Prior to 2020, growth, efficiency, and profitability held strong as the top three priorities for property managers. This year, COVID-19 has reshaped these priorities with ‘residents’ accelerating to their second most important—a 29-point leap in just one year. So how do property managers prioritize residents? By ensuring the functionality and operation of the buildings we live in.
As the tens of millions of Americans living in multifamily housing are facing these stay at home orders and transitioning to working remotely for the foreseeable future, a new group of essential workers are coming into the spotlight: the individuals who manage, maintain, and fix the places we’ve been forced to retreat to.
The maintenance technician who fixes a broken stove, the housekeeper patrolling the common areas armed with disinfectant, and the groundskeeper who spots a backed-up drainage system are all vitally important to ensuring the health and safety of tenants.
“When more residents are home, the need for service and work orders escalate,” according to Amy Groff, senior vice president of industry operations at the National Apartment Association.
And maintenance tasks aren’t something that can be put on lockdown for months on end.
Pandemic or not, a property manager is obligated to ensure tenants’ units are habitable, and essential repairs pertaining to life safety and security must be addressed.