Self-managing landlords: which tenant messages eat most of your week?

Question

I’ve noticed most landlords don’t mind the big decisions. It’s the small messages that wear them down

“When is the plumber coming?”, “Did you get my rent?”, “Is the repair done?”

For those of you self-managing, which messages take up most of your time? And have you found a system that keeps them under control?

Judith Chime · Answer

Thanks Lee, splitting them into those three groups makes it so much clearer. I like the idea of starting with whichever one shows up most this month instead of trying to fix everything at once.

Judith Chime · Answer

So true, a quick "still waiting on the contractor, I'll update you Friday" goes a long way

Do you handle those updates for your own rentals, or for clients too?

Jim Johnson · Answer

Maintenance updates are probably the biggest time drain, especially when tenants keep asking when someone is coming or whether a repair is finished. A lot of that back-and-forth happens when you're waiting on the contractor yourself.

Having one place to track maintenance requests and keeping tenants updated as things progress can help. Even a quick message saying you're still waiting on a schedule is better than leaving them wondering what's happening.

Matthew Tregoning · Answer

The awkward updates are the ones where there isn’t an answer yet. “Still waiting on the part; I’ll update you tomorrow by 3” is more useful than silence, provided someone actually owns that follow-up. In guest communication, I’d also distinguish a new problem from a repeat status question. Ten messages about one unresolved repair need a different fix than ten separate requests.

Judith Chime · Answer

Totally agree, the update only helps if someone actually owns it great point on new issues vs. repeat status questions too

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Judith Chime other than hiring you to handle them, what's your solution?

Alik Levin · Answer

Full disclosure - self manage my own portfolio but also managing properties for others... and run a full brokerage too.

It's not what type of messages it's how the messages being handled.

One of my favorites is when a tenant or an owner or a sub - doesn't really matter - texts and ever couple of words hits send, so a single message ends up being half a dozen.

THAT is a friction for sure in so many ways.

I route all these to my bots and they know how to sum it up and even check on the system what it belongs to and if any action needed.

"On what's the status" asks. I Use Atlassian JSM (other tools available and probably do the same) - initial message goes over the text:

Issue X at Y, tracking here <link> and every time I update the ticket JSM sends notification about the the status update.

If the owner ANYWAY asks the what's the status, I send the link to the ticket with "Latest is here, LMK if there is anything needed clarification"

Judith Chime · Answer

Honestly, most small landlords don't need to hire anyone.

One place for requests, a quick "plumber's coming Thursday" text, and a promised time for the next update fixes most of it. It only gets hard when there are too many doors for one person to keep up.

Judith Chime · Answer

Sending the ticket link is smart saves answering the same "any update?" twice

Lee Futcher · Answer

Hi Judith,

I think you've described it perfectly. The big decisions rarely wear landlords down. It's the small messages that arrive all day, each needing a quick answer.

From what owners describe here, most of those messages fall into three groups, and each one can usually be answered before the tenant even asks. "Did you get my rent?" mostly goes away when every payment sends an automatic receipt. "When is the plumber coming?" goes away when the tenant gets the visit window the moment the job is booked. And "Is the repair done?" goes away when the tenant and the owner both get a short note, ideally with a photo, the day the work is finished.

I'd recommend starting with whichever of those three shows up most often in your messages this month. Fixing just that one usually makes the biggest difference to how the week feels.

Cheers,Lee

Self-managing landlords: which tenant messages eat most of your week?

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