Rental Property Investor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2014 · 259 posts · 55 votes
Hello BPs,
I read an interesting article for pest control - and it come to my mind - how many of you have a pest control service maintenance as a yearly line item maintenance on your rental properties? If you have a SFR in Florida / Texas - do you perform pest control maintenance ? And just to expend the topic - what are yours line items for a yearly maintenance on your SFR rentals ?
Rental Property Investor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2011 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
11y
I'm in CA and I spend $72 every 2 months on preventative pest control. Otherwise I would have a paper wasp problem. Sorry, I don't know how they do things in TX.
Rental Property Investor · Toronto, Ontario · Member since 2012 · 538 posts · 298 votes
11y
Yes - On the MF I have in Cleveland, Common areas monthly and in-unit on report of any bugs.
Just spent a bunch of money on sewer and storm water line clearing. Plan on doing maintenance clearing every 2 or 3 years.
Heating boiler - annually
etc
It boils down to the old saying of 'Pay me now or Pay me more later'. As long as the property is performing, the vast majority of the time, you are better off doing regular maintenance vs. waiting for something to break / fail be a problem that could escalate to a crisis (nothing like a sewer line back up!).
Investor · Wichita Falls, TX · Member since 2010 · 3k+ posts · 603 votes
11y
Heya Kyle!
I expect gutters to be cleaned at least 2x a year. This is based on location though. I really don't line item each expense. I just assume 10% gross rents will go towards expenses at least. I lump all these costs into that 10%. It could be higher or lower in actuality though!
I don't do pest control on my properties, unless something comes up. So it's not preventative. I don't even do that here on my primary residence either.
It's a great point on cleaning the gutters 2x a year. As far as expenses - this what we do as well - 5% for capex and 5% for day to day maintenance, however sometimes the people do no keep on track on all these "recommended" and "preferable" preventive maintenance items. I told could be a great idea to have a topic and discuss them, first for SFR and then for Multi-faimily.
Interesting to hear other "preferable" maintenance items. I will create a spreadsheet and upload them in the FilePlace.