We have 6 rental units that I mange remotely from Santa Cruz. We’ve had a few ups and downs but in general this works well for us. But every year for the month of August, I am committed to being in Calgary to do all of the little (and sometimes big) things that need to be done.
We try to do a couple of ‘big’ things to upgrade our units each year. It keeps the units looking good and keeps the tenants happy. We only had one unit turn over this year and all who stayed were happy with what we had gotten done this year. At the end of the month we got our tenants each gift certificates as thanks for their patience throughout the month as we randomly (accidentally) turned off their power or worked beyond ‘business hours’.
This is what we accomplished last year.
These are the things that we managed to complete this year:
- Multitude of trips to Home Depot, Plumbing stores and tons of phone call time logged – KC
Renfrew House – 3 units:
- Tree trimming – hired arborist – managed by KC
- Tree trimming of birch in front yard – City – managed by KC
- Put new dampers on two screen doors – KC
- New screen for screen door – A and KC
- Door repair of under-the-deck storage space – A
- Outdoor fixture with motion sensor replaced – A
- Replace lawnmower – A and KC
- Restored Electricity to the garage – A did this one all by himself (it was quite the feat)
- Replaced timer for bathroom fan – A
- Put water director in shower – KC
- Re-leveled fridge in one unit so that the door would not open on it’s own – A and KC
- Tightened bathroom faucet – KC
- Pulled down ceiling in kitchen area – KC
- Replace galvanized piping with Pex – 2x 15 feet lengths – hired plumber – Managed by KC
- Replaced drop-down ceiling – hired handy-man – managed by KC
- Sourced out and purchased ceiling tiles – KC
- Re-attached dryer vents so that it was no longer venting into the laundry room – A
Erlton Townhouse:
- Dig out dead tree – A’s father
- Cut down volunteer tree – under the deck (!) – A’s father
- Replace ceiling fan – A – with KC assisting
- Replace range hood – A – with KC assisting
Mount Royal Condo:
- Cut to fit, sand and stain wood tiles on deck – KC
- Replace kitchen tap – A
- Remove (damn) garborator – A
- Put soap dispenser in sink – A and KC
- Repair plumbing after garborator removal – A
- Replace all cupboard/drawer knobs – KC
- Put bumpers on all cupboard/drawer doors – KC
- Tightened screws and repaired sliders on all cupboards/drawers – KC
- Replace all doorknobs – KC
- Replace all door hinges – A
- Scrape out old caulking in bathtub – KC
- Redo caulking in bathtub – KC
- Replace bathtub faucet – A and KC
- Clean all (icky) taps – KC
- Redo caulking around one toilet (ugh) – KC
- Replace shower head in Master bathroom – KC
- Repair chips in all of the floor tile in the kitchen and bathrooms – KC
- Clean ALL of the windows – KC
- Clean all of the sliding door sliders – KC
- Deep clean ALL of the (gall-darned) unit – KC
- Clean carpets – hired Sears – Managed by KC
South Calgary House:
- Columnar aspen, too close to the house, cut down – hired arborist – managed by KC
- White spruce branches hanging over house from neighbours yard, cut back – hired arborist – managed by KC
- Birch trees trimmed for health – hired arborist – managed by KC
There is a very real possibility that I will need to return in October for a couple of weeks for a major repair in the Mount Royal Condo. We shall see. If the repair is as major as we have been told, we may do a couple of upgrades at the same time.
Leave a comment, let me know what else you think we could have done this year. 