03/17/2022
Why You Need On-Demand Property Maintenance
Property maintenance is a critical part of rental property management. Having well-maintained rental properties helps increase the value of a property, improve renter happiness, and avoid hazards that could injure renters.
However, there is more to property maintenance services than simple upkeep. Many property managers need a property repair and maintenance solution that can deliver on-demand service in a fast and cost-effective manner.
Why is on-demand property maintenance a must for property managers? What are the benefits of having an on-demand rental property maintenance solution versus simply using in-house maintenance staff or manually searching for local emergency repair technicians?
Whether you manage residential or commercial properties, there are many reasons why you would need an on-demand property maintenance service solution instead of using more traditional maintenance services.
Because Residential Renters Are Used to Immediate Satisfaction
Before the rise of the internet, on-demand services were rare. If someone wanted to special order a product not carried in their local stores, they would have to wait days or even weeks for someone to mail off a form or place a call to a distribution center half a continent (or more) away before the product would even start the shipping process—which could take several more weeks. Today, people can place an order for almost anything they can think of online and expect the package to be on their doorstep in a day or two.
In other words, modern consumers are used to near-instant gratification. Because of this, slow and inefficient property maintenance services simply won’t cut it. Traditional property maintenance services tend to be too slow—often requiring a day’s notice or more just to schedule an appraisal, let alone get work done.
On-demand property maintenance services, on the other hand, can provide near-instant gratification for property repairs in an emergency. For example, Icenhour Property Maintenance On Demand property maintenance solution typically has a wait time of just half an hour for a maintenance technician to arrive once a job request has been approved by the property manager. This means renters spend less time dealing with inconvenient issues—which helps to improve overall renter happiness.
Because Business Renters Need Immediate Property Repair
For commercial property managers, the speed of property maintenance services can be even more critical than it is for residential property managers. This is, in part, because commercial renters may find their businesses impacted if repairs aren’t completed as soon as possible. Some examples of ways different businesses might be impacted by slow property maintenance services include:
Loss of Product. Damage to a building’s electrical systems can cause refrigerators to fail—resulting in a loss of perishable goods. If the electricity isn’t restored quickly, the business might not be able to properly store previously-scheduled shipments of perishables that arrive during the short.
Loss of Business. Many modern businesses cannot operate efficiently in a damaged property. Consider this: According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, “60 percent of in-person payments under $10 were made in cash, compared to 20 percent of in-person transactions for $25 or more.” So, if a business’ credit card machines go down because of a lack of power or lost internet connection, they may not be able to process many transactions—small or large.
Risk of Injuries to Employees and Customers. Commercial renters need to remediate any damage to a property as soon as possible because of the risk of an employee or customer becoming injured. Slow property repair services that take days to schedule an assessment are not sufficient to protect these businesses from liability risks.
