A rental home’s garage provides a lot of appeal to a home. However, some well-intentioned tenants, who just want to preserve the appeal of the home, can be damaging a rental home’s garage without knowing it. Damage to garage interiors, garage doors, windows, and other elements are known to happen, and it’s not always the result of misuse or neglect.
Sometimes a tenant does things to help out but they just don’t know the proper method of cleaning and maintaining a rental home’s garage. When that is the case, expensive and unnecessary repairs are often the result. By giving your Duluth tenants the right information, you can do a lot to prevent unintentional damage and keep your valuable investment in good condition.
A garage is an important part of a quality single-family rental home. An attractive garage door boosts the home’s curb appeal, just as the interior, windows, cabinets, and even the garage door opener can have a big impact on a tenant’s satisfaction. But every one of these should be kept in good condition, and that means they should be maintained properly. If one component of the garage fails, the whole thing could turn into an obstacle instead of an advantage.
Being the most visible exterior element, the garage door needs to be kept working properly and looking nice. This is why it needs to have regular cleaning and maintenance. There are different ways a tenant could accidentally damage a garage door. They could use the wrong tools or cleaning products when cleaning it or they could forget to do basic maintenance tasks. For example, the materials that make up each garage door varies between different types of doors. Some are painted, while others are vinyl or metal. When a tenant power sprays a painted door clean, they would be causing extensive damage to the garage door. It may be an accident, but regardless of motive, using the wrong tools for the job can cause problems. Harsh household cleaners may also damage a door’s exterior finish, causing far more harm than good.
Beyond looks, a garage door cannot operate properly if it doesn’t have a functional opener, springs, hinges, and rollers. These parts may rust, wear out, or break over time and through heavy use. In fact, when a garage door opens and closes and it produces a loud noise, that may mean the door’s hardware is in trouble and needs to be lubricated. This very easy maintenance task can profoundly extend the useful life of a garage door.
The windows, floor, and cabinets in a garage are generally the parts that experience unintentional damage. Some garages have stains from a leaking car engine. Oil stains on concrete floors are notoriously difficult to clean. Exhaust fumes, dirt, and other substances can gather in windows and seriously compromise the tracks, locks, and glass. Cabinets may be crushed or broken by heavy storage items or even parking a vehicle too close. Just like the garage door, regular cleaning and maintenance can easily prevent all these issues. What makes it difficult is that the tenant may not know how to do it correctly.
To illustrate, the methods used to clean up motor oil stains are entirely different from the methods used for other substances. The correct tools and cleaning materials should be used or there may be a possibility that trying to clean it may make things a lot worse instead. Harsh chemicals or scrub brushes can scratch or damage windows and window tracks as well as cabinets, but regular household cleaners may not be enough to get the grime off either. To avoid continued wear and further damage, it would be good for a tenant to have the right information with them and also posses a good amount of oversight. Doing this ensures that the rental home’s garage will be kept in good condition.
Keeping track of a tenant’s cleaning and maintenance record can be time-consuming and difficult for property owners. For this reason, getting a professional property management company to help is an intelligent decision.
At Real Property Management Executives Greater Atlanta, one of our services is to help property owners prepare their tenants on the proper care and upkeep of their rental homes in Duluth and conduct regular checks to ensure that such tasks are being done. Our property management professionals can help defend your valuable investment from unintentional damage and prevent expensive and unnecessary repairs. If you want to know more about what we can do to serve you, don’t hesitate to contact us online or call us at 678-765-8383.
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