According to the 2021 NAA Survey of Operating Income & Expenses in rental apartment communities, the Repair and Maintenance category is the fourth largest expenditure category in garden apartments, and third largest expenditure category in mid- & high-rise apartments.
While any operator can look at their balance sheet to see how much they’re spending on maintenance, most are left scratching their heads when tasked with identifying areas for reducing repair and maintenance costs. In most cases, the reason for this is simple - a lack of visibility.
"Anything that is measured and watched, improves." - Bob Parsons, GoDaddy founder.
This is why successful multifamily operators rely on the ability to track and report key performance indicators (KPI’s) across all departments, including maintenance.
Having this information at your fingertips enables property operators and maintenance leaders to make data driven decisions by empowering them with:
- Visibility into project statuses - all stakeholders can see exactly what’s happening with any project at any time.
- Team scheduling optimization - determine where and how to best allocate your human resources.
- Big data - accumulating maintenance data across all maintenance projects allows you to make more accurate predictions on budgets and ROI calculations for future projects.
How to collect maintenance data for generating reports
In order to take advantage of the insights that reporting and analytics can provide, you will first need to figure out how to capture the data required. Collecting and digitizing this data can sound overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. Simply replacing paper & pencils with property inspection apps can help to make data collection, organization, and retrieval, a passive process. When linked to a work order system through a holistic maintenance platform, the benefits are realized throughout the entire team.
The property inspection app identifies what needs to be done and the location where the work is needed, such as:
- Installing new floors throughout unit 304
- Painting the lobby
- Replacing an appliance in the stock room
- Charging back a resident for damage done to the unit
The work order system identifies what was repaired, when it was repaired, and who performed the repair, details such as:
- When the new floors were installed, and by which maintenance technician
- The vendor that painted the lobby, and the amount they charged
- The make and model of the appliance that was added
- The damaged item and issue date of the resident chargeback
Connecting these pieces through a dedicated maintenance platform that includes a reporting and analytics engine is where the magic happens. By providing all the data points needed for creating reports, these reports give managers the ability to make better decisions and ultimately lead to performance gains across the organization, which translates into lower expenses and higher NOI.
Below are 11 must have reports for property operations and maintenance teams to help you achieve such outcomes.
1. Measure the output of your maintenance team
Why is this important?
- Compare maintenance teams from different properties to determine if there are learnings or better processes that can be shared. For example, does more training result in fewer callbacks and should you implement additional training programs at other properties?
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- Work orders resolved by each team member
2. Measure the quality of work of your maintenance team
Why is this important?
- Creates accountability for staff to do things right the first time, thus reducing callbacks and re-work
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- Number of callbacks for each team member
3. Measure the time to resolution of service requests
Why is this important?
- Similar to measuring output and quality, time to resolution of service requests will give maintenance leaders a sense of how quickly their staff work.
- Tracking against, and improving, the time to resolution of service requests will positively impact the resident experience
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- Service request creation and completion dates for each team member
4. Measure the capacity of your maintenance team
Why is this important?
- Determine if you need to hire additional employees
- Too many overdue work orders and/or service requests can have a negative impact on resident satisfaction.
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- Number of overdue work orders and/or service requests for each team member.
(Bonus tip: Compare properties to see which teams are struggling to keep up with demand)
5. Average number of days per unit turn (per property, region or portfolio)
Why is this important?
- Determine how much vacancy loss can be attributed to turning over units
- Calculate the incremental revenue that can be generated as a result of faster, more efficient unit turns.
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- Duration between the notice to vacate date and the unit turn completion date
Learn how you can better manage your unit turns here with a Smart Make Ready Board™
6. Turnover cost breakdowns per property
Why is this important?
- Get a deeper understanding of where and why there are variances in maintenance costs between properties, such as, materials, labor, contractors, job types and equipment.
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- All turnover costs for each property
7. Compare vendor pricing between regions or providers
Why is this important?
- Similar to maintenance cost breakdown reports, looking at what vendors are charging for work of the same scope helps with negotiating better rates or justifying bringing a skill set in-house.
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- Vendor costs for jobs of similar scope, such as painting, flooring, plumbing, electrical, etc.
8. Outstanding liabilities - know exactly where exposures lie
Why is this important?
- Reduce risk by having real-time visibility into any potential liabilities that need to be addressed such as health or safety concerns.
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- Summary of all inspection results related to potential liabilities.
9. Past due work orders
Why is this important?
- Timely completion of service requests made by residents can significantly improve their satisfaction. Having a daily report on the number of outstanding service requests with the goal of it always being as close to zero as possible, will ensure that residents aren’t waiting on work to be completed. Having visibility into this also gives property managers the ability to step in for early intervention by coordinating with maintenance teams or letting the resident know about delays.
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- Count of service requests that are passed due
10. Recent inspections status (fire, pool, cleaning, etc.)
Why is this important?
- As a property manager you need to know when and where to take action. These reports will allow you to remove the guesswork by providing visibility into what inspections have and have not been completed
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- Count of all inspections that are passed due
11. Appliance replacements by type and model
Why is this important?
- Knowing how often certain appliance types or specific models break down in a given time period can help inform better purchase decisions in the future based on what models are more reliable, and also allowing you to leverage bulk discounts if you know how many units will need to be purchased
Data inputs needed to generate this report
- Asset tracking system to see when appliances or equipment is serviced, replaced or moved
Interested in Smart Asset Tracking™ ? Request a demo here.
Set, track, and report on operations and maintenance goals
With maintenance data collection comes more opportunities to set, track, and report on operations and maintenance goals, trends and anomalies. Teams can use this data to establish new benchmarks, protect the assets, and drive property value and efficiencies across single properties or entire portfolios.
By using a purpose built maintenance platform, all of the data collection, processing, retrieval, and reporting is done automatically, so property operations teams can focus on better decision making that drives real value for the organization.
If you’d like to learn more about how to generate powerful reports like the ones mentioned above, you can request a demo here.
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