We get asked this a lot: “If something goes wrong at my property, what’s the process?”
The tenant logs a job, or lets us know there is a problem, and we get it sorted in 3 days. That’s our current average completion time on a maintenance job. Not 3 days until someone calls the tenant back, 3 days until it’s actually sorted.
How Can Our Property Managers Move That Fast?
Most property management agencies are stuck ringing round three different tradies, waiting for quotes, then waiting again for someone to actually turn up. We don’t do that, because we built an in-house maintenance team instead of relying solely on tradies.
Don’s been with Aspire for 10 years, so he’s seen pretty much every kind of job a rental can throw up. Dexter’s a qualified builder with over 20 years in the trade, the kind of person who actually enjoys the tricky carpentry problems everyone else avoids. Ricky ran his own property maintenance business for over a decade before joining us, so he knows exactly what a good, fast repair looks like. And Dan, who works across compliance within the team, is a landlord himself, so he’s not just fixing things by the book, he genuinely gets why it matters to you as an owner.
Behind all of them, Lizzie keeps our maintenance team running: the contractors, the suppliers, the relationships that mean when we need someone on site fast, we’re not starting from scratch trying to find them. She also makes sure the team knows where they are supposed to be, and when.
Having our own people on the ground, backed by contractors we actually trust, means we’re not waiting on someone else’s schedule. A job comes in, we can usually get eyes on it the same day, and get it moving without three rounds of phone tag first.
Renovations, and Why Dan’s the Man
When an owner’s looking at a bigger renovation, not just a repair but an actual refresh, a kitchen, a full repaint, prepping a place before it goes back on the market, Dan’s the man for the job.
What owners tell us they appreciate most is that Dan doesn’t just show up with a quote. He’ll walk the property, tell you honestly what’s worth spending money on and what isn’t, and keep the whole thing moving without you having to chase him for updates. Renovations are one of those things that can easily blow out in both time and cost if nobody’s properly across it, and that’s exactly what we’re there to prevent.
What You Should Actually Be Budgeting
A rough rule of thumb we tell owners: budget around 0.5% of your property’s value per year for maintenance and minor repairs. So on a $700,000 property, that’s roughly $3,500 a year. Some years less, some years more, but it evens out.
If you want to know where that money tends to go, the top five spends we see across our portfolio are:
- General repairs and callouts. The day-to-day stuff: taps, doors, appliances playing up. This is usually the biggest chunk of any year’s spend.
- Plumbing and gas. Leaks, hot water issues, blocked drains. Second biggest category, and the one most likely to turn into an emergency callout if it’s left.
- Electrical work. Anything from a faulty switch to bringing wiring up to code.
- Heat pump servicing and Healthy Homes compliance. An annual service is cheap insurance, a couple of hundred dollars, against a much bigger bill or a compliance headache down the track.
- Gutters, roofing and weathertightness. The classic “small job now or big job later”. A $300 gutter clean beats a $5,000 timber rot repair.
Those five cover the bulk of what most owners spend in a normal year. The wildcard costs, hot water cylinder replacement, exterior repainting, roof replacement, come around far less often, but they’re worth keeping in the back of your mind so they don’t catch you out.
Reporting an Issue Is Easy for Our Tenants
Every property we manage has a QR code in it, usually under the kitchen sink or somewhere obvious in the cupboards. The tenant scans it, with no app to download and no login required, and they’re straight into Tapi, our maintenance platform.
Here’s the bit that actually saves everyone time. Before we send anyone out, Tapi’s AI runs the tenant through a proper troubleshooting conversation first. Toilet won’t flush? It’ll walk them through checking the easy things. Heat pump not working? It’ll ask if the power’s on, if the remote has batteries, if the filter’s blocked, before anyone books a callout. A lot of “urgent” jobs turn out to be a tripped switch or a setting that got bumped, and Tapi sorts those out in the chat. No tradesperson required, no callout fee, no waiting around.
If it’s a genuine issue, Tapi’s already done the hard part by the time it lands with us. The right questions have been asked, and we’ve got photos and video instead of “the thing’s broken”. That means your property manager can look at a job and know straight away what’s actually needed, rather than guessing over the phone with the tenant.
From there, it’s straightforward. Your property manager signs off on anything up to your agreed spend limit and gets it moving immediately, with no back and forth and no delay waiting to hear from you. Anything above that threshold comes to you first. We’ll give you the details, what Tapi and the property manager have found, what it’ll likely cost, and get your go-ahead before a tradesperson’s booked.
Get in Touch
If you’ve got a maintenance question, or you’re thinking about a renovation before your next tenancy, get in touch with your property manager. We’re always happy to talk through what’s worth doing and what can wait.
