Understanding the Importance of Internal Maintenance

When Justin Mann, CEO and co-founder of Stonelink Property Management, began his property management journey, he quickly realized the critical role of maintenance in keeping clients happy and assets well-maintained. Operating in Rhode Island, where 80% of the housing stock is older than 1978, Mann manages approximately 1,500 doors, primarily in scattered-site, low-density multifamily properties. With such old properties, maintenance is an ongoing and substantial responsibility, making it a central focus of the business.

In fact, Mann jokes that Stonelink is essentially a “maintenance company masquerading as a property management company.” The sheer volume of work is staggering—over 12,000 melds (maintenance requests) were processed in 2023 alone, with the company averaging 900 to 1,000 labor hours per week just from its internal team.

So, why should property managers consider building an in-house maintenance team instead of relying on external vendors? Mann’s journey provides a compelling case for internalizing maintenance to improve outcomes, manage costs, and ultimately enhance the client experience.

Why Internal Maintenance Matters

Control Over Outcomes

One of the primary reasons Stonelink opted for building a world-class internal maintenance team was the ability to improve control over maintenance outcomes. Every time maintenance was outsourced, they had less control over the work quality, culture, and values of the external vendor. Internalizing maintenance allowed Stonelink to ensure consistency in service delivery. As Mann emphasizes, “When we looked back at where things went off the rails, more often than not, it was when we externalized it.”

Internal teams are not only easier to manage but also more accountable. Employees align with your company’s mission and values, unlike external vendors whose priorities might differ. Having direct control over staff ensures that maintenance aligns with the overall business goals and delivers the quality clients expect.

Cost Management and Value Creation

Another significant reason for bringing maintenance in-house is the opportunity to manage costs effectively. Mann highlights that controlling salaries, tools, vehicles, and schedules provides a far better chance of reducing overhead costs. By having direct control over labor, Stonelink was able to optimize routes, streamline operations, and lower operational expenses.

Not only does this help reduce costs for the property management company, but it also allows property managers to add value for clients. Instead of being perceived as a line item expense, property management can become a value-enhancing service that boosts a client’s profitability. As Mann points out, “I’m not a line item cost. I’m actually enhancing your P&L because I’m delivering better value.”

Becoming a Value-Added Service Provider

World-class internal maintenance positions a property management company as more than just a coordinator of repairs—it makes them a true value-added service provider. By delivering end-to-end maintenance services, property managers can help clients save money while ensuring high-quality work. This increased value makes it harder for clients to replace the property management company, as they would lose access to the in-house maintenance team.

This advantage is particularly critical in a competitive market where clients face rising taxes, insurance premiums, and other overhead costs. Property managers who can demonstrate cost-saving, efficient in-house services can become indispensable to their clients.

Enhancing Asset Management

Property managers are often viewed as mere facilitators of repairs and resident relations, but the role should extend further into asset management. Mann stresses that property management companies need to demonstrate their value in managing the long-term health of a client’s asset, whether it’s maintaining the property condition, strategizing for repairs, or planning for future renovations. 

By internalizing maintenance, property managers can implement proactive strategies that help clients manage their properties more effectively. This shifts the focus from reactive maintenance to asset management, where the goal is to preserve and enhance the value of the property.

Building a World-Class Internal Maintenance Team

Specialized Teams and Structure

Stonelink’s maintenance team is structured for efficiency, with a total of 30 maintenance technicians divided into specialized teams. There are dedicated turnover teams, break-fix teams, and a back-office support staff of seven people, including a maintenance manager and assistant managers. This specialization allows for better management of both daily operations and larger, more complex projects.

Defining Metrics for Success

Mann emphasizes the importance of clearly defining metrics for maintenance teams, just as you would for property management staff. Using key performance indicators (KPIs) helps set clear expectations for technicians. In Stonelink’s case, they implemented measurable goals, such as completing a set number of maintenance requests or earning high ratings from residents.

To motivate technicians, Stonelink recently ran a three-month contest where maintenance teams competed to gather positive Google reviews. By splitting rockstar technicians across different teams and providing regular feedback on performance, the company garnered 83 five-star reviews in just 90 days. This success was a direct result of setting clear expectations and holding technicians accountable.

Maximizing Revenue Potential

While internalizing maintenance can improve service and control costs, it also opens up new revenue opportunities. Mann believes that an in-house team can not only handle everyday repairs but also take on larger, more complex projects that were previously outsourced. From rebuilding staircases to exterior painting, having a skilled internal team allows property management companies to take on higher-ticket maintenance projects.

As the internal team grows in skill and confidence, it becomes easier to keep more work in-house, reducing reliance on expensive external contractors. This shift also strengthens client relationships, as they see the property management company delivering high-quality, comprehensive services.

Reducing Resident and Client Churn

One of the key benefits of an in-house maintenance team is its direct impact on client and resident retention. In Mann’s experience, poor maintenance is often the number one reason why good residents leave. Having a well-trained internal team ensures that maintenance requests are handled promptly and effectively, increasing resident satisfaction and reducing turnover.

Additionally, when residents stay longer, clients are more likely to stick with their property management company. This retention helps property managers grow their business without constantly needing to replace churned clients, leading to more sustainable growth.

Starting the Process: A Continuous Journey

Building a world-class internal maintenance team is not a linear process. Mann describes it as a continuous journey, much like the ongoing efforts property managers make to improve their services. The first step is assessing the specific needs of your portfolio. Door count is not the only factor—understanding the types of repairs that frequently occur and the skills required to address them will guide hiring decisions.

Ultimately, bringing maintenance in-house offers property managers a competitive edge, improved outcomes, and the potential for new revenue streams. As more property managers adopt this model, the question shifts from whether to internalize maintenance to how quickly they can build their world-class team.

Schedule a call with Property Meld to see how we can provide the industry’s only benchmarks into technician performance to help you build a world-class internal maintenance team. 

The post Building a World-Class Internal Maintenance Team: A Blueprint for Property Managers appeared first on Property Meld.

Property Meld teamed up with the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM) to discuss leveraging KPIs for your maintenance team to improve efficiency and build a powerhouse staff.

We were joined by Deb Newell, a seasoned property management consultant, and Justin Mann, Co-founder and managing partner of Stonelink Property Management. 

How the Rental Market has Changed

Housing providers used to have all the authority. They could charge what they wanted, and it was easy to fill rental units. Now, we are starting to see units sitting vacant for longer, and property management companies are laser-focused on resident satisfaction and renewals. 

This change in the market has made the staffing efficiency of your maintenance team even more crucial. Your residents are your assets, meaning you need to retain that asset. The maintenance experience heavily influences resident churn. So, executing your maintenance process with excellence is your solution to lowering churn and keeping renters in their units. 

A focus on maintenance is critical for providing a positive resident experience and lowering churn, which ultimately improves profit for investors. 

As Justin Mann said, “You want your owner’s statements to be as boring as possible.” This means you are being steady and predictable, which leads to your business and clients’ success.

How Does Maintenance Performance Contribute to Overall Operational Efficiency? 

The industry is shifting and placing a greater focus on maintenance. Maintenance efficiency is critical for resident satisfaction and investor retention and for keeping property management companies safe from potential litigation. 

Litigations surrounding negligence have increased, and property management companies can protect themselves from this by focusing on providing preventative maintenance and ensuring repairs are completed as efficiently as possible. 

Leveraging KPIS for your Maintenance Team

Data allows property management companies to drill down into metrics to analyze performance. Justin Mann at Stonelink said they started looking at their coordinator metrics. “We’re looking at bandwidth, throughput, load balancing, and how many work orders they handle in a day, week, or quarter,” said Mann. 

This has allowed them to understand their resident satisfaction per coordinator. How much work can they handle, and what is their backlog? 

“The more data we get, it starts forcing us to get more specific about how we classify our work orders,” Mann mentioned. 

Classifying work orders by category allows you to drill down into data because not all work orders are the same, meaning they require different service levels. 

Deb Newell mentioned she likes to track maintenance spend per unit because it allows you to retain investors. Your clients need to know how much they should expect to spend on maintenance in a year. 

“I can guarantee if property managers focused on maintenance first, you’d have an amazing business. The rest of it will work out,” said Newell. 

Establishing a strong culture for your maintenance staff is crucial to improving resident satisfaction. They are your brand ambassadors who interact with your residents most often. 

Making them feel included and motivated is a great way to ensure they provide the level of service you expect. 

“However well they perform is how that resident perceives your company. So you want to make sure they are motivated to do well because they can lower or elevate your brand in the eyes of your residents,” said Mann. 

You can do this by tracking metrics to highlight your top performers. This not only helps you retain vital employees but also increases resident satisfaction. 

Download our KPI cheat sheet to download the metrics discussed in this webinar. 

Or, book a demo with our team to learn how you can access these metrics and start evaluating the performance of your maintenance team. 

The post Leveraging KPIS to build a powerhouse team appeared first on Property Meld.

On the contrary, having too many technicians and coordinators means you are paying too many people, and they aren’t staying busy, which will negatively impact your NOI, upsetting your owners and investors. It’s also crucial to make sure your technicians are spending their time effectively repairing and managing maintenance. Finding the perfect balance of maintenance staff to match the number of work orders you have coming in is how you can achieve excellent staffing efficiency.

How Can You Measure Maintenance Staffing Efficiency?

One of the most complex parts of perfecting maintenance staffing efficiency is determining what your throughput should be and whether you have the correct number of staff to achieve that throughput. When you look at your maintenance coordinators, you need to be able to determine how many work orders they can handle effectively. A metric you can track to measure this is your responsiveness versus your volume throughout. In other words, how fast are your coordinators responding to requests, and how many work orders can they close from start to finish within a given time frame?

When looking at vendor throughput or efficiency, you want to look at more than just who is the fastest and the cheapest; you also want to ensure they are keeping your residents happy. Repair speed and resident satisfaction are good metrics to track to measure vendor efficiency.

To track the efficiency of your internal maintenance technicians, we recommend monitoring jobs per day and your technician utilization rate. Tracking these metrics will help you determine your maintenance team’s efficiency while also measuring volume and quality.

Property Meld’s new Insights feature gives you access to all these metrics and more so you can make data-driven decisions to improve your staffing efficiency instead of making assumptions.

See Insights in Action

Jobs per Day Versus Technician Utilization Rate

When looking at your internal maintenance technicians, ensuring they are efficient is crucial since they are on your payroll and usually in a salaried position. When measuring their efficiency, tracking both jobs per day and technician utilization rate is essential, or there may be significant blind spots.

For example, if you only track jobs daily, you may have a technician who only takes quick, easy jobs. Therefore, your jobs per day will seem very healthy, yet many working hours are being wasted.

On the other hand, if you are only tracking technician utilization rate and you have a technician spending way too much time on one job, it may seem like they are utilizing their time well, when in reality, they are inefficient.

Tracking these metrics side by side will help you ensure your technicians are getting through a good amount of work orders each day and using their time wisely.

What is the Difference Between Scheduling and Staffing Efficiency

Although some metrics overlap between scheduling and staffing efficiency, they differ significantly. Scheduling efficiency measures how quickly your maintenance team can complete a job, i.e., your repair speed. Staffing efficiency ensures you have the right size team to handle the number of work orders, i.e., your jobs per day or amount of open work orders at a given time.

How Can You Improve Staffing Efficiency?

You can only improve your staffing efficiency by increasing your visibility. You need to have visibility to determine how each member of your team is performing. With Insights by Property Meld, you can track the efficiency of each maintenance team member to determine where inefficiencies are occurring and identify areas where you can provide additional training or resources to help those employees improve. It is vital to ensure you have regular intervals that you have determined to check in on these metrics to ensure you are intervening when things start to slip.

Secondly, you must create a culture that rewards high-performing team members. This way, your team members will be motivated to get work done quickly and ensure they are maintaining quality in all the work they do. In our last Beyond Maintenance, we met with industry leaders to discuss how they use maintenance metrics to build performance bonus programs for high-performing employees. You can watch that video here.

Schedule a Demo With Our Team

The post Why is Staffing Efficiency Crucial to Achieving Maintenance Excellence? appeared first on Property Meld.

In part 7 of our Beyond Maintenance Series, our panel of experts discussed the impact of employee burnout in the property management industry and helpful insights on how to retain and recruit valuable employees.

The Great Resignation and the impact on property management companies

In a November 2021 survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs. Todd Ortscheid, CEO of Revolution Rental Management, recognized the impact on the industry. With many Americans quitting their jobs, finding and recruiting local quality talent has become difficult. He shared that many of his employees are overseas or in different countries.

“Many tasks and jobs have been heavily outsourced and other efficiencies,” says Ortscheid.

Silvia Armour, Business Development Manager at Property Meld, shared the impact of manual and mundane tasks on employee burnout.

“Every day we have these conversations, we hear about how tasks and duties that property managers once had joy in, is now what is causing them the most stress. The amount of calls and follow up is taking so much time. They don’t feel that there are growth or development opportunities. The bottom line is employee burnout, and they feel stifled to tell their boss they are burnt out. Employees want a work-life balance,” says Armour.

The symptoms of burnout and its impact

Armour emphasized the importance of self-reflection to pinpoint the symptoms that lead to employee turnover. She prefaced by asking questions for the audience to self-reflect.

“Did you lose an employee who was top-performing, who brought good revenue to the company? Who brought morale? That’s a huge loss, and you have to self-reflect. When I lose a top performer, I’m self-reflecting and ask myself what can I do to retain? So when you are done with that self-reflection period, you have to be systematic in the changes you are putting into processes,” says Armour.

In Armour’s scenario, her self-reflection period made her realize that there needs to be more time available for her staff to develop and grow.

With this realization, she implemented automated processes to remove manual and time-consuming tasks from her employees so that they could use that time on professional development and growth.

“I see higher production within my team when there isn’t hard pressure. I can do more with less, and I can have my data working smarter for me. With the team I have, we have the highest producing staff we’ve ever had, with the smallest staff we’ve had in a long time. I don’t want them to feel burned out when their tasks could be easily automated,” says Armour.

Financial ramifications of continuing the same strategy as the industry changes

1) Losing clients to your competitors because you are not able to compete with their level of efficiency.

“People have been forced to these changes, which is one of the few good things that came out of the pandemic. Companies were doing things old-fashioned. They found themselves in a position where their offices were shut down, and they had to work from home and couldn’t do showings. They were forced to modernize. It was painful but good for them in the long run. You need that in order to be efficient.” said Ortscheid.

Ortscheid continued how this impacts business profitability. He shared how companies that implement automated systems, such as Property Meld, decrease costs due to automation. These companies can reduce the cost of their services, and they can snag those clients and serve their residents better.

Alternatively, those that don’t take steps to automate still have to charge that high price because they aren’t efficient.

“They can’t get those customers, or they can’t provide that same level of service to the resident. So residents start leaving, which is resident churn, then you get client (owner) churn because of the resident churn. It ultimately gets back to those efficiencies. If you can have those efficiencies and bring in the revenue, you are in the prime position to compete in the market. But, if you don’t do that, you will continue to watch your market share drop,” shared Ortscheid.

2) Losing money to manual tasks that could easily be automated. 

Armour, who has consulted with and listened to hundreds of property management pains over the years, illustrated Ortscheid’s point of the financial impact of not changing.

“I connected with a maintenance coordinator of a property management in 2021. The coordinator said, ‘we aren’t making any changes; we love manual, we love following up with everyone on the phone.’ As if being manual was giving a higher level of service that was top tier when everyone around them was making automated changes to their company. A year later, they came back and said, ‘we don’t know what were we thinking! Let’s talk about automation, and how it can increase efficiency and revenue.’ Now they are starting to see that automation equals dollars and cents, and how that impacts revenue,” said Armour.

Ortscheid added to Armour’s point about the misconception of good customer service. He shared that the change in the demographic clientele of both residents and owners/investors is transitioning towards the millennial generation.

“These people want self-service and to take care of it themselves on their own time. They don’t want to have to make five phone calls or have someone call them; that’s not what people are looking for these days,” says Ortscheid.

Top systematic processes that help with operational efficiency and employee burnout

Ortscheid impressed the importance of automating maintenance and outsourcing low-cost-generating tasks when possible.

“Automation is one of the big ones. We don’t have any employees in the US who handle maintenance. All our maintenance coordination is in Property Meld or automated. Then follow-up is handled by a remote team in Mexico or through Always There Repair handling hotline calls. We are able to manage a lot more maintenance and units with a smaller number of employees because of the automation,” says Ortscheid.

Ortscheid also performs consultations for other property management companies and constantly asks his clients:

1. Is it possible to automate this?
2. If not, is it possible to have a remote team member take care of it?
3. If not, it’s time for boots on the ground and having an in-house team member perform the task.

In-house employees and generating revenue

Armour brought up the importance of having in-house employees focus on tasks that generate company revenue.

“Is typing in a work order in your software bringing value to your company? I don’t think it is. Let’s take the staff you have now, get maintenance under control, like a well-oiled machine. Then ask yourself, ‘what can I do to bring revenue?'” says Armour.

Armour continued to encourage the audience to consider tasks that bring in revenue. Then, consider giving these revenue-generating tasks to your in-house staff to feel more fulfilled in their work.

Ortscheid added, “In the real estate business, we call this concept ‘highest and best use case’ when referring to properties. You can do the same with your employees. Ask yourself, ‘what is the highest and best use case for your employees.’ Is it dealing with garbage disposal troubleshooting? Or is it maintaining a relationship with the client? (The latter) is not something you can automate.”

Improving remote staff morale to prevent employee burnout

Ortscheid dug a little deeper into a Facebook post he recently shared about management’s misconception of morale.

“They (managers) think everything is great because the employees generally aren’t going to come to you and say ‘I’m not happy.’ People don’t feel comfortable doing that, no matter your open-door policy. You need to have a system to collect feedback anonymously,” shared Ortscheid.

Ortscheid also expressed the importance of including remote team members in Zoom meetings and in-person events, so they feel included.

“You want to have full all-hands-on meetings, where everyone is interacting, so they don’t feel that as a remote employee, they are any different than an in-house employee.”

Ortscheid shared that his business had an in-person holiday party last year and invited remote team members. Everyone was able to interact, and remote team members brought their families and pets to introduce to their coworkers.

Practical use takeaways

Ortscheid encouraged people to start off automating maintenance because the majority of calls that companies field are maintenance-related. “Maintenance and leasing is about 90% of calls at property management companies,” said Ortscheid.

Ortscheid suggested allocating just a little extra time to implementing automation into your daily work tasks, and then you will have more time to learn even more skills.

“It’s also important to have a collaborative team and have people give their insights on these ideas. Ask them ‘what are the most important KPIs (key performance indicators)?’ ‘What do you see missing from our business models?'” Armour added.

Let us show you how to utilize automation to do more with less. Make your employees happier and more efficient by removing manual tasks from their day-to-day.

Subscribe to The Maintenance Minute

Join our weekly newsletter where we will share industry insights and maintenance tips derived from our software’s clean data.

The post How to Make Systematic Changes to Prevent Employee Burnout appeared first on Property Meld.

Managing a Team of Remote Employees in the Virtual World

Todd Ortscheid and Joni Wolfswinkel explored the significant challenges around business expansion and workforce needs. They shared their experiences in managing property maintenance with remote employees. By the end, attendees gained the insight they needed to implement their own virtual team.

Todd Ortscheid, President & CEO of Revolution Rental Management, shared his personal experience managing their virtual assistants. Having standing meetings, just like they are in the office, is crucial.

“We do a daily stand-up meeting with our virtual assistants as if they are in the office. We have weekly EOS meetings. We don’t like to refer to them as “remote employees” though, because they are just like any other employee at Revolution [Rental Management]. It’s no different as far as I’m concerned.”

Joni Wolfswinkel, Broker/Owner of Real Property Management Preferred and Owner of True Work Logistics, added that they hold similar meetings with their entire team, including employees who work remotely.

“Holding them accountable is important. We have morning huddles, and “KPI Wednesdays”. If we’re in the red, we dive in and see how we can get to green. Plus, we do maintenance workshops on Thursdays. Every week is different, but it’s all about training them and setting expecations.”

Onboarding the virtual workforce like you would any other employee is essential, Wolfswinkel made the point.

Cost Savings with Remote Employees

As the discussion progressed, attendees learned of possible cost savings they would experience when implementing remote employees. Would a property management company experience cost savings right out of the gate? Or is there an upfront cost that you would need to navigate before reaping the benefits of virtual assistants?

Wolfswinkel responded, “The only initial cost we see is the processing fee. But, we save tremendously. Originally, our cost per door was $300. Then, we decided to add virtual assistants… Currently, we have 5 remote employees and one maintenance lead to manage them. Our cost is now $134 per door. We saw that cost per door drop immediately. We were able to provide better customer service, because we had more people assisting in the effort. It also allowed our leader to do the things to grow our business instead of being stuck in the weeds.”

Ortscheid immediately saw savings as well. In addition, he mentioned the quality of an international assistant had changed the game at his company.

“When you look at the savings, you’re cutting the cost in half. When you outsource internationally, you’re also getting a higher quality employee for that price. The quality combined with the cost savings is incredible. They aren’t just entry level positions, you’re running with a Director of Operations as a virtual assistant.”

Are there challenges of virtual assistants?

There was concern that transparency and communication of virtual employees could be an issue in management from a few attendees. Woflswinkel and Ortscheid showed no concern about those challenges.

“With the software we use, our employees log in everyday and we can monitor them. We can see what’s on their screen or their computer if we need to. It’s not really an issue and the transparency is there. They are full aware we can check in on them at any time, too. We use Zoom and Slack regularly for communication,” said Ortscheid.

Joni admitted, “We used to have after-hour call centers. We actually just got rid of that altogether and created our own call center. We have 3 RTM’s that work after hours. We have more control that way. There isn’t always an emergency after hours, and they are able to do things at night, like clean up Melds and review inspections. My main lead is able to focus on the things that matter when she comes to the office.”

As Wolfswinkel and Ortscheid shared their insight on how virtual assistants changed their business for the better, it was clear; they are saving money and time — focusing on expanding their business. Let us show you how you can pair virtual assistants with technology and request a demo of our web-based platform for your company.

The post Managing Maintenance with Remote Employees appeared first on Property Meld.

We hope you were able to attend part 2 of our Beyond Maintenance webinar and knowledge series on August 23, 2021, about internal maintenance. Unfortunately, we had a video malfunction in the recording of the webinar. It was full of valuable information and insights from industry leaders, which we will share below.

Is Internal Maintenance the Answer?

In last month’s forum, industry experts, Deb Newell, Danny Harlow, and Ray Hespen, dug deep into the pros and cons of internal maintenance and how it impacts defensibility and profitably in property management.

Danny Harlow, Regional Vice President of HomeRiver Group, opened the discussion by touching on how they used to manually handle property maintenance. Initially, they would receive a work order from a resident and fax it to the vendor. Then contacting the vendor by phone to ensure the request was received and completed. He knew there was a smarter way to coordinate their maintenance process. They wanted control over the speed and quality of the work order and found a dedicated process. Handling maintenance in-house was a game-changer.

“You’re the boots on the ground for your properties. There is a ton of value to provide that type of service (internal maintenance) to your owners,” Harlow said.

Deb Newell, the Executive Consultant of Real-Time Consulting Services, spoke about the opportunity of profit and internal technicians. With internal maintenance, you can charge a percentage markup or a flat fee per work order.

“Because time is being spent on maintenance… how do you quantify and find ways to charge for it? You’re losing money, because you’re doing the maintenance, and essentially not charging for it,” Newell stated.

Profit Opportunities for Internal Maintenance

Webinar attendees were able to ask questions during the virtual forum. One attendee requested more details about charging a percentage mark-up compared to a flat fee for each work order. Question: What makes the most sense for my company size and door count to make an increase in profit?

“We generally use a percentage mark-up. Our work orders range within a dollar amount. We want the ability to handle any maintenance needs that come in. We look at it like we are running a maintenance operation,” spoke Harlow.

“If you’re a smaller outfit. It’s fair to say, until you get a grasp on maintenance or enough work orders coming in, I would say a flat fee is the route to go. I would advise your company to build the fee into your margins,” said Newell.

Tracking and Ensuring Efficiency in Property Maintenance

When it comes to property maintenance, having complete oversight and an efficient process is critical. With an internal team, you can keep technicians accountable; ensuring work orders are being completed, the speed of repair is tracked, and tech utilization rate is spot on.

“Maintenance is one of the areas where you can lose money. If you’re not actively managing it, it can get away from you. Overall, we look at incoming work orders and number of turns very closely, as it helps us with staffing and workflow. We also track tech efficiency ratio (we call it technician utlization rate at Meld!). From there, we add the time on the clock to their bill on the work order. We have targets for our coordinators and vendors working on something that’s billable, not “wind shield time,” said Harlow.

Many firms with internal technicians don’t have an idea of how busy their technicians are. They often have some accounting system that attributes value, but this technician utilization rate shows how much time they are attributing to maintenance requests themselves.

“Usually this is a great indicator of being overstaffed or understaffed, too. Firms should try and manage their staff and have above 80% technician utilization rate before hiring,” Hespen noted.

Should I Hire Internal Maintenance Technicians?

When analyzing your property management company, what elements of your business justify hiring internal technicians? Our industry leaders provided their feedback on what your company can do to determine if internal staff is the right move.

“Door count doesn’t matter. You should focus on how many work orders you have,” Newell said with a smile. “You have to look at your company holistically. What are your biggest pain points to satisfy your owner and residents?”

“Our operation… internal maintenance, that is… started by shifting our approach to maintenance. The value of their time combined with the work you’re putting in matters. Now, we get the requests and pass them on.. there’s no work order fee and coordinating with vendors. It’s all internal with the help of Property Meld, our maintenance solution,” said Harlow.

Our experts shared their insights on how they have successfully executed an in-house maintenance team to increase their net operating income. By the end, attendees received the tools to run an efficient and profitable maintenance operation.

Let us show you how you can utilize internal technicians with our software solution by requesting a demo with one of our maintenance-obsessed representatives.

Subscribe to The Maintenance Minute

Join our weekly newsletter where we will share industry insights and maintenance tips derived from our software’s clean data.

The post Is Internal Maintenance the Answer to Maximizing NOI? appeared first on Property Meld.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “The number of workers quitting their jobs reached an all-time high of 2.7%, while layoffs and discharges reached an all-time low of 1%, another indication of the tightness of the labor market.” Can you imagine your most critical internal staff member quitting, especially during rental property turnover season? If this nightmare has been a reality, what are you doing to cover the gaps? The ultimate task of hiring and training new employees (if you even find a qualified applicant in this market!) can be costly and time-consuming. Not to mention, the average salary for a property manager is $101,593, and a maintenance coordinator at $38,538.** But let’s get to the point.

Before you push the dreadful “Now Hiring” post across all social media channels… Imagine maximizing your current staff by streamlining maintenance requests and make-readies through an automated maintenance solution. Tackle the work orders and high rental turnovers with technology!

Benefits of a streamlined property management software

• Centralized communication for residents (tenants), vendors, and owners for fast repairs without picking up the phone
• Increased efficiency and productivity of internal staff by up to 60%
• Accept and assign maintenance requests (we like to call them Melds!) online or from your mobile device
• Real-time oversight of maintenance coordination, work order progress, budgets, and reporting
• Projects feature helps vendors keep track of entire projects and stay on budget

With Property Meld, our data shows that one coordinator can manage 1,000 doors or more by themselves compared to 350-450 doors without it. Are you ready to learn how intelligent property maintenance software can help you take control of your maintenance process while maximizing your current staff?

Request a demo with one of our maintenance-obsessed representatives and let us show you how our software solution can change your property maintenance game.

*Source = Realtor.com

**Source = Based on the United States average on Salary.com

See how our property maintenance software can level up your maintenance operations

Schedule a demo with our team of maintenance experts.

The post Maximize Your Current Staff with Property Management Maintenance Software appeared first on Property Meld.