Limiting rental costs is one of the best ways to increase both your cash flow and your long term ROI. One of the largest and most expensive areas for any landlord or investor is maintenance. Your maintenance costs can get out of control, and today AG Management is talking about how to prevent those costs from eating into your bottom line.

Preventative Maintenance vs. Deferred Maintenance

Rental property maintenance should never be deferred. As a landlord, you may not want to spend $100 to have your air conditioning system or your furnace inspected every year. However, spending that $100 can save you thousands in expensive repairs. When you are focused on preventing major maintenance disasters, you can save yourself a lot of money and time on costly and extensive repairs. Keep a preventative maintenance schedule, and don’t put off doing the work that needs to be done to keep your property safe, habitable, and functional. When a tenant reports a small leak, fix it before it becomes a large leak that also results in rotten wood and additional damage.

Work with Excellent Vendors

Another thing that can save you money is licensed, insured, and qualified vendors. It may seem tempting to save money on repairs by using a friend or a family member who knows how to do a thing or two around the house. That’s a mistake. Hire someone who is an expert in the field so the job is done correctly the first time. Put together a list of reliable vendors who will give you a competitive price, perform high-quality work, and be available when you need them. You don’t want to be calling around to plumbers in the middle of the night when your tenant calls to report a burst pipe or a leaking water heater. You want to have the right person in place already, and only a phone call away.

Conduct Regular Inspections

Many landlords will avoid their properties until a tenant moves out. Instead, they should be inspecting their properties at least once during the course of a tenancy. This is a great way to check for needed maintenance and look for small problems that the tenants might have overlooked or not reported. Get inside the house and take a look under sinks and behind appliances. Make sure everything is working the way it should and there’s nothing that’s about to break. It’s also a good opportunity to reinforce the regular changing of furnace air filters and smoke detector batteries.