Benefits of Having a National Property Maintenance Services Partner
Property managers have a lot to contend with—regardless of whether they’re managing single-family, multifamily, or commercial properties. All of these property types require semi-frequent preventative maintenance as well as emergency repairs to maintain their value, prevent injury to renters, and keep said renters satisfied (and, consequently, willing to renew their lease).
Partnering with a national property maintenance service is an effective way for property managers to source maintenance professionals across multiple markets—which may be of massive benefit to larger property management companies that operate in several regions at once.
What are the benefits of having a national property maintenance services partner? Here’s a short list to highlight why using an on-demand service provider who operates in multiple markets can be useful for a property manager:
1: Having a Single Point of Contact for Property Maintenance Services
When using a national property maintenance partner to deliver critical property maintenance services to the properties they manage, property managers only need to track a single point of contact. Normally, when engaging with service providers directly, property managers have to track contact information for plumbers, electricians, handymen, HVAC specialists, general contractors/handymen, and any other specialists separately.
The complexity of contact list management tasks only gets worse as property managers have to reach out to different companies in different areas to get service. For example, ABC Electric serves 42nd Street, but 44th Street, just two blocks over, is outside of their standard service range. So, the property manager has to reach out to XYZ Electric to get service.
Using a national property maintenance service circumvents this added complexity. Instead of trying to figure out which service providers will be able to provide property maintenance for a given residence or commercial structure, managers can simply place a work order through their property maintenance partner—who will go through the process of finding a qualified professional near the job site on behalf of the property management company.
This makes placing work orders for property maintenance services much faster and easier. Plus, if there’s ever a problem with the work performed, the property manager can reach out to their property maintenance partner to work through a solution instead of having to try and track down the specific service provider themselves.
2: Understanding License Requirements in Different Parts of the U.S.
One of the biggest challenges in arranging property maintenance services is finding a reliable maintenance pro who has the requisite skills and knowledge to complete work in a way that satisfies all local regulations. This challenge is even tougher when operating across multiple regions or markets, as they may have different license requirements of professionals.
For example, according to the Electrician School’s State-by-State Licensing Guide, there is, “No state licensing” in Illinois (instead, specific municipalities may issue electrician’s licenses). Meanwhile, most other states require some form of state-issued license for anyone considered more than an “apprentice” (and even many states require apprentices to have some form of license to assist fully-licensed electricians). Each state typically requires licenses from state-specific governing bodies (unless there is no state-level license requirement)—such as Louisiana requiring applicants to go through the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors or Texas requiring applicants to go through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations.
This lack of uniformity in licensing requirements often makes it hard for property managers to ensure that their contractors are meeting license requirements for property maintenance work—especially if they operate in more than one region. However, partnering with a national property maintenance service provider helps to simplify this task. The property maintenance partner organization keeps track of the licensing requirements for different states/municipalities so the property manager doesn’t have to. This helps to simplify placing work orders for jobs that require a specific type of license to meet local regulatory requirements.
3: Property Maintenance Partners Help Enforce Uniform Quality of Service
One of the big risks of selecting property maintenance services from different sources is that the quality of services may not be uniform from one company to the next. Individual service providers have their own unique service level agreements, disclaimers, and warranties that they enforce.
This can make the first engagement with any individual property maintenance professional hit or miss—one provider might have great service and quality, while another might not.
Using a national property maintenance service partner helps to ensure some uniformity in the quality of service across regions. This is because the company sourcing the property maintenance will often have some form of guarantee regarding quality of work—and they’ll thoroughly background check and vet their network of professionals to ensure they can consistently meet specific quality requirements.
HOMEE takes this a step further with a $1,000 service quality guarantee on top of pre-screening and background-checking every “Homee” in the network.
4: Services Available Where and When Property Management Pros Need Them
One of the biggest advantages of using a national property maintenance partner is that they’re able to provide critical services when and where property managers most need them. In fact, with Homee On Demand, the time between placing a work order for property maintenance and the arrival of a ready-to-work pro can be as little as 30 minutes.
This is a massive boon for property managers who need emergency property repair on short notice (especially before a big event, such as a holiday party). Instead of having to desperately search for an appropriate professional (and paying an exorbitant premium for a rush job), the property manager can simply place a work order through their property maintenance partner and know that they’ll be helped by the first available property maintenance pro.
This helps property managers save time and headaches when placing orders for high-priority property maintenance services.
Are you curious about how to use property maintenance services from a national-level partner? Reach out to the HOMEE team today to learn more about how you can save time, money, and frustration when managing property maintenance.
