kids are home more, the heat is on, and the volume of maintenance calls goes up across every property.
The real test of a property management company is not how things look in March. It is how things look in July when the phone is ringing off the hook.
Preventive maintenance before summer is the foundation. Most of what goes wrong in summer is preventable. The home should already be in good rental condition before residents move in. The maintenance that needs to happen before the heat really hits should already be done.
This is where a lot of property management companies cut corners. If preventive maintenance is skipped in the spring, you are going to feel it in July. The HVAC system that should have been serviced was not serviced. The small issue that could have been fixed for $200 in April is now a $1,500 emergency in the middle of a heatwave. The math always favors getting ahead of these things, but only if your property management company actually does the work.
The real test is the phone. What separates a great property management company from a bad one is not the price they charge. It is what happens when an emergency call comes in.
In summer, the call volume goes up across the board. Leasing calls are coming in. Day-to-day property management questions are coming in. And on top of that, you have emergency calls about HVAC failures, plumbing issues, and everything else that breaks when houses get pushed hard in the heat. A property management company that cannot handle the phone is a property management company that is going to drop calls and leave residents stranded.
If you have not followed up with your property management company recently and you do not know whether they can actually handle that volume, you are at risk. Here is the question to ask them: "What happens when an HVAC unit goes out in July, and the resident calls you on a Saturday at 4 PM?" If they cannot answer that clearly, you have a problem.
We have built the manpower to handle that volume, and we have the secret sauce on how those calls actually get worked through. But the property management companies that are trying to pinch a dollar, the cheap bargain operators, cannot handle it. That is when residents get frustrated, leases do not renew, and properties start losing value.
"The real test of a property management company is not how things look in March. It is how things look in July when the phone is ringing off the hook."
The portable AC unit plays. Here is something most owners do not know we do. We keep multiple portable AC units on hand for emergencies.
When the HVAC goes out in a home, and it is 100 degrees outside, there could be a baby in the house, or an elderly resident, or someone with a medical condition. We are not waiting for the repair to happen. We have a runner getting a portable AC unit over there as soon as we know about it. That unit keeps the home livable while we get the actual HVAC repaired.
That kind of response is what keeps residents happy. They know we are paying attention. They know we are not going to leave them sitting in a 95-degree house for two days while we wait for a technician to become available.
That is the difference between residents who renew their leases and residents who start looking for a new place to live the moment the AC goes out. If you want to see what a prepared team looks like from the inside, we put together a guide on how to handle a property emergency like a pro.
Vendor relationships matter as much as response time. The other piece is the HVAC company itself. We work with multiple HVAC vendors in the San Antonio area, and we have strong relationships with all of them. We are not at odds with our HVAC company. We are not negotiating from scratch every time something goes wrong. When we call, they pick up. When we need a technician on site fast, they make it happen.
A property management company that is fighting with its vendors, or that has not built reliable relationships, is going to leave you waiting in the worst moments. The relationships have to already be in place before the emergency starts.
Summer should be a great season for everyone.
Summer is a critical yet wonderful time. Residents are spending more time at home, kids are out of school, and families are using their properties more than at any other time of year. The job of a property management company is to make sure all of that is enjoyable and not stressful.
If you are a San Antonio property owner and you are not sure your current property management company is built to handle the summer volume, let's talk. I would rather have a conversation in May than get a call in July from an owner whose residents are unhappy and whose property is sitting empty.
Call or text me at (210) 802-9959, email info@peaceofmind.co, or visit www.sanantonioproperty.management, including our guides on getting your rental ready for summer and handling property emergencies.