Oklahoma City is a wonderful place to live. But, investors here have to be prepared for a wide range of weather conditions that will affect your rental properties. Winter storms often bring high winds, periods of below zero wind chills, low temperatures, and ice. Spring and early summer are the peak thunderstorm seasons, and in the summer, those high temperatures put a lot of stress on a property’s air conditioning unit. Today, we’re explaining why these weather conditions make preventative maintenance so critical.
Maintaining Heating and Air Conditioning Systems
To ensure your heat and air conditioning systems remain in good working order, we recommend that you have the air conditioning unit and furnace inspected, cleaned, and serviced in both the spring and the fall. Regular filter replacement is also essential, and we arrange for the correct size and quality of filter to be delivered to your tenants every 90 days. When tenants move in, we instruct them on how to change the filters, and when it’s required. That eliminates a lot of the tenant’s concerns, and prevents tenants from telling us that they don’t know the filter size and they don’t remember when to change the filters or where to go to get them.
Maintaining Rental Property Appliances
If your property is furnished with a refrigerator, it’s a good idea to clean the dust off the coils on a regular basis. This will ensure the fridge continues to cool properly. When a refrigerator breaks down, tenants get upset, and they often demand reimbursement from landlords for food that spoiled while in the non-working refrigerator. Preventative maintenance will ensure that doesn’t happen.
Properties that have washers and dryers also require their own attention. Part of your normal make-ready process should be to use a cleaning product that you run through a regular wash cycle on your washing machine. This will remove any hard water scale buildup in both the dishwasher and the clothes washer. For clothes dryers, we recommend you clean the vent pipe because lint can accumulate, and cause a fire hazard.
There are a number of common maintenance tips on our website. If you have any questions about these and other preventative maintenance practices, please don’t hesitate to contact us at OKC Homes 4 You.
