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Many landlords in Orlando desire to have a well-maintained rental property so as to attract and retain high-quality renters. Keeping the property in such a state, however, can be laborious, costly, and time-consuming.  This is one of the reasons why most landlords are unable to keep up with routine maintenance. In fact, some owners do not bother with such repairs and maintenance until something breaks down and the tenant requests repairs.

Ironically, even though property maintenance costs money, it offers numerous financial, social, health, and psychological advantages, all of which outweigh the expense. An owner only needs to have in place an efficient maintenance schedule to make the work easy. If you find maintaining your rental property in Orlando difficult, you can always hire a local property manager. On the other hand, if you’d like to be a DIY landlord, the following tips can be of real use to you.

The easiest way to handle the exercise is by classifying all the maintenance activities according to how frequent you need to perform them. You can break down the entire maintenance tasks into weekly, monthly, biannually, and yearly tasks.

12 Tips for Maintaining Your Properties Year-Round

i. Weekly Property Maintenance

Mow the Lawn

The lawn is one of the main attractions of your property. You, therefore, need to take time once each week to mow it. While you’re at it, make sure you use a mower that has a well-sharpened blade and adjusted to the lowest level possible. It will give you the neatest and healthiest cut possible.

Collect the Garbage

Since people are residing in your units, naturally they will generate waste like food remains and garbage. If these wastes are left to pile up they will be a health risk and also make the living space unsanitary. Hence, you should provide your tenants with reliable waste disposal solutions.

ii. Monthly Property Maintenance

Inspect the HVAC Filters

The HVAC system plays the critical role of restoring the ideal room temperature be it in warm or cold climates. Consequently, they need to be at optimum performance at all times. However, if the unit has a worn-out ordirty filter, it will not work efficiently. Furthermore, it will spike up the energy bills to the dismay of your tenants. Make time to inspect these filters and clean or replace them when necessary.

Clean the Kitchen Sink Disposal Unit

Over time, the sink disposal unit blades get blunt and ineffective. Subsequently, they are unable to process the food wastes, leading to clogging. These clogged remains eventually begin releasing a foul smell. You should clean the disposal unit on a monthly basis to ensure that it remains in excellent shape. A great way of washing it is to run vinegar ice cubes through the disposer, which will not only clean it up but also sharpen its blades.

Test the GFCI Receptors

Many landlords have installed GFCI receptors in their rental properties to safeguard the lives of the occupants. Considering how frightful the outcome of an electrical fault can be, it is critical that you test the GFCI outlets in the home regularly. Also, train and educate your tenants so they can check the receptors as well.

iii. Quarterly Property Maintenance

Test the Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Detectors

Most states and cities in the US, including Florida, require every residential property to have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. The property owner is legally responsible for providing these devices. Be a great landlord to your tenants by ensuring that the sensors are not only present but working efficiently. Make sure you installed sensors that have a test button. This will make it easy for you to assess whether or not they work. The devices should have fully-charged batteries and be able to detect and notify the presence of smoke or carbon monoxide without fail.

Test the Garage Door

If your rental units in Orlando, FL have garages, you need to examine the doors to ensure they work properly. More so, focus on the auto-reverse feature and the photo-electric sensors as these can lead to fatal accidents. If the door does not reverse immediately after hitting or sensing an object, then there is a problem. You should, as a matter of urgency, contract a competent garage door technician in Orlando to fix it.

iv. Biannual Property Maintenance

Inspect the Water Heater

Twice each year you need to examine the water heater to ascertain that there is no corrosion or mineral build-up. Such build-up prevents the heater from running efficiently, and can also cause leaks. Bearing in mind how expensive replacing a water heater is, it is best to be proactive and prevent such damages.

Replace Batteries in your Smoke and Carbon Detectors

Even if you inspected the detectors and ascertained that they were in perfect working condition, it is sensible to change the batteries every six to twelve months. It would be unfortunate for the device to malfunction in an hour of need, only because the batteries died.

v. Yearly Property Maintenance

Inspect the Roof and Gutters

The roofs of your rental properties must be in perfect condition at all times, to provide shelter and protection to the occupants. For this reason, you need to inspect them at least once each year, to ensure that they are ok. If there are any broken tiles, missing shingles, or worn out iron sheets you need to fix that. Also, examine the gutters and drains to ensure that they are free of leaves, twigs, or debris that might inhibit the free flow of water.

Inspect the Plumbing

Significant amounts of water go to waste in many Orlando homes through broken faucets, leaky toilets, and leaking water pipes. You, therefore, need to inspect your plumbing to verify that they do not have any leaks. While you’re at it, examine whether the faucets have reduced or low water pressure. If they do, you need to clean aerators.

Conclusion

Even though maintaining your rental property may seem daunting, when you break the tasks into bits, it becomes manageable and affordable to do. With such a schedule in place, there is no reason why you should have a poorly-keptOrlando rental property.