What’s the biggest problem you deal with as a landlord?

Question

Hey everyone, I’m curious what problems rental owners are running into right now, big or small.

What’s the one thing that’s the most frustrating, takes way too much time, or just doesn’t have a good solution yet?

Could be tenants, repairs, rent collection, paperwork, taxes, anything. Would love to hear what you’re dealing with. Thanks!

Leo Stein · Answer

Good question, Matteo. I can't give you an exact number of hours, and it varies a lot from week to week. What helps most is getting a photo, a short description and a good time to come by in the very first message, so one message replaces three. How do you handle new maintenance requests today?

Drew Sygit · Answer

WARNING: Members please note that this poster does NOT appear to be a fellow investor.Just click on their name/pic to see their BiggerPockets profile shows no investing angle.

They also have contributed ZERO.ALL their 19 posts are INDIRECTLY advertising by soliciting free feedback from members that the poster plans to use to vibe code a solution for financial gain.

Matthew Morrow · Answer

@Matteo Scali honestly, scheduling. The units that turn fastest for us are the ones where the crew is lined up before the tenant is even out. Once we know a unit is turning, we walk it, write the scope, and get dates on the calendar so nobody's waiting on a bid after move-out. Quicker updates help, but they don't fix a contractor who isn't booked. Curious what you're hearing from other landlords.

Marcus Auerbach · Answer

Turnover, contractors, priorities, schedules, paperwork - nothing difficult, but a lot when combined. We are working on an AI model to do all of that.

Daniel Jung · Answer

For me it is keeping track of what was said, to whom, and when. A tenant texts about a repair, emails about parking, then calls about a lease question, and each answer lives somewhere different. Nothing is hard on its own, but when something is later disputed, you are digging through three places trying to rebuild one conversation. What fixed most of it was boring: one channel for everything, and every request, promise, and deadline written down in the same place for that unit. If a call happens, I send a short follow-up message confirming what we agreed. It feels slow in the moment, and it saves hours later. Most landlord stress in my experience is not the work itself. It is proving later what the work was.

Divin Kanyama · Answer

@Matteo Scali For me, the biggest frustration is coordinating repairs—especially smaller jobs that are urgent to the tenant but not large enough to attract a reliable contractor. The repair itself may be simple, but scheduling, access, communication, estimates, follow-up, and verifying completion can consume far more time than expected.

There are plenty of maintenance platforms, but none fully solves the local “last mile”: finding dependable vendors who respond quickly, charge fairly, and document the work. A solution that combined trusted local contractors, transparent pricing, scheduling, tenant communication, and completion photos in one place would be genuinely valuable.

Richard (Ryszard) Cieplechowicz · Answer

Small repairs that sit. A slow drain or a loose handrail gets reported late, and by the time it is a real repair it costs a lot more and the tenant is annoyed.

A short walkthrough with photos once or twice a year, plus an easy way for tenants to report things, catches most of it before it turns into a bigger bill.

Matthew Morrow · Answer

@Matteo Scali me again! Turnovers, hands down. Not the turnover itself, it's managing contractors and making sure the work actually gets done right, especially when you're not there. One month vacant can wipe out a year of cash flow, so speed matters. Leo's photo idea is a good one. We lean on before, during, and after photos for every job.

Leo Stein · Answer

For me it's usually the small stuff that eats the most time: maintenance requests that arrive with no photos or details, so it takes three back-and-forths just to know what's wrong. Asking tenants to send a photo and a short description up front, plus a quick note on when they're home, cuts that way down. Curious what others have found that works.

Kathy Parker · Answer

One of the biggest challenges is handling maintenance requests and finding time to coordinate repairs. Even small issues can take time to resolve, especially when contractors have busy schedules. Keeping track of requests and following up on repairs can help prevent things from being overlooked.

What’s the biggest problem you deal with as a landlord?

What’s the biggest problem you deal with as a landlord?

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