Determining What’s an Emergency
An emergency situation is when the safe living in the property is impeded in some critical way. We weed out the emergencies from non-emergencies. If we have a tenant who is living in a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom unit and there’s an inoperable toilet, we need to get someone out there to service it right away. We have an emergency sewer company we can dispatch. If the tenant is living in a 2-bedroom unit and there’s a toilet that’s running but the 2nd bathroom is fully functional, that’s not considered an emergency. As long as there is no sewage coming into the house, our answering service can go over obvious things the tenant can do like turning off the water source and general troubleshooting.
Maintenance Documentation
Our contractors are on file and we keep notes in our software. Our software provider has an after-hours service that allows them to access our software and notes. So, it’s streamlined and efficient. There’s no need to manually add accounts to the system. We don’t have to do anything because they have access already. This helps us act quickly, and our tenants appreciate it.
Advice for Landlords: Keep Your Property Habitable
There are consequences to not taking a tenant’s concerns seriously. If there’s a sewer issue, you need to consider it an emergency. Not having heat is also an emergency. Those are habitability issues that you need to make priorities. Anything else would require the police or the fire department. The tenant won’t contact us if the house is on fire. So, those two things really need to be taken seriously, and you also have to act quickly if there’s a roof leak or water is coming 
into the house.
into the house.
If you have any questions about rental property maintenance or anything pertaining to property management in Folsom, Sacramento or the surrounding area, please contact us at Residential Equity Management.
