A landlord's guide to staying ahead of repairs

Small rentals don't fail all at once. They fail one ignored drip at a time. A practical system for tracking requests, planning upkeep and keeping records that hold up later.

If you own one rental or a handful, maintenance is the part of the job that quietly eats your evenings. The fix isn't working harder. It's a simple system: one place requests arrive, a calendar of upkeep that runs itself, and records you can find when you need them.

Make reporting easy

Tenants report problems late when reporting is awkward. Give them one simple channel (a text number is easiest), ask for a photo, and acknowledge every report the same day, even when the fix takes longer. A slow drip reported in week one is a washer; reported in month four, it can be a subfloor.

Triage: what's urgent

Now. No heat in winter, active leaks, sewage backups, no power, a broken exterior lock. A gas smell means the tenant leaves and calls the gas utility's emergency line first.

Within days. Appliances not working, slow drains, minor leaks.

Scheduled. Cosmetic issues and small repairs you can batch into one visit.

Many places set legal timelines for repairs, especially vital services like heat and water. Check the rules where your property is.

Plan the predictable

Most rental maintenance is predictable: heating service every year, filters every few months, gutters in spring and fall, smoke and CO alarm checks, dryer vents, bathroom caulking. Put it on a calendar for each property, and where your lease gives a task to the tenant, such as changing filters, remind them.

Keep records that hold up

For every property, keep appliance models and ages, warranties, invoices and receipts, who did each job and when, and photos before and after. Good records help with warranty claims, insurance, disputes and taxes, and they make a sale easier.

Share access, not passwords

Owners, co-owners, property managers and tenants need different views of the same home, so give each person their own access rather than sharing a login. Handyman keeps a record and a maintenance plan for each property, and lets you share a home with co-owners, managers or tenants, each with their own access, so requests, quotes and receipts land in one place. Every home is free. Add your first property.