This article is presented by TurboTenant.
Maintenance might be one of the biggest challenges landlords face. Whether it’s a true emergency or a Sunday afternoon text about a light bulb, keeping up with rental maintenance requests can quickly eat into your time and sanity. If you’ve ever had your phone buzz at 2 a.m., you know what I mean.
Rental maintenance requests are a necessary part of owning property, but they don’t have to run your life.
What Doesn’t Work
Every landlord has a story about that middle-of-the-night message. You know the type: There’s a leaking faucet, tripped breaker, or tenant panicking about something minor.
When I first started managing my own rentals, I actually carried two phones—one for personal use, and one strictly for tenants. If a tenant called the “rental phone,” I’d jot their issue down on a pink paper form I kept in a stack on my desk. Then I’d hand that form to my maintenance person, who’d coordinate with the tenant, fix the problem, and return the form to me once the job was complete.
This system worked fine when I was tied to a desk in an office, but once I started scaling, it fell apart fast. Calls would come in at all hours, I’d lose track of forms, and sometimes tenants and maintenance were waiting on me just to relay a simple message. And let’s not forget about keeping up with communication on scheduling and status updates.
When I started to move out of my business, I needed to think about how to replace my process to be more efficient and to remove myself from the process.
Don’t Let Maintenance Take Over Your Life
The thing about maintenance is, it’s not just the repair that takes time. The back-and-forth between your vendors and tenants can really eat into your inbox (and your day). You want to respond quickly to keep great tenants and protect your property, but manual systems make that nearly impossible. You have to update your system for a more streamlined maintenance process.
A big part of streamlining maintenance starts with clarity. Make sure your rental lease agreement clearly outlines who’s responsible for what, whether that’s changing light bulbs, testing smoke detectors, or managing lawn care. Clear expectations help prevent confusion and unnecessary back-and-forth later.
Even with a solid lease, maintenance requests can become a game of tag, because:
- Tenants don’t always provide enough information about their request.
- Landlords and vendors need follow-up photos or videos.
- Responses lag.
- Schedules don’t align to complete the request.
How to Pass Maintenance Off to AI
This is where automation and AI step in to help.
TurboTenant just rolled out a new AI-powered maintenance feature that can troubleshoot issues before you ever need to get involved. According to Yahoo! Finance, this feature is designed to make the maintenance process smarter and less stressful for both landlords and tenants.
When a tenant submits a maintenance request, the AI tool jumps in to gather more details. It asks specific follow-up questions like:
- What room is the issue in?
- What exactly isn’t working?
- Can you describe or upload a photo of the problem?
If it’s a simple fix, the AI feature can offer troubleshooting suggestions in the chat. For instance, if the tenant says a light won’t turn on, it might prompt them to check the breaker or bulb before escalating the request. Sometimes that quick guidance is all it takes to resolve the issue without the landlord (you) ever needing to step in.
I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times a tenant has tripped their breaker from having too many appliances plugged into their kitchen outlets. It would cost me at least $50 just to send someone out to realize the breaker just needed to be flipped. That $50 doesn’t include my time to schedule and coordinate with the tenant and handyman. This new AI feature will already save me a lot of time and money with just this one instance.
If the problem does need a professional’s attention, you’ll get a neatly packaged report with a clear description and photos. This means that you can hand the request off to the right contractor right away, with accurate information for a quote and time estimate.
Additionally, the AI maintenance feature can use the lease agreement in order to better communicate with your tenant. If a tenant reports a faulty smoke detector and your lease states that replacing the battery and detector is the tenant’s responsibility, the tool will let them know politely and automatically. How cool is that? You don’t even need to remember what your lease agreement says for that property, or take the time to read through it again.
The goal of using AI to help with maintenance requests is a frictionless process that saves time, reduces miscommunication, and keeps tenants happy.
Better Systems Lead to Fewer Headaches
When you implement technology like this into your maintenance process, you save time and improve your entire operating procedure for timely maintenance requests. Here’s why:
- Tenants stay longer. Quick responses and smooth communication build trust.
- You reduce vacancies. Happy tenants renew leases.
- You make smarter decisions. Organized maintenance logs and documentation help you budget for future repairs and spot patterns of repairs before they turn into expensive problems.
Looking back, I can’t believe how much time I spent tracking pink forms and playing phone tag. Now I can get a complete, organized overview of every request in one place, and my tenants get faster resolutions.
Ultimately, automation doesn’t replace good management, but it certainly enhances it. By letting AI handle the tedious parts of maintenance, you can focus on what really matters: growing your portfolio and creating great experiences for your tenants.
Ready to Make Maintenance Easier?
If you’re tired of juggling calls, forms, and follow-ups, it’s time to give AI a try. TurboTenant can help you automate maintenance requests, improve communication, and take one more thing off your plate.
Try it out for yourself and see how much easier managing your rentals can be.