Make life easier for your property management team and clients by streamlining the repairs and maintenance process and introducing a pre-quoting system.

Life can begin to feel like groundhog day in the property management industry.

There are the usual questions from rental property providers and the usual concerns from renters. Then there are the day-to-day requirements of repairs and maintenance requests. 

With so many requests coming in and all the different quotes required, it’s easy to understand why property managers become overwhelmed. However, with a little groundwork, you can start to rely on automation and pre-quoting to save time and money.

Making repair and maintenance requests easier

From renters to property owners, nobody likes the hassle of arranging repairs. However, it’s a necessary part of owning and managing a quality rental property. 

One way to save your property managers time is to switch from a bespoke to a pre-quoting system. Under this, you have set costs for standard call-outs and you don’t have to worry about getting a fresh price for each job. 

Using this approach will streamline things for rental property providers and managers because there is less back and forth required. Tradies will also appreciate the strategy because they also won’t have to stop and give a specific price for a basic job. 

One example of software you can use to support this is Real Time Bookings. Developed in Australia, this platform works with existing property management platforms to provide a more comprehensive solution for maintenance and repairs. It gives trades and suppliers the chance to fill spare job capacity and access requests for jobs in real time. 

Using purpose-designed software to manage repairs means fewer phone calls, less time spent emailing and less time waiting for approvals. A property manager can simply figure out which cost category the repair falls into, let the property owner know, and book a tradesperson to do the job. Yes, additional costs will need to be followed up on but small, standard fixes can be taken care of with much less stress. 

Another option is Maintenance Manager. This software allows you to process maintenance faster, with qualified trade suppliers and the help of automated communications and workflows. This platform ensures everyone involved is kept up-to-date with the status of a job, providing complete transparency. 

Once you have a pre-qouting system set up, you can introduce it to your rental property provider clients as part of the onboarding process. Let them know you have a standard set of costs for maintenance and repairs, and explain how this benefits them. 

Have a few different trades businesses you can call on and establish an ongoing working relationship so you don’t need to negotiate when it comes to costs but you know the work will be completed in a professional way. 

Add a layer of automation

To make repair and maintenance tasks even easier, you could also consider creating a system of ‘canned’ emails or templates. This way, your team will only have to enter a few details, rather than writing a message from scratch every time. 

Using property management specific CRM, you can do the same for text messages. Your rental property provider clients can then confirm a repair request in the time it takes to type, ‘Yes’. 

Educate your clients

While we are on the subject of saving time for property managers and clients, to put an end to the steady stream of ‘how do I?’ phone calls and emails, consider creating a portal or area on your website for your clients with a series of how-to documents and videos. 

This will take some time to establish but if even 50 per cent of enquiries can be directed to a video or website page which answers questions or shares instructions, you’ll find your team has so much free time on their hands. 

You can create an initial series of 10 videos answering the most common questions then add to your list over time. 

When you have the right systems, processes and platforms in place, your team will be able to breathe easier and your clients will experience a higher level of service.