• METRO RENTAL &
    ORLANDO PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
    with Condo Metropolis LLC

  • +1 (407) 901-5161

    info@CondoMetropolis.com

  • Property Refurbishment

  • It's Paint Time Again. And Carpet.

    This usually means a flat, white paint - which usually marks up the minute you rub up against it. By the time the tenant's have finished moving in, there are already black marks and scuffs on the walls. And when they move out again... more marks. Not to mention the wear and tear while they are actually in residence.

    Ditto with the carpet. Buy the $1 per foot carpet and you could find yourself having to change it after every tenancy. Tile is much better, but it's about 4-5 times the price. So, as the saying goes, "You pays your money, and you takes your choice." Get a slightly better grade of paint and carpet in the hopes of increased longevity, or risk repainting and re-carpeting after each tenancy. While we do bill tenants for things that exceed normal wear and tear, a few marks are normal wear and tear. And prospective tenants expect to see clean walls and clean carpet. In most cases, we have an established minimum standard and will simply move forward with the repairs that are necessary to make the home "rent ready" again.

    While we are on the subject, let's consider the topic of taking bids for proposed work. This practice involves having multiple vendors visit the property in order to give competing quotations for any given piece of work. It's the kind of thing you might do as a private home owner who doesn't know who to trust, and has no real idea what things cost, or should cost, and has no idea where to start looking.

    As a property management company, we are in a very different situation because we deal with the same repairs on a daily basis. Obtaining multiple bids from the same vendors each day would be both time consuming, and pointless, since the losing vendors would soon realize that they were only being used to buffer another quote. Vendors soon get wise to this game and stop providing quotes. The practice also slows things down tremendously for all concerned, as the time taken to put in the various calls, wait for service and then wait for the owner (who usually lives in another country) to make a decision, leaves tenants frustrated, particularly if they have dirty laundry lying around or are suffering in 95 degree heat without air conditioning. Next thing, they are demanding rent reductions, or wanting to be put up in a hotel.

    At Condo Metropolis, we have gradually established working relationships with those vendors that we have found from experience, offer the best combination of price and craftsmanship. They have a proven track record with us and we trust them to do an outstanding job within a time frame that is acceptable to us as a management company. When a problem arises, we will obtain an estimate for the work (unless it's an emergency) which may recommend repair or replacement depending on the problem. And while we feel very comfortable with our vendors, you are welcome to seek out bids from competing companies if you wish, if this can be done in a timely fashion. If you decide to go with a different vendor, just let us know, and provided they are licensed and insured etc., we will happily work with them. Our goal is simply to get everything up and running again as quickly as possible and with the minimum fuss and expense. Our systems are designed to reduce cost and maximize efficiency.