ON TREND
Now Trending in Maintenance by Lisa Gunderson The digital age is among us. Community-wide Wi-Fi has become an expectation of our residents. New or retrofitted properties with universal Wi-Fi provide a smart home technology system platform. Owners and operators are investing in monitoring systems inside the homes we manage. This allows for the things residents want, smart locks and thermostats, and a preventive in-home health assessment for systems. Water leak detection, HVAC monitoring, and smart appliances that can provide preventive service warnings are all available for a nominal charge in addition to the overall systems to manage them all. Increasingly, these platforms integrate with our property management software. Allowing for routine tasks, preventive maintenance can be seamlessly scheduled within apps, including coordination with third-party vendors. We have made a push to have all work orders documented with photos on a handheld smart device by documenting the before and after conditions. This has increased customer satisfaction and decreased misunderstandings.
Technology is playing a more significant role in our day-to-day tasks. One last trend gained early adoption in the single-family for rent market: app-based ondemand maintenance and additional services. This leads to centralized employee offices to service multiple locations, apps based on call/scheduled repairs, regularly planned services, and extra income opportunities. Last week we ordered our first robot vacuum, first seen in large hotels in airports. Our building will be digitally mapped, and an app will control the time and service route. Our maintenance supervisor will be alerted if problems arise and when the path is finished. This will free them to focus on new move-ins instead of hallway maintenance. We are looking forward to sharing our experiences with these new systems with you soon!
It’s the Law, cont. from p. 5 time. When the resident makes their accusations, we can testify in court that we always receive maintenance requests in that way, and that if we don’t have record of the request, it wasn’t submitted. There’s never a guarantee when these cases are presented in court, but following these tips can help give you the best chance of success if and when it becomes necessary. News & Events
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