How Property Documentation Works

Hi everybody, this is Michael Gregg with Rob Brooks Property Management. I'm a property manager, and I'm here with Danielle White, also a property manager, and Angela Stubbins, who is also a property manager. We took the camera from Rob today, and we're going to do our own little discussion. We really want to convey to you how much documentation we do within property management, and just all the different levels of documentation that there are.

Angela, can you start us out, just kind of give us an idea of some of the documentation?

I think the key, and we've touched base on this before, is that we start off the process thoroughly. What I mean by that is when we take on a property, we start that property off in our system, in our program, with all of its systems documented. The appliances documented, everything about that property in a snapshot system that we can look at through the whole process as we're renting it, as it's being vacated, as it comes again on the market. So, all the documentation shows us everything about the property, what makes it unique, what systems it has, whether it's in an HOA. That's the strength of what we do to set it up correctly and make sure that we have all the information at our fingertips as we're managing a property.

Absolutely, and one of the things we document thoroughly is the appliances. A good example recently, we had a situation where we called an appliance repair company to come out and service a dishwasher, and the appliance repair company asked what brand of dishwasher it was, because there are certain brands that they don't service. We were able to go back on our records and share with them what brand it was. Otherwise, it might have been a wasted service call fee for the technician to go out and just say, "No, we don't service that." So, it really comes in handy, and it can actually be a money saver for you as the homeowner.

Danielle, what are some of the other documentation endeavors that we come up with and try to provide for our services?

Every time I do a property inspection, I always make sure that I hit every single appliance. I get the make, model, [and] serial number—the sticker that's in or outside of the appliance. And then we do that as well for like the HVAC units, the inside and outside units. I go as far as even types of toilets or faucets. If one of those breaks or has a leak on it, it helps our handyman. It speeds up the service for the tenant as well if I can tell them this is exactly what they have in the property so that they can go and fix it. And then we also try to make sure that we keep a note of how old each of those appliances are or the HVAC system. So that if it's probably towards the end of its life, a 20-25 year old HVAC system, we can prepare you as an owner with a conversation of, "It might be time to consider replacing the unit rather than just repairing it." We can take that information and then quote out prior to a failed system, an emergency. So, be proactive instead of reactive. Yes, so before that system totally goes out and the tenants don't have heat or air, we can say, "Hey," and that way you as an owner have time to start saving up money and be ready for that expense as well. And choose who you want to work with.

And I think, you know, our goal is to know your home as well as you do, if not better. A lot of people, we bring up issues that might come about with the house, and they didn't know about it. But through our thorough documentation, we can see how this issue has progressed and give them a comprehensive overview of how it evolved and what some of the measures are we can take to either mitigate it or have it repaired. So documentation is very, very crucial and something we take pride in doing.

A good example of what we're talking about here is we have a property that two years in a row we saw, through our system and our flags, that they had a septic issue. That's kind of everybody's worst nightmare. But it was two years in a row, and then the third year they started to have some problems. Now, I like to think that sometimes a company that's an expertise in that, like the septic companies, would call us and give us a red flag, but unfortunately they didn't. It was our system that, when we were looking at it, gave us that red flag and allowed us to say, "Hey, wait a second, something's not adding up here. This is the third year in a row that we're seeing that the septic system's backing up, that there's an issue." This allowed us to call that septic company and say, "Hey, you know, we need you guys to actually look at this in more depth and find out what the root cause is, because there's no reason why this is overflowing every year." The end result was, I think, under a $300 fix; the tank had actually sunk in the ground a little bit. That's just an example of how our documentation system works to help you, the owner, in solving these problems and finding the actual cause of what's happening instead of just putting a band-aid on it.

And within our software system, that documentation is always available to you as the homeowner. We archive it, and you'll have access to it throughout your property management services with us. We also keep manuals for appliances and things like that so we can help tenants troubleshoot problems, hopefully without even having to call a repairman. We can help it too. So, all here to help save you money, keep your property maintained to the best of our ability, and have a good system for you.

All right, well, Danielle and Angela, thank you so much. Rob Brooks Realty Northwest Florida for all your property management needs. Thank you.