Most repairs aren't hard. A leaking sink is a plumber, a part and an hour. What wears landlords down is everything around the repair: the back and forth with the tenant, the plumber who doesn't confirm, the invoice that arrives with no photos, and the question nobody asks a week later: is it still holding?

Count the messages on your last repair. Even a simple leak can easily pass a dozen, across three people, over several days.

So this is the first in a series. I'll take one everyday rental job and break down how an AI teammate would run it step by step, including the parts I'd never hand over. Even if you never use AI, the steps and messages work as a manual system.

The example: a tenant texts, "Kitchen sink is leaking."

1. Get what the vendor needs in the first reply

Most first replies are "OK, I'll get someone out," which means the next five messages are questions. Ask them once instead:

"Thanks for letting me know. Can you send a photo or short video of where the water is coming from? Is it dripping or running, and has it reached the floor or the cabinet below? If it's running, turn the two valves under the sink clockwise to shut it off. What times work for a plumber this week?"

2. Sort it by your written rules

Three buckets, written down once. Emergency (water you can't stop, sewage backup, gas smell, no heat in winter) goes straight to you by phone. Urgent gets a vendor within 24 to 48 hours. Routine gets scheduled.

3. Send the vendor a complete brief

"New job at 123 Main, Unit 2: slow leak under the kitchen sink, photos attached. Water is shut off at the valves. Tenant is available Tuesday or Wednesday after 3. Anything over $300, call me before starting. Can you confirm a time today?"

4. Confirm the visit, or move on

If there's no confirmation within a few hours, the job goes to your second plumber. Once a time is booked, the tenant gets the window and a reminder the day before. This is where most no-shows get caught before they happen.

5. Close the job properly

After the visit, the vendor sends before and after photos with the invoice. The tenant gets one question: "Is everything working?" You get a short summary of what broke, what was done and what it cost.

6. Check that it held

Three days later: "Just checking the sink is still dry underneath." Then it's logged against the unit. That gives you a repair history for each property, for taxes, warranties and spotting the leak that keeps coming back.

What stays human

Approving anything over your limit. Choosing and vetting vendors. Every emergency. Any dispute about who caused the damage or whether a unit is habitable. The AI gathers, coordinates and follows up. You decide.

Where it goes wrong

Without written emergency rules, it can't sort requests safely. Without a spending limit, you get surprise invoices. With only one vendor per trade, there's no backup when they don't answer. And it must never promise a time the vendor hasn't confirmed.

Most landlord software already gives tenants a portal to submit requests, and that part works well. The gap is everything after the request: steps 3 to 6 are where the time goes.

Which of these steps takes the most of your time on a typical repair?

P.S. Still time to vote in Monday's poll on which job you'd hand off first. It closes Friday, and I'll post a step-by-step for whichever one wins.

Cheers,
Lee