Maintenance and Rental Properties- Why It's so Important to be on Top of any Problems

There’s an unholy and remarkably stupid myth in the rental market that not doing maintenance saves money. Nothing could possibly be further from the truth. Failure to maintain rental properties can be an absolute financial disaster, and a self-inflicted one, for landlords who are foolish enough to believe this myth. Property maintenance is a form of control over assets, like home insurance for homeowners, making sure that those assets are properly protected.

Maintenance basics- The difference between making and losing money on rental properties

Buildings can’t repair themselves. They also can’t do much about typical wear and tear, or their age. Nor can plumbing or wiring fittings be expected to survive without regular maintenance. These fittings can also become dangerous to buildings, in the case of electrical fittings risking fires and with plumbing, actual destruction of the building and/or damage to other buildings.

Building structures are also vulnerable. Rising damp, movements in the footings of buildings and other problems can literally gut a building, given time. A small structural problem can be relied upon to become a major issue, particularly if you’re thinking of selling. Prompt maintenance is the cheapest, quickest way to deal with these issues. It’s also the only way of preventing major costs later on.

Case study

Ridiculous as it is to believe that not spending $100 on simple repairs is “making money”, it’s even more bizarre if you consider that a simple plumbing job can prevent spending thousands on water damage later.

This is a simple case study of a rental apartment’s maintenance issues:
The apartment is on the fourth floor. It’s an older building, circa 1970s vintage, with a timber frame and brick veneer exterior. The apartment’s plumbing is the same age and also experiencing “water hammer”, knocking on the pipes and spitting water coming out of taps, indicating problems. To save money, the owner does nothing, despite repeated warnings from the real estate agent.

The plumbing gives up the ghost one weekend while the tenant is away. It was simply too old and water pressure in the pipes finished it off. The apartments below are flooded. The water flows through gaps in the old apartment block and emerges in a large pool in front of the building. The owner receives multiple lawsuits from the owners of the apartments below and the strata title manager also threatens legal action.

For the sake of saving a few dollars on a correctible problem, the property owner is now faced with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of damages, plus legal costs. Half of the building is now uninhabitable, and the amount of water which has seeped through the rest of the building is also a possible problem.

Was being cheap about maintenance a good idea? How could it be? The plumbing was sure to cause trouble at some point. “Water hammer” is a well-known sign of potential problems about to emerge.

Maintenance in this case would have been the equivalent of contents insurance, making sure that any risks from the building’s fittings was under control.

The moral of the story is simple enough: Maintenance = common sense. Don’t take the risk- Find and fix problems as they occur.

ATV Ride

Last Sunday, we hosted a family gathering at a restaurant inside a fishing place. After the event was over and guests were going home; we tried to have an ATV ride.

My hubby rode it first to learn driving it. Later, both of us were wandering around the place by ATV. It’s fun!

Home Security Basics

Security is an issue for most homes and the fact is that the simplest approach is often the best. Sophisticated alarm systems do provide a lot of features, but the bottom line is always going to be preventing access to your home. A good security door is as important as any other feature in achieving a reliable level of security.

Homeowners, understandably, often feel a bit baffled by the security issues and are sometimes mystified by the security technology now on the market. The other issue is cost, and for big homes, that can be significant. However, it’s not a lost cause for homeowners.

Good security pays for itself, providing peace of mind and it’s actually pretty simple to understand when you know how this technology works. In many cases in relation to home security, simpler is better. Modern security doors are designed to take major impacts, cutting and any attempt to break them down. An intruder won’t get in, simply because they can’t. Security experts will tell you that’s the most effective deterrent of all.

Home security issues

The major security issue with any home is access. What points can be used to get into the home easily? The usual culprits are old windows without security screens or old doors which can’t provide much resistance to a break in, because they’re not designed to do that.

The best approach to access issues is to make a list of the weak points and upgrade them. If you have a local security firm, it’s worth your while to get a professional inspection done. Security screen doors and window suppliers can also give you some useful tips.

Integrating your security

It’s actually very easy to integrate door and window security with an alarm system. Most of these alarms work on the magnetic lock principle, meaning that if a window or door is opened, the circuit is broken, triggering an alarm.

Security doors are easy to fit with alarms, and have the added advantage of acting together as double security layers.

The same situation applies to windows. Unless using security screens, windows are no real barrier to access from outside. Best practice is to use the same sort of double security as on the doors, and it’s equally straightforward, using similar principles.

Shopping for security doors and other features

The best option for consumers is to do some research online and learn about the security products available:

Security screen doors and windows: Check out the top of the range first. This will show you the best products available, and you’ll also have a figure for your budget. You’ll be able to compare quality and deals and make an informed decision.

Security alarms: Service and value for money are the big issues in security alarms. Top of the range is a monitored alarm system, meaning monitored 24/7 with direct access to police and emergency services. Compare rates, services provided and any options the security firms provide.

Home security is actually pretty straightforward. All you need to do is make sure you get the products and services that make you feel most secure.

Playing with Rubber Boats

Rowing the boats and wandering the pond seemed so much fun. These kids looked enjoy it! I captured them yesterday, Sunday morning, at an outbound area inside Kampung Katulampa Bogor (West Java, Indonesia).

A Modified Vespa

Some parts of a modified vespa. The original is a Vespa produced in1966.

My entry for The Weekend in Black and White this week.

Home Sweet Home: The simple life, 21st century style

The family home has probably never been changing more than it is now. Even in the postwar boom, the lifestyle was basically an extension of the former way of life with more gadgets. Now, the gadgets are running the world and they’re also dictating the lifestyle. In the past, something like contents insurance meant clothes, a few appliances, and some valuables. Now, the “appliances” are home businesses, often working around the world.

The lifestyle change has been more than physical. It’s mental. There’s now a second generation growing up which has no idea what the lifestyle of the 1990s was all about. A world without Facebook? Impossible. A world without iPhones, forget it.

The employment market is also in the melting pot. As the New Economy takes shape, it’s making less sense by the second to keep people in offices and commuting mindlessly back and forth. It’s not only wasteful, it’s expensive, using up time most people can use to make money, not spend it.

This is only the very early beginning of a total reworking of society into something far more rational and less habituated than its ancestry. Even the “traditional” working hours, 9-5, are a version of the old agricultural working house, sunrise to sunset. A bit obsolete, if you happen to be working in four different time zones from home.

The internet is the cradle of the new society, barely an infant in terms of even foreseeable future technology. Mobile devices are just getting started, and smart homes are rapidly taking the place of “four walls”. Medical and scientific devices, which are driving a lot of other technology, are doing the same thing. It’s worth noting that somebody tried to make a Star Trek tricorder, technology set 400 years in the future, and found they could do it easily.

The future is rarely obvious, but it’s always predictable in one sense- It takes the line of least resistance. In this case, the line of least resistance is technology, and a lot of it, getting simpler and cheaper. The mobile phone started as a gimmick, and has wound up as an “office in your pocket”, simply because that was the easiest way to create mobile communications technology. Why carry around an IT department, when you can do it all remotely?

Home, therefore, is now a communications hub, social plug-in, entertainment nexus, business centre, you name it. It’s no longer the suburban dream, but part of an extremely mobile, interlaced series of networks. Even the family car has become a sort of mobile office/ service, able to do business, shopping and even admin work on the move.

With this has come the change in employment from employees to contractors. More people are self-employed now than ever before, and the process is accelerating as outsourcers snap up professionals and skilled workers. Home for these people is work and work is home. Typically, home insurance is as likely to be insuring a home office or other service as well as the standard home fittings and features.

It’s still home, but home has got a lot bigger.