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Are Your Columbia Heights Tenants Damaging Your Garage Without Knowing It?

View of the Garage Door on a Columbia Heights Rental PropertyA rental home’s garage affects the overall appeal of the home. However, some tenants who just want to preserve or improve that appeal could be damaging a rental home’s garage without realizing it. Damage to garage interiors, garage doors, windows, and other elements do occur, and misuse or neglect isn’t always the cause.

Often times, a well-meaning tenant just doesn’t have the know-how to properly clean or maintain a rental home’s garage. When that is the case, expensive and unnecessary repairs are often the result. By giving your Columbia Heights 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. The garage door adds to the home’s curb appeal, while the interior, windows, cabinets, and also the garage door opener can have a big impact on a tenant’s satisfaction. But none of these are to be ignored, instead, they should be maintained correctly to keep them in good working condition. If one part is broken, the whole garage could become a liability instead of an asset.

The garage door needs to stay working properly and looking nice since it’s the most visible exterior element. That means regular cleaning and maintenance for it is required. There are multiple ways a tenant could damage a garage door accidentally. They may not know the basic maintenance tasks that need to be performed and end up not doing any maintenance at all. They may also clean the door but use the wrong tools or cleaning products. For instance, the materials used for each garage door differs depending on the kind of door. Some are painted, while others are vinyl or metal. Let’s say a tenant attempts to power spray a painted door clean, that could cause extensive damage to the garage door. They may be well-intentioned, but using the wrong tools to clean a door may cause big problems. Harsh household cleaners may also damage a door’s exterior finish, causing far more harm than good.

Moving past appearances, for a garage door to work well, it requires a functional opener, springs, hinges, and rollers. These elements may rust, wear out, or break over time and through heavy use. In fact, if a garage door produces a lot of noise when it opens or closes, it may be a sign that the door’s hardware is in trouble and needs to be lubricated. This maintenance task is so simple yet it can greatly affect the useful life of a garage door.

The windows, floor, and cabinets in a garage are the parts that typically get unintentional damage. A leaking car engine could drip oil stains on concrete floors that aren’t easy to remove. Exhaust fumes, dirt, and other substances can collect on 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. Comparable to the garage door, routine cleaning and maintenance can easily stop all these issues from happening. What makes it a real problem is that the tenant may not know the correct way of doing it.

As an illustration, motor oil stains are dealt with differently from other substances. The correct tools and cleaning materials must be used so that cleaning it would solve the problem and not make it bigger. 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 prevent the continued wear and further damage, a tenant must have oversight and the right information with them so that the rental home’s garage is continually kept in good condition.

Keeping track of a tenant’s cleaning and maintenance record can be time-consuming and difficult for property owners. Because of this, using a professional property management company to help make things easier is a really good choice.

At Real Property Management DC Metro, one of our goals is to help property owners equip their tenants on the proper care and upkeep of their rental homes in Columbia Heights and conduct regular checks to ensure that such tasks are being done. The property management professionals in our team can help safeguard your valuable investment from unintentional damage and prevent expensive and unnecessary repairs. To know more about what we can do for you, please contact us online or give us a ring at 202-269-0303.

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