The Joys of…Cleaning?

By: Emily Clark

I know, I know, putting the words “joy” and “cleaning” in the same sentence seems unfathomable, but I promise joy can be had if you keep your domicile, (A.K.A. sty,) clean. Why? I suppose that I could argue that “a clean home is a happy home,” that it’s so much easier to get things accomplished when everything has a place and everything is in its place; that a clean home decreases stress because it’s one less thing that you have to worry about; and that the cleaner your home is the less likely you are to get sick, especially during the winter. These are all admirable things for sure, but from a tenant/property manager perspective those things are not your property manager’s business.

Your property manager's business is to ensure that properties are spotless/move-in ready for the new tenants. If that means they have to deduct from your deposit to ensure that happens then that’s what they’ll do. Before moving in, they had the unit or property at that move-in ready standard for you. I know, that seems like ages ago. (The dust on the baseboards are a tell-tale sign of how long it has been; so, check the baseboards and take the time to wipe it down.) However, if you keep your property clean it works to ensure a few things. First of all that stuff I mentioned in the first paragraph—peace of mind, decreased stress, keeps you healthy, yada yada. Second that you’ll get majority of your deposit back (due to the amount of time that will not be expended in additional cleaning on top of the mandatory deep cleaning post your move-out) and third that you’ll have a happy property manager. And there’s the “joy” that I was talking about.

I’m sure you can clearly see how getting your deposit back would make you happy, but why would you want to worry about making your property manager happy when you’re moving out anyway? That is an excellent question!

If your apartment is clean when you move your property manager doesn't need to call in cleaners, do a second walk through with the cleaners, deduct from your deposit, and potentially get in an argument with you about it. Really it’s a win-win; and just think of the glowing testimonial they’ll give your future property managers should they be called for a recommendation.

To help you accomplish this we have written up a list of recommendations to help you keep your rental clean easier.

Every Day

           

Surface clean your property

o   Make beds

o   Wipe counters in bathroom and kitchen

o   Do dishes

o   Do a clutter sweep: toys, clothes, etc.

o   Wipe down kitchen sink: Spraying it with bleach and then rinsing it with water takes about a minute.

o   Wipe down faucets: get rid of those germs.

Every Week

If you have been surface cleaning every day it makes the weekly tasks much easier

o   Vacuum

o   Sweep

o   Dust

o   Toilets: Comet and a toilet brush work great. You can also buy automatic toilet bowl cleaners that are hooked onto the inside of your toilet and release cleaner every time you flush. (If you have pets don’t do this!) These work well, but you’ll still want to clean your toilet with a brush once a week.

Before

After

o   Sinks: A lot of people don’t know this, but your kitchen sink has been proven to be dirtier than your toilet. Yuck. For this reason you’ll want to use Comet on your Kitchen sink at least once a week. You can also stick a lemon, cut in half, in your garbage disposal and let it run to not only clean out your disposal, but also give your kitchen a lovely lemony smell. Wipe down bathroom sinks as well.

o   Microwave: Microwaves can be tough, so we’ve tried out a few different ways of cleaning them and this way was the one that worked the best and was the fastest. Here’s what you’ll need:

1.      Bowl

2.      Water

3.      ⅛ to ¼ a cup of lemon juice or vinegar (vinegar works best) 

Stick it in the microwave for five minutes, then let it sit for two minutes after that. Remove bowl and wipe down microwave. Et viola!

o   Stovetop: Depending on how often you use your stovetop this can be something you do every one to two weeks.

Every Month
 
"I only have to do these once a month? Sweet awesome!" -You

o   Mirrors: Windex works great.

o   Windows: Windex on the inside in the cold season. During warm seasons do the same for the inside—for the outside you’ll need:

1.      2-3 Tablespoons Dawn Dish Soap or laundry detergent

2.      1 Tablespoon Jet Dry (liquid)

3.      ½ a gallon warm water

4.      Gloves

Mix all these ingredients, except the gloves, then spray down your windows (while it's closed) with the hose. After that wipe the aforementioned solution onto windows and spray with hose again. You won’t even see a streak when they’re done and it’s pretty quick.

Before

o   Shower and bathtub: These often get overlooked and the longer between cleanings the harder they are to clean. This really is an important one to keep clean for other reasons as well, namely so that you won’t have problems with mold or mildew. 

What you’ll need:

1.   Dawn (A reliable source, A.K.A. my best friend, tells me only the blue will work on this.)

       2.      Vinegar (The kind in your kitchen cupboards work great, but you can also buy cleaning vinegar. It’s cheaper than using your cooking vinegar and can be used to clean a great many things.)

       3.      Spray bottle
 

After

Mix equal parts of both (a cup each should be sufficient), spray it on, and then scrub a dub dub in your tub. It works like a charm.

o   Oven: Depending on how often you use your oven one to three months will be sufficient. A lot of oven’s are self cleaning. If you have one of those don’t clean it yourself because that can ruin your oven. Utilize the self-cleaning option. If you don’t have a self-cleaning oven then purchase an oven cleaner and follow the instructions on the label. Most oven cleaners will recommend that you remove the racks from the oven before cleaning because some cleaners can damage the racks.

 

Fun facts: 

1.      After cleaning mirrors, windows, and faucets run a dryer sheet over them to get rid of streaks.

2.      If you set a time to clean everyday and then stick to those times for 21 days it’ll become a habit.

3.      Line the bottom of your oven with a nonstick oven liner to make cleaning your oven as simple as wadding up a piece of paper and throwing it away. (You’ll still have to do the sides though.)

4.      Microwave your sponges for one minute to zap germs.

5.      When cleaning your room start with your bed. This will give you a surface to work off and make cleaning the rest of the space easier.

So, let's be honest, despite my talk of "fun" and "cleaning" cleaning is anything but. Hopefully, however, with these tips the job will at least be easier for you. Happy cleaning days!

The Property Manager's Communication Wish List

By Emily Clark

 

Good Property Managers want their tenants to be happy. Really, they do. Aside from taking pride in ones work, and wanting to feel like they are helping people to be comfortable in their homes, happy tenants can potentially be great tenants that will be good for the business through referrals, longevity as a client, and more.

           

Property managers will often go out of their way to make sure that their tenants are happy for these reasons. Yet, so often people find themselves in conflict with their property managers. Often over small things that could’ve been easily dealt with if it’d been handled properly from the start.

So this week on Confessions Of A Property Manager we bring you The Property Manager’s Communication Wish List. A list of things we wish you knew.

Expectations and Requests

While property managers do want to make you happy, they don’t want to hold your hand. Because of this, they expect that there will be things you can handle on your own. For example: changing a light bulb, plunging a toilet, putting a closet back on its track, replacing a battery in a fire detector, tightening a loose doorknob, and getting rid of spiders without catching the house on fire...

Some examples of bigger issues that the property manager should be responsible for include frozen pipes and/or broken pipes, broken appliances, making sure common areas are well lit and safe, etc. If you are not sure which category something falls in feel free to ask your property manager.

If you have an issue arise that is not an emergency remember that there are lots of factors that can contribute to how long it takes for that item to be addressed. For example: priority level with other tenants, vendor and repairmen schedules, distance, weather, time of day and week, etc.

It’s also important that you remember that whatever apartment, condo, or home you rent this will be the home you live in. This may sound redundant, but sometimes people have expectations of a property that are unrealistic. For example if you move into a house with a tiled counter-top, but can’t stand tile counter-tops, you cannot expect the property manager or homeowner to make that upgrade for you. If it’s really a big deal to you then keep looking for a property until you find one of the 40 million in the US alone that meets all your expectations.

Requests and Complaints

Property managers are incredibly busy working to make sure that they are keeping all their tenants happy and comfortable. Some of the things keeping them busy are office work, customer service, cleaning, construction, painting, showing rentals, sand bagging basement apartment windows during heavy rainstorms, supplying salt and shovels during snow storms, yard maintenance, working with tenants, working with homeowners, etc. They wear many hats and often make much less than what their work is worth. 

Answering phones is definitely part of their job description, but with all the other things they have on their list of things to do, a simple phone call may not always cut it if you need something done.

The best thing you can do for yourself and your property manager is to know what their preferred method of contact is. If you bother to find out how your property manager wishes to be contacted and then follow those instructions it will make your property manager very happy. You will become that tenant that is “easy to work with”.

At Ekot Properties, we don’t mind taking calls from you, but would appreciate, and prefer it if you could put your requests and complaints in writing and send them to us via email. It helps us keep your needs organized and get them addressed in a more timely fashion.

It’s also important to remember that your property manager is a person and not a soulless landlord who only comes around once a month to take your rent, your food, your goats, your Vestal Virgins and anything else they want. With that in mind it helps to be respectful when making requests or complaints. Remember the old adage, “You catch more flies with honey?” It’s inclusive of property managers as well. 

Having a Healthy Relationship with Your Property Manager

  

Since we just mentioned tenants that are “easy to work with,” here are a few things you can do to help propagate an easy relationship with your property manager:

1.      Pay your rent in full and on time.

2.      Don’t become known as “The Complainer”.

3.      Keep your place clean.

4.      Be a good neighbor.

5.      Respect common areas.

If you do these things your property manager will be extra-especially sure that your needs are being met. It’s these tenants that we want to stay in our rentals forever and we’ll do what we can to make them happy.

Walking in a Winter Nightmare-land

How to handle burst pipes. 

By Emily Clark

Photos by Emily Clark

Utah is a Winter "Wonderland"

As the weather gets colder and more snow piles up on the mountains, and in the valleys, many of us start planning vacations: a week out of state with our families, skiing or snowboarding up the canyons, or on some sunny beach far far away. It all sounds very idyllic and ends up being just the rejuvenation we needed to get us through the long winter ahead. That’s what we think anyway, until we get home. 

           

Where’s The Beautiful Sight? I’m Not Happy Tonight

Smiling and relaxed we open our front doors to find many of our precious items gone for good and our house trashed. All our residual happy feelings from our trip fly right out the window when we realize we can’t even set our bags on the floor.

           

We walk over soggy carpet, past ruined couches, furniture and walls with paint peeling off base boards. Then step in water, an inch deep at first, slowly rising until it's ankle deep. The tile and wood floors will also have to be replaced. When we finally reach the culprit, we face plant into a sweaty palm, realizing that we could have prevented all this.

           

In The Living Room We Can Build a Snowman

Burst pipes happen in over a quarter million homes every year. One eighth of an inch crack in a copper or plastic pipe, can release over 250 gallons of water a day. If you’re gone for one week, or seven days, you could be returning to 1,750 gallons of water in your home. That would be like filling up your bathtub 25 times. And let’s just hope your leak isn't any bigger than an eighth an inch, because a burst pipe is generally much bigger than that.

And Pretend That He is Parson Plumber…

You could end up needing not only a plumber, but a contractor, carpet-layer, painter, electrician and to buy all new furniture. You may even have to move out.

For lack of a better description, burst pipes are a nightmare; a nightmare that could cost you thousands of dollars and weeks of headaches while everything is being repaired. As property managers they’re the last thing we want to deal with or want you to have to deal with. So, going proactive, we have prepared a list of things you can do to help prevent it.

Later On We’ll Conspire

•  Let warm water drip in your faucets. You don’t need a heavy stream, a small dribble will do the trick.
• Set your thermostat to no lower than 55 degrees.
•  If you have pipes near outside walls open up your cabinet doors so that the warmer inside air can reach them.
• If you haven’t already, disconnect garden hoses, and if practical use an indoor valve to shut off and drain water from pipes leading to outside faucets.

These tips will work for you if you go out of town, but are also practical at night. Temperatures can drop even when you're home.

But what if your pipes are already frozen?

To Face Unafraid? Yeah Right.

• Call your property manager right away and report the issue. 
•  If you’ve turned on a faucet and nothing comes out, leave it on, (if you are going to remain in your home,) until the plumber arrives.
•  If it’s already burst, turn your water off at the main shut off valve in the house, (these are usually located underneath the sink, behind toilets and in the basement,) and once again, leave your faucets turned on.
•  If your pipes are frozen, but haven’t burst yet, you can try thawing them with a blow dryer. Start by warming the pipe close to the faucet and work your way toward the coldest section of the pipe.

As We Start Our House On Fire

Whatever you do, DON'T try and thaw your pipes with a blow torch, OR use electrical devices, such as blow dryers, near standing bodies of water.

           

Sleigh Bells Ring. Are You Listening?

Pay attention to your water bill and water pressure. If your bill goes up and your water pressure goes down—you may have a leak.

Here’s Hoping For a Winter Wonderland, Everyone.