Should Tenants Email or Text Property Managers About Issues?

Question

I’ve noticed that some tenants tend to text the property manager directly when maintenance issues arise. I’m curious to hear what others think: Is it better to ask tenants to send these requests via email instead of text? What are the pros and cons of each approach?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences

Drew Sygit · Answer

Tenants ALWAYS want what is easiest for them.

Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, messages sent via random channels can actually cause chaos.

Structure is needed, which a percentage of tenants will NEVER like:(

We only allow emergency issues to be done via phone or SMS - known as "blood or flood" in the industry. Otherwise, tenants think everything is an emergency or urgent.

All other maintenance requests are required to be put in writing - via an entry in a tenant portal or an email to a specific Maintenance Dept shared mailbox. Anything else is politely refused.

We do not allow communications via staff cell phones - can't be tracked and can cause major issues.

Taylor Wilson · Answer

I’ve definitely had renters who prefer texting! In these cases, I always follow up with an email to reiterate expectations and the maintenance process. If you respond to texts immediately and at all hours, that’s the level of availability they’ll come to expect.

Drew Sygit · Answer

Well, we never give out our cell phone numbers, so they can't text those.

We have an SMS-only number for each of our departments, but politely communicate that we can't accept maintenance requests via teext and send them a link to their portal.

Lauren Robins · Answer

This is a great question and a common situation for landlords and property managers. Many tenants prefer to send maintenance requests via text because it feels quick and convenient. While texting does make it easier for tenants to report issues in real-time—potentially preventing small problems from becoming bigger ones—it also creates several challenges. Text messages can easily get buried, are hard to track, archive, or retrieve if you ever need documentation to prove when a request was submitted or how it was handled.

The most effective alternative often involves using property management software or a tenant portal like AppFolio, Buildium, RentRedi, or TenantCloud. These platforms combine the speed of texting with the structure of email. Tenants can submit maintenance requests quickly through a mobile app, upload photos, and even track the status of their request. On your end, everything is automatically logged, timestamped, and organized.

Adam Bartomeo · Answer

We prefer for our tenants to put work orders in through our portal but some are elderly and some don't speak English. We are ok if they text through our portal or if they can the office but we don't accept emails or text to our phones. There are too many avenues for communication, and it will get lost.

Sami Gren · Answer

Great point!

However as you know there are always those tenants that will still text you, How do you handle those?

Brian Teeter · Answer

We use PM software (Appfolio) and set up tenants with a portal to make maintenance requests, pay rent, etc.  It works very well. That way all PM to tenant communication is documented and better organized for response.  We discourage texting and emailing, as it disrupts organization and systems

Appfolio offers a on-shore answering service for $1 per door, per month.  Thats a great value!

Large scale PM software makes sense for a PM but may not for a small landlord with 10 or fewer doors. If small, I would go with email.

Should Tenants Email or Text Property Managers About Issues?

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