Rental Properties Require Upkeep
Upkeepr helps with property maintenance planning, reminders, records, and more!
When I started renting out my condo...
Regular upkeep is harder to manage on a property you’re not living in, and having tenants complicates things more.
… I didn’t realize quite how much maintenance it would require. Sure, I had owned it a while, lived in it myself, and knew about regular maintenance like cleaning, plumbing, HVAC, and garage overhead door. But regular maintenance is easier to manage when you’re living someplace than when you’re not, not to mention having long-term tenants.
I apparently couldn’t count on the renters to change AC filters, and that caused a problem with a dirty AC condensate line that clogged and backed up dripping water until it spilled into my unit, causing water damage. Then, the garage overhead door didn’t work so well, but they kept using it, and that broke the spiral spring, costing hundreds of dollars to repair. One tenant even neglected to run the garbage disposal, which seized up and filled with debris from the dishwasher. They reported it when it started to smell. Gross, right?!?!
The resulting emergency repairs and fixes definitely cost more than preventative maintenance would have. So, I learned my lesson the hard way on that. Plus, in the end, cleaning after a few years of lease was more like a complete renovation – replacing carpet, patching and repairing walls, fixing window frames, painting, and deep cleaning everything.
With all these expenses on top of mortgage, insurance, and taxes, it’s hard to break even on a rental property, let alone make a profit.
"These big things, and many little things, should be looked after on a regular basis."
The reality is, you need to stay on top of regular maintenance even more when someone else is living in your property and you’re not there to see things that need service before they break completely.
If you allow pets in the rental, fur can block air filters and refrigerator condenser coils. If your overhead garage door isn’t tightened, lubricated, and balanced, it can bind up, stress out the electric opener, and cause it to break. If you don’t drain your water heater every year, it can burn out the burner pan and flood the house.
These big things, and many small ones, should be looked after on a regular basis. And even if you try to do major maintenance between tenants, it’s still good to have a record of when it was last done and who performed the service.
This property management problem is multiplied when you more than one property. You need to track maintenance for each property, managing each on a separate schedule since your leases aren’t always in sync, and you might use different service providers – especially if your properties are in different neighborhoods or even different cities.
All of this starts to feel like a full-time job, while rental properties are supposed to provide “passive income” and not require your constant attention and management. And even if you use a property manager, it’s still ultimately your responsibility to make sure everything is maintained. And when someone else is doing the work, you should still know the maintenance schedule and keep track of who did it and when.
And of course, this property management problem is multiplied when you own more properties!
Wouldn’t it be nice to have an app to manage it all?
It would be like having an assistant who filed everything for you and could answer any questions that came up later.
What we property owners need is a good system to manage our plans, track service we’ve done, capture which service provider did what and how to contact them, and remind us when the next upkeep is due.
Yeah, you could craft a system to do that from a combination of spreadsheets, calendars, contact lists, and pictures. Many people have tried and have a home-grown, cobbled-together solution. But they still have to go hunting for information across multiple apps, trying to remember their own filing system, and linking things back together in their minds.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a purpose-built solution – an app – to capture all this? Then you could have all your records online and accessible from anywhere with reminders sent to you just in time to manage everything that needs to be done. It would be like having a virtual assistant who filed everything for you and could answer any questions about when upkeep was done, who did it, and how.
Wouldn’t that be awesome?!?!?
You need Upkeepr!
Upkeepr is exactly that app. It’s the system you need to keep track of your rental properties and all their major components, from plumbing to air conditioning to fire prevention to roofing to yards.
Upkeepr helps you:
- Keep an item record of every property and every major structural component, system, and appliance on the property.
- Keep a maintenance plan for each item with regular recurring activities, seasonal work, and one-off activities.
- Keep contact information for service providers and link them to the activities they do for you. Plus, remember time-based contracts and warranties.
- Attach pictures, videos, and documents to every item, activity, and vendor – so you don’t have to go hunting through your photo gallery or file folders to find what things looked like years ago.
- And, most importantly, remember when service is due – so you never forget that preventative maintenance that saves you hundreds in costly emergency repairs for unhappy tenants.
Upkeepr is the purpose-built property management app that keeps everything – your plans, your notes, your historical records – all in one place. Upkeepr makes it all accessible from your PC, tablet, or smartphone and reminds you when upkeep is due.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a single place to track what needs to be done, what you have done, and the details about it all?
Upkeepr is your digital upkeep assistant.
Track recurring upkeep, plan and manage projects, and keep vendor info – all backed up in the cloud and right at your fingertips.
With Upkeepr, you’ll never forget important upkeep.
Upkeepr makes property upkeep easy!
DIY or Contract – It doesn’t matter if you do-it-yourself or contract out, you need Upkeepr to track maintenance and improvements so you know what was done, who did it, and when it needs to be done again. Upkeepr tracks it all!
Regular Maintenance – With Upkeepr, easily create regular maintenance schedules for all your properties and major appliances and get reminders when upkeep is due. Even track service provider contact info. Never forget that important upkeep again!
Projects – Organize, plan, and track your property maintenance and improvement projects with Upkeepr. Capture before and after pics, receipts, notes, and even videos so you can always look back at what you’ve done and how you did it.
