As a rental property owner, do you have a team in place to prioritize your maintenance needs when emergency strikes?
A few months ago most of the areas that were service were affected in 1 way or another by Hurricane Ida. On a Thursday afternoon in Early September most people in the area began to receive a relay of flood warnings to their phones and the rain began to chrome down just as steadily. The aftermath of this left many local residents without a place to call home and others with severe damage. A property that our team was actively marketing to place 2 new tenants, was affected as well.
Prior to the flooding event, the owner of this property had only hired our team for tenant placement services. With them just being a train ride away in NY, they felt comfortable handling the overall management of the property. but when it was discovered that there had been flood damage in the basement of their property from Ida, they asked if our team could help with repairing the damage. Already familiar with the property we agreed.
The initial damage showed that water had come in and eventually found its way out, but not before leaving signs that it was there. Signs of mold from the flooding were visible along one wall for about half of the length of the basement. With mold spores already appearing within a week after flooding, if left unattended, the problem could have gotten severely worse with time.
Before the mold got a chance to spread any further, our team came in, assessed the damage, and got to work. They were able to save most of the wall by cutting out around 2 feet up from the floor, removing all of the molded sheetrock, and salvaging what was still in good condition. When replacing the damaged sheetrock, we opted to use water resistant sheetrock (the green kind) which is great for basements or other areas prone to water traffic, to prevent a similar situation going forward. Once installed, we spackled, painted and put in new moldings. The place looked as good as new.
In a situation like this where the owner is considering renting the basement area as a separate apartment if approved for occupancy, the repairs were more than worth it to make instead of letting issue prolong and ruin a potential income stream for property.
As a property management company, one of our many roles is taking care of emergency issues when needed on our clients behalf. If you’re a landlord with rental property local to Essex County, Union County or a surrounding area here in NJ and you’re interested in having a local team of professionals on your team when emergency strikes, schedule a call with us, we’ll discuss a plan and figure out if it makes sense for us to work together. I’m Albert with Capital Street Management. Thanks for reading this post.
