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Filters, Batteries, and Water Heaters. Oh My!

Man Fixing a Water Heater in Cary Rental PropertyFall is indeed one of the ideal times of the year to perform regular maintenance on some of the hardest-working devices in your rental property. Filters, batteries, and water heaters should be checked and cleaned or replaced regularly to ensure that your tenants are unharmed and your rental property is well taken care of. By using the season to execute these important interior maintenance items, you can help to make sure things are working safely and smoothly all winter long.

There are few things more crucial than replacing your Cary rental property’s air filters regularly. These filters keep your property’s HVAC system clean and running efficiently. Therefore, changing the air filters in your rental property is an important part of seasonal maintenance. When the winter months draw near, much time is spent inside the home, and furnaces start to work harder to keep out the cold. This means guaranteeing that your filters are clean is all the more essential. Contingent on which type of filter your HVAC system needs, you might need to change the filters as often as every 30 days, every three months, or even every six months. Also, you could take into consideration requiring your tenant to do this task for you, but the probabilities of your tenant disregarding or not changing the filters often enough are high. This may strain on your HVAC system, reducing the life and reducing the efficiency of the unit.

Fall is, furthermore, a prime period to test and change the batteries in your rental property’s smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. These devices are critical to ensuring that your tenants are safe and well; forgetting to make sure that there are functioning smoke detectors in your rental property could give rise to the possibility of you getting sued should your property be destroyed or one of your tenants is hurt in a fire.

Several smoke and carbon monoxide detectors will need their batteries changed every six to twelve months; others have lithium batteries that can last up to ten years, which is the useful life of a smoke or carbon monoxide detector. Regardless of which kind of battery your devices have, you should ensure that the batteries are being tested and replaced on a regular basis. Hundreds of people are injured or killed in house fires every year, partly because the smoke detectors in their homes were not functioning well. If you leave this work up to your tenant, there is no guarantee that they will execute it properly. They may, moreover, bust your property’s smoke detectors along the way, resulting in replacement fees and increased liability.

In spite of being classified among the most frequently used devices in a rental home, water heaters are usually abandoned or forgotten when accomplishing additional property maintenance tasks. However, wiping and cleaning your rental property’s water heater is an essential element of keeping it functioning decently and effectively. Over time, sediment builds up in the tank of a water heater, making it less efficient and even leading to clogged water lines.

These nuisances and problems can be fully prevented by flushing your water heater once every six months or so. Despite that this responsibility can consume time, it is a great way of making the most of your expensive water heater unit. Granted that asking your tenant to clean up the water heater may look like a brilliant idea, but by doing so you could end up with a task that is badly or inaccurately accomplished and, in the end, a tenant that may produce more problems than they can solve.

Neglecting these maintenance items can have serious consequences and bring about expensive repairs later on. At any rate, urging your tenant to substitute or clean the filters, batteries, and water heater in your Cary rental property is not the best option. Notwithstanding you could pull off this task yourself, your most ideal choice is to get a firm like Real Property Management Excellence to look after all your property maintenance for you. Our full range of maintenance services will make certain your tenants are kept unharmed and your property in good condition, liberating you to zero in on multiplying your real estate investing business. Contact us today for more helpful information.

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