Marchant Property Management Blog

Hi, I'm Adrien, I'm one of the licensed property managers on the team with Marchant Property Management.

And today I'm going to be covering the seasonal recommended maintenance list for our property managers and stuff that we keep an eye out each season to ensure that your home is being taken care of to the best of its abilities.

We'll start with spring and work our way through, and this is something that we even do in my own house. I actually created a cute little checklist because I work in the industry, but my husband does not, and it can be a very taxing for me to have to like mentally remember, like, oh, what do we need to do this month and remind him to do it?

So I just created a checklist of stuff that we need to do on a monthly basis, in a seasonal basis. And then when he is free time, he can just go and check it off. And it's been working great. So if you want my checklist, just let me know and I'm happy to send you a copy.

But let's go ahead and dive in. I'm pretty relaxed with these conversations. I have like a rough outline, and I'm just going to use my eight years of expertise to kind of tell you what I do and what we look for here at Marchant.

So in the springtime is when things are starting to dry out and things are starting to warm up, so is the time of year that we are usually looking for. The HVAC system needs to get checked specifically on the AC side, so if you already have a company that you work with for your home to do routine check ins on that AC, that is the time to do so. Otherwise we are happy to do it. We have multiple HVAC vendors we work with, and I get offered that service and make sure everything's running smoothly.

This is a little reminder as well that we do send our tenants filters every 90 days. So they're supposed to swap those out, and then that is ensuring that your HVAC system is running smoothly as well.

This is also the time of year as things dry up. You know we've gotten through the winter months, in the fall months, and all that debris and stuff that's gotten onto your roof and in your gutter system. We need to clean it out. So it's something I'm keeping an eye open for during inspections is like, hey, I think we need to clear the roof off you, extend the longevity of your roof and get those gutters cleaned out as well.

I'm also with the sunshine and everything drying out, I'm keeping an eye on everything exterior, so checking if there's any like wood rotting, any water access points or like damage to sidings anywhere where water could get in or pets could get in.

This is also the time of year that we send out reminders in March for pest control for tenants, and April for landscaping. Most of our properties, those are tenant responsibilities, so we send them a reminder that pest control is their responsibility. We recommend them spraying the house at least twice a year. It is an ongoing battle against the palmetto bugs here in this area, as we all know.

And then landscaping is also typically a tenant responsibility as well, unless stated otherwise in the lease. So it's something I'm keeping an eye out for both spring and summer to make sure they are cleaning up debris and mowing the lawn.

That is a reminder we're constantly doing as we move into the summer months. This is where a check is prime. We really keep an eye on that. So because the get so hot, so anything 85 degrees or higher, if we get a notification from a tenant that a AC system is not operational, we have an emergency HVAC vendor we work with that can usually get out there within 48 hours and get that system running.

We are also keeping an eye on landscaping, and we are also ensuring the health of trees are doing well. I think we all learned after the recent hurricane to keep an eye on the trees, make sure they are healthy, solid and if we need to look at having a tree removed, that is something we are recommending and doing.

The other thing I usually take a look at in the summertime as well, with everything drying out, is the health and safety of any porches or decks and then recommending at that time, Hey.. we either need to get some parts of this repaired or fully replaced, and then I'm also tracking if things need to be stained or resealed or painted to extend the longevity of that as well.

Then as we go into the fall, that is where we're recommending the HVAC system gets a routine check in again, but this time on the heating side as we prepare for the colder months. Again, that we can help with that. And this there's a company set to do so we're once again checking landscaping to ensure they're keeping all that debris like leaves and stuff getting cleaned up and seals on windows and doors like weather stripping.

I'm also keeping an eye open for that when I'm doing my inspections. We want to ensure that any cold air access points can get sealed off. And lastly, we're doing another reminder around this time of the year to do pest control again. As times get colder, the bugs are looking for somewhere to come inside and stay warm.

And last but not least in the winter months is all about winterization. So we have winterization communications that we send out to tenants this time of year to ensure their turning off the exterior water, draining the spigots, making sure any pipes are insulated.

I'm checking spigots when I'm at properties to ensure that they've done that. We go to any vacant properties at that time as well and winterize things, and we're also keeping an eye on wheather a lot this time of year so that we know if a storm is coming in an ice storm or a snowstorm, which we've experienced just a couple months ago, we can get that communication out to tenants and tell them the steps they need to take to ensure the home is prepared for that, and something that we keep an eye on as well when we're doing inspections, even during the winter months.

And that's just like a quick rundown of sort of a seasonal checklist of what we look for at Marchant to ensure your home is being taken care of. No matter the time of year. Thank you.