Headaches, confusion, and frustration… all things that are normal for you, an investor, to feel when dealing with maintenance problems. It feels like one minute everything is smooth sailing and the next the maintenance fund is being drained for things that should have been taken care of proactively. Uggghh!!!
At Real Property Management Professionals, our team is here to help you! Regardless of if you’re speaking to our Property Manager, Mike, our Maintenance Coordinator, Jeff, or our Broker and Owner, Carla – you’re going to get the same honest and transparent communication. No secrets here.
When talking with investors, we noticed there were two recurring pain points surrounding property maintenance:
- Investors felt like their property management company was making huge profit margins on the maintenance work orders.
- Investors want to limit surprises and know they are getting the best value for their money and maximizing their investment.
And thus, an idea was born! At Real Property Management Professionals, we have created a new reactive maintenance fee.
What is the new reactive maintenance fee?
This new RA maintenance fee is a 100% transparent system that allows you to see all invoices and negotiated discounts are passed on to you, the investor. This is a MASSIVE cost SAVINGS for you!
The RA Maintenance Fee covers off a 24/7 maintenance hotline answered by a live person. In addition, we have online tenant portals to report maintenance at any time of the day with pictures which a lot of times can avoid a work order or service call saving you money. We will then coordinate notices, dispatching, estimates if needed, following up on vendors, ensure proper billing, provide necessary workers compensation information at year end and provide you with a comprehensive statement with invoice backup for your accounting purposes on a monthly basis. In reviewing average work orders per property and average cost per work order we see this as a cost savings to you.
The fee you will see associated with reactive maintenance is $37.50 per work order. We have reviewed the types of work orders we regularly deal with to ensure that this fee is not being applied to preventative and /or scheduled work orders.
Your monthly property management fee with RPM covers predictable services – most of the maintenance our office currently deals with is not predictable. We are working hard to bring proactive plans for you to take advantage of to maintain your property and limit the reactive situations that can be costly. The reality is properties, just like us as humans, need regular maintenance! Very soon we will be introducing a seasonal program that you can take advantage of to assist with simple budgeting to perform the main preventative maintenance items that will be a cost savings and allow us to protect and maximize your asset.
Tell me more…
Deals, discounts, and transparent and open communication! What’s not to love?! Well, it gets better…
- The typical hourly rate for general maintenance for a property management company is $50.00- $65.00 per hour – our negotiated rate with our preferred vendor is $45.00/hour which is passed on directly to you, the investor.
- Appliances, due to the volume we purchase, we have discounted rates from 10% – 25% (depends on the type of appliance). On a $1000 appliance, this is a $100.00 – $250.00 savings!
What’s not included?
We have to be honest with you, this is what is not included in the new reactive maintenance fee:
- Takeover or routine Inspections on reoccurring schedule (silver and gold plan), as well as smoke alarm testing (City of Saskatoon Bylaw), are not subject to the reactive maintenance fee. Please note if work is needed from the routine inspections, they may be subject to the fee.
- Turn around or rent-ready work orders are not subject to the reactive maintenance fee if deemed to be the responsibility of the past tenant and subject to security deposit holdbacks.
- Recurring work orders such as biannual scheduled drain cleaning, underground sprinkler blowouts are not subject to the reactive maintenance fee.
- Regular lawn care, snow removal, vacant property checks and work associated with a preventative maintenance program are not subject to the reactive maintenance fee.
But wait! There’s more…
Did you know the average work order has a min of 10 touchpoints of communication from start to finish between vendors, investors, and tenants? We want to ensure that there are no surprises, and this takes time and coordination.
If you think offices that handle maintenance in-house are saving you money, you may be mistaken. In doing a survey, we found the average property management company across Canada charges a 10% – 25% upcharge on all invoices!
We believe in transparency and honesty – a flat maintenance fee allows for this at savings to you. In addition, we only contract with insured and licenced vendors. This adds a layer of protection to our investors. To be a preferred vendor with our company you must meet our standards and criteria. Part of this criteria is value pricing based on the volume of work we contract to vendors. This discount is automatically passed along to our investors and the invoice is available in your portal for viewing. If you have a vendor that you feel would fit, please feel free to have them contact us and we will review the steps they must take to be a preferred vendor with RPM Professionals.
Conclusion
At RPM Professionals our vision is to lead the industry with solutions that create wealth and redefine the way you think about property management. Protecting your investment and maximizing your return are #1 priorities to us – proper vendor vetting, increased negotiated discounts, clear and transparent communication are one more way we are putting our investors first!