Late Night Service Calls

[Eunice Sadsad]

Hi, I am relatively new in the industry. I now own 8 Multi-families in PA, recently purchased in the last 6 months. I need help with the late-night "no-heat" calls please. What have you done to successfully handle them so you aren't personally answering the calls?" 

Also, would you say your method is scalable and cost-efficient? Would appreciate your insights on this.

Thanks,

Eunice

[Greg Kasmer]

Eunice - Late night "no heat" calls are no fun as you mentioned. There is not much you can do from a service standpoint, but what I started to do is have electric space heaters handy that can be delivered to the units relatively quickly in case of this emergency. In your situation with multifamily, perhaps having a space heater or two in a storage area of the building that can be accessed quickly would be a good idea. Or, having a few available that can be dropped off by your and/or the property management company. I've also heard other landlords basically tell tenants to "bundle up" and deal with the situation until the next morning when a HVAC repair can stop by. I've also heard others give a gift card and/or $25 for the temporary inconvenience of not having heat. From my experience I prefer having some space heaters on hand as that shows you're trying to (temporarily solve) the situation and does not train your tenants to expect some compensation when their are issues - as they are bound to happen. Good Luck!