How Remote Work Is Impacting Property Management Maintenance | Part 1

 Summary: It’s been a year since we had Ray Hespen, co-founder and CEO of PropertyMeld on The Property Management Show podcast to talk about COVID-19 and its impact on property management maintenance. The last time he was with us, we discussed ghost maintenance – the idea that all these tenants were at home with the pandemic and no one wanted maintenance technicians or vendors in their property. So the theory was that a backlog of unfulfilled maintenance would develop in the early days of the pandemic. We have him back today to find out if that happened. Key Takeaways: * As predicted, maintenance requests in 2020 dropped off in March and April, and then saw a huge uptick beginning in June. * Maintenance requests in 2021 have stabilized, although Ray has seen a rise in maintenance cost and a rise in the number of requests, which he believes is a result of more folks working remotely from home. * The rise in maintenance costs is due, in part, to the disruption of the supply chain and the fact that vendors and technicians want to be paid more. Ghost Maintenance and Rental Properties As expected, there was a huge drop off in service requests in the beginning of the pandemic. Then, as vendors and maintenance companies began putting safety protocols in place, the repairs requests began to pick up again. The 2020 year was not business as usual in property management. Ray was on the show last year because he saw a significant reduction in the volume of maintenance requests. Requests began to drop off in March and then in April they were at a complete standstill. In May, people began to feel better about reporting those critical repairs and allowing maintenance teams into their homes. By June, there had been a large backlog created, but there was an increase in work that was being completed. Through the rest of the year, service professionals were working through that backlog. An equilibrium was reached around October, and more maintenance issues were being generated. The power of data allowed Ray and his team to make these assumptions, which turned out to be completely accurate. Property Managers and COVID Maintenance Safety protocols for vendors and technicians were a big part of managing maintenance needs during the worst of the pandemic. Property managers were also proactive about soliciting their tenants for any known maintenance needs. The concept was that even if the tenants didn’t want someone in the property to fix the problem, property managers still wanted to know there was a problem. The goal was to help tenants feel comfortable submitting the requests. This was helpful in managing the backlog because once things opened up again, they could prioritize the work needed. Soliciting maintenance request requires a balance. Property managers don’t want to generate extra costs or invite unnecessary maintenance work for their owners. However, maintaining the property is important, so focusing on those preventative issues and making sure small problems can’t become large problems is important. Property managers understood this. Replacing a leaking toilet can cost thousands of dollars while fixing a gasket is relatively cheap. Property managers serve their owners by paying attention to those things that protect them against larger costs. Shifting from 2020 Maintenance Trends to 2021 Things are stabilizing in 2021 with maintenance requests. Vaccinations are available and infection rates are not as high. Tenants are generally more open to having people in their homes. The changes that were made in 2020 are still in place. Vendors are mindful of safety protocols and property managers are still soliciting if they’re worried a tenant isn’t reporting necessary maintenance. Comfort levels have changed,