Blog Post

5 Common Tenant Calls that Property Managers Handle

Dustin Edwards • February 28, 2020

Are these the tenant calls you want to handle?

When you have your first rental in Long Beach one of the first considerations that many owners have is should they lease and manage the property themselves or should they hire a property management company? The topic of whether to hire a property management company or manage it yourself is a larger discussion but one item that might help is understanding what types of calls do property managers handle?

Before we share our top items one aspect to remind yourself, especially if this is your first rental, is that a tenant should have the ability to reach you when it is convenient for them and to get items repaired in a timely manner. Many of our rentals in Long Beach are single family homes. People transitioning from an apartment to renting a home are used to having a manager on-site or easily accessible and when that home is your rental be prepared to be accessible. So what exactly are the common calls?

“There is water all under my sink”- Oh the dishwasher! It is a wonderful item of convenience but when it goes bad it can go bad and wreck your cabinets. Be prepared to handle not only replacing a dishwasher but the inevitable repair of cabinets that can occur when it goes bad.
“I only have cold water” - Water heaters are one of those systems that people have little patience for dealing with. When a water heater goes out no one wants to deal with taking cold showers. Whether you have a tankless or a traditional water heater this one is one to be prepared for.
“I’m locked out” - Yes, believe it or not this is more common than you would think. It could be as simple as someone locked the door handle, left in a hurry and didn’t realize they locked their keys until they got home at night. Be prepared to have an extra set of keys on hand to help your tenant get back to enjoying your property.
“My toilet or sink is backed up” - No matter how new the toilet and plumbing is this is a very real possibility. It could be something as simple where a plunger suffices or it could be something more like replacement of a garbage disposal or something major like needing to replace a mainline. When you are managing your own property make sure to have at least two trusted plumbers at the ready that you can call.
“It seems like a socket is working” - In the era of everything needing more power you will hear quickly if one of the electrical sockets isn’t working. While your gut reaction might be “can’t you use another one”? the reality is that they all need to work. For a job like this you could call an electrician or even a handyman as the job is smaller.

These are just a fraction of the calls you could receive. Reducing tenant calls comes down to an efficient tenant screening process and ensuring the property is kept in top shape that allows the tenant enjoy a long rental period at the property.

When you want to find out more about the calls we can handle when you have your property managed by Beach Cities Property Management we invite you to call us at (562) 888-0247 to see how we answer your call. If you prefer we can we can perform a free rental analysis on your property to see if you are maximizing your rental income.