As you begin your search for a local Houston apartment manager, make sure you are looking for one who understands the importance of keeping your expenses low and strives to reduce your costs over time. Not many managers concern themselves with this as they aren’t spending their personal money making repairs to the property. However, that doesn’t mean these individuals don’t exist. They do, and if they work to keep your costs down they are worth their weight in gold.
You may already have a local Houston apartment manager who you are happy with, but still wonder if he/she is doing everything possible to keep your costs low. The checklist below will help you determine if your manager is working to reduce your costs over time. And, if you’re still looking for the right management professional, the list below will give you an idea of things to look for.
- Ground Maintenance – Often times, managers focus on keeping properties, especially apartment complexes, maintained on the inside and forget about the outside. Well, the outside of the building is just as important as the inside. Not only do you want the grounds maintained for curb appeal, but they need to be maintained for monetary reasons too. For example, if the building is surrounded by old, well-established trees then your management team should keep these trees trimmed in the summer to prevent limbs from hanging over the roof. Tree limbs are a major cause of roof damage…and their leaves can cause water problems when the guttering isn’t properly maintained too.
- Season-Specific Maintenance Checks – Every property manager should conduct season-specific maintenance checks on their properties, especially those managing apartment buildings! This is the time when furnaces or air conditioners (given the season) should be checked, filters changed (and replacements left with the tenants), and fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors tested. All of these things can prevent major emergencies from happening, which is why they should be done twice a year…once before spring/summer and once before fall/winter.
- Takes the Initiative – Finally, not all problems are going to be reported by a tenant. A good, local Houston apartment manager will take the initiative to conduct regular walk-throughs and drive-bys. Then, if the manager notices anything out of the ordinary or the start of a problem, he/she will also take the initiative to fix it immediately before it escalates into a bigger, more costly problem.