Continue to offer pest control?

Question

Hello everyone!  Currently doing reporting on my portfolio, and I see we've spent $1800 on pest control YTD over 5 different doors.  My question to the community is, should I continue to offer complimentary pest control services to tenants?  Our thinking is it will help to maintain the property, while attracting a higher quality tenant.  But, I'm also wondering if it's worth the cost.  All opinions are welcomed.  Thanks everyone.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Nope.

My lease states the property is pest-free when they rented it. I'll handle pest control for the first two weeks in case something was missed. After that, it's the Tenant's responsibility just like it's my responsibility in my home and your responsibility in your home.

Jim K. · Answer

This is one of the few times I'm going to cordially disagree with @Nathan Gesner, and the reasons why are simple to understand. My Pittsburgh-area portfolio is filled with hundred year old properties with full basements and outdated wiring. My main issue with pests is rats. Rats chew through wiring if it gets in their way, and modern NM wire is harder to mangle than the most prevalent outdated form (rag wire) I'm talking about. I have to be proactive about that. I also handle my own pest control, so it's a lot cheaper per door than the $360 the OP mentioned. We don't really have much in the way of termites up here and carpenter ant activity is pretty easy to spot.

But again, I'm a small, active landlord with limited ambition and limited holdings, and I am very much my own general maintenance man. I doubt my business model will survive as it is if I grow past 25 rental units.

On the other hand, I really see pest and weed control as two of the easiest things to do adequately in this business, at least in a relatively tame part of the country like western PA. Why pay someone to amble around with a sprayer when you could do it yourself? Setting up bait stations and traps for rats and mice, plugging up ratholes with steel wool, that really isn't complicated. Putting a squirrel trap in an attic isn't rocket science. When I do get past 25 units, I'll probably just pay one of my regular handyman to handle it.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Jim, that's a fair point. When I hit send, I thought of editing my post to describe certain scenarios where it may be in the owner's interest to provide regular pest control.

In most areas of the country, pests are attracted to unclean living conditions and can easily be managed with inexpensive tools in the hands of inexperienced users. Ant bait stations, fly swatters, wasp spray, and even a random flip-flop will dispose of most pests. I do recognize there are some areas where pests are constant, no matter how clean you live, and it may be in the Landlord's interest to handle them regularly.

Brad Larsen · Answer

@Charles Burgess As a PM Company, we tried this with a 3rd party, added the service bundled into our Resident Benefit Package that the tenant pays monthly.  After an audit, with what we collected vs. pest control requests, the average cost was about $750 per request, so we lost on that concept.

That said, definitely not a fan of offering this program as inclusive to tenants.

Take Care,

Brad

Jared Hottle · Answer

Honestly some great points on here but I think that would be the first thing I would look to reduce or get rid of. Seems like a large expense and does not incentivize tenants to keep the place clean.

John Morgan · Answer

@Charles Burgess

I’ve had rodents cause thousands of dollars in damage up in the attic chewing up air ducts and wires. I take care of them when tenants complain. Otherwise it’ll cost me more in the long run.

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Charles Burgess I have a quarterly program for several of my multis. We don’t have a huge problem with interior bugs here and interior mice are common and usually the problem of the tenants to deal with although I’m happy to buy the tenants preferred form of traps if they want me to. While I’m not thrilled about allowing cats I’ve found that responsible pet owners stay longer and the cats help deter the mice.

I’d continue with the exterior treatments and treat the interior maybe just between tenants.

Charles Burgess · Answer

Two doors are a duplex, and the other are a duplex, but none of the properties exist in a HOA. Thanks for the advice!

Kelsey Porter · Answer

We conduct quarterly pest control services at our rentals & so far, they are great! Especially in Midwest markets in the spring time, its a great way to prevent ant issues. Even the cleanest tenant that has a back door off a kitchen seems to have issues from my experience.

I meet our pest control guy out at the property (with timely permission from the tenant) and follow him around while he sprays. I also feel like it's a good way for me to check in on the property in an appropriate way & opens a line of communication pretty regularly throughout the year with my tenant in case something is malfunctioning or not working right. I self-manage our properties for some background and don't mind the additional managing that this brings.

Continue to offer pest control?

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