Spring Maintenance Tips for your Rental Property

Greetings and salutations! I've always wanted to lead a blog entry off with that.

Listen, did you know that twice each year there are items you can do at your home, rental or not, that will enhance your life and protect your family? There sure are! We will address these from both the resident's point of view and the rental property owner's point of view.

So, Who Does What?

Generally, the resident takes care of a good many items within the home, in that they are present in the homes, and they are the party that will benefit the most some the list of items below. These are items such as...

Replacing Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detector Batteries

If you own or rent a property, the batteries in all your smoke detectors and any carbon monoxide detectors should be changed twice a year. Yes, I know we all, including myself, wait until the units start chirping to take action. But did you know that most CO detectors do not chirp when the batteries are low? So, if you wait for any unit to chirp, you could well be endangering your life!

On a side note, Management One tests all smoke detectors in homes with a smoke emitter during annual inspections and the function of CO Detectors. Any that fail the tests, or are missing, are replaced. That is on the owner's behalf and expense. Think of it this way: This is the cheapest insurance policy ever, a $39 unit preventing a $5 million dollar loss per person due to a non-functioning or missing smoke detector. That is a no-brainer.

Changing the HVAC Filters

Do you want to make your HVAC system last longer? Do you want to pay less for heating and air? Well, good news! Changing your HVAC filter/s 2 times minimum, to 4 times a year will do exactly that! And I'm not even mentioning the dust mites that the filters catch! These are floating aimlessly around your house, but a decent filter will capture them. Ever see a dust mite up close? All I can say is EWWWW.

Bottom line, you, as a resident, are much less likely to suffer a loss of AC in summer, and heat in winter, when you routinely change your HVAC filter/s.

Fertilizing the Yards

I can speak for myself here, as well as a good many residents, when I say, it is an enormous pleasure to pull up to my house and see a beautiful yard. I know a good many of you, our residents and owners, feel the same way. So, this is for all:

Keeping your yard green is very simple, and, incidentally, it is part of every lease agreement we produce, where lawn care is an item.

Did you know that you can make your yard green with just fertilizer and seed?

Fertilize your yards at the start of winter with Manure. It's cheap, it's effective, and yes, it smells. But, it will also replace used biomass and will make your yard green and lush. Fertilize it again at the start of spring with weed and feed. That will eliminate clovers, weeds, and unwanted grasses, such as crabgrass, and those spiky ones that penetrate your shoes.

When seeding, October to early March, use 50% Tall Fescue seed, 50% Winter Rye seed. The yard will stay lush and green for both the cold and hot seasons.

General Spring Cleaning

To this day I really don't fully understand the whole "Spring Cleaning" thing in California. Oregon, Wisconsin, cold and snowy places, it makes sense, but not so much here. However, traditionally this is the time of year for cleaning up, even if it can be done year-round in much of California.

I would recommend a couple of items in the spring-cleaning category:

Spray off the cobwebs from your siding and clean up all your porch lights. This is a great time to do this! Don’t forget to clear your rain gutters too. Additionally, this is also a great time to shampoo your carpets, and if you have drapes, take them down and launder them, or replace them outright. The exterior of the windows, once the rainy season, such as it is, ceases, this is also a great time to clean those, and the window screens.

Check out this article on the best window coverings for your rental property.

How to Remember?

With the items above in mind, today's technology makes this REALLY easy to do! Simply set two dates in your cell phone calendar that say something like "Spring Service!" My reminder is "Spring Thing." I know what it means.

Check out this article on Home Warranty for a Rental Property: A Worthwhile Investment Or Not? for more on ensuring good maintenance while maximizing your income potential: