I've been managing a few units myself while working, and maintenance dispatch has easily become the most annoying part of my day.
Every time a tenant has a repair issue (like a leaking sink or HVAC problem), I find myself caught in an endless loop of phone tag. I text the tenant for their availability, call a plumber, get a completely different time slot, and then mediate back and forth while sitting at my day job.
I really don't want to hand over 10% of my gross rent to a full-service property manager just to handle scheduling calls, but doing it manually is driving me crazy.
For those of you managing your own places:
- Do you just give tenants your contractor’s number directly?
- Have you found any lightweight tools or text-based workflows that keep you out of the middle?
- Or do you just bite the bullet and handle all the back-and-forth calls yourself?
Would love to hear how you keep maintenance hands-off without overcomplicating things!
Honolulu, HI · Member since 2008 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
5h
Never give your vendors number to the tenant unless your vendor clearly understands you are not responsible for payment unless YOU call them.
Why do you insert yourself in the middle? Take the info from the tenant, requiring them to always include their address and contact phone number with whatever communication channel you use. Email or voice mail is best, texts are too hard to manage or research in the future. Call your vendor, provide them the tenant info and nature of the service call, and have them contact the tenant for scheduling within 24 - 48 hours depending on the basic issue. Be sure your tenant understands that only actual emergencies will be addressed after hours, and they will need to be home to provide access to the vendor. Also ensure the vendor does not accept additional tasks from the tenant without your approval. The vendor should have your cell number for contact on arrival to provide verbal estimate or additional info for decisions. They should be able to invoice you via email or regular mail, if you get pre-approved for a trade account. Pay them promptly and without haggling after the fact if they are performing well.
CPA, CFP®, PFS · FL · Member since 2017 · 5k+ posts · 3k+ votes
24m
Michael, I’d try to solve this with a maintenance intake workflow before paying 8%–10% of gross rent for full-service management.
What usually creates the phone-tag problem is that the tenant, owner, and vendor are all coordinating separately. I’d rather have the tenant submit one standardized maintenance request with photos, urgency, access instructions, and a few available time windows. Then the vendor gets the same information and can coordinate from there without you becoming the messenger every time.
I’d be cautious about simply giving every tenant the contractor’s number with no system around it. That can work for a very small portfolio, but you can quickly lose visibility into what was reported, whether the repair was completed, what the vendor was authorized to spend, and whether the invoice matches the issue.
A lightweight text-based or portal workflow is usually enough. The important part is keeping one record of the request, vendor assignment, approval, completion, and invoice so you can see the history later.
From the tax and bookkeeping side, that documentation helps too. If you can tie the invoice back to the specific property and repair, it becomes much easier to distinguish normal repairs from capital improvements and keep the property-level books clean.
I’d also give trusted vendors a pre-approved spending threshold for routine issues so every $150–$300 repair doesn’t require another round of calls.
Feel free to DM me, I’d be happy to send over a few resources that might help with property-level tracking, maintenance documentation, and keeping the rental books clean.
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