Winter is Coming!
By DaNay Salas
Fall is here, which means winter is coming! It’s like a switch is flipped when we get to Labor Day. The weather makes huge swings from hot to cold, to rain, back to hot and dry again and then finally settles into the familiar cool nights and warm late afternoons of Fall. It’s hard to believe we only have a few more months left of 2021! Before we know it, it will be time for Christmas shopping! This year, the Treasure Valley has turned off irrigation early due to drought conditions after the hot summer we experienced. Now with winter coming upon us, this is the time when we should be preparing our rental houses for winter.
Top 10 checklist – prepare your rental for winter:
• Tune up the heating system. When is the last time you had your HVAC system serviced?
• Avoid leaks and ice dams. Check the roof for loose or damaged shingles.
• Once the leaves have fallen, get the gutters cleaned out. Schedule now so you can be sure to get this done before a hard freeze.
• Keep your crawl space dry. Add extensions to downspouts to direct water away from foundations.
• Detach hoses from faucets and then turn off your exterior faucets.
• Avoid cracked irrigation pipes! Get your Sprinkler system blown out. *Typically, Boise/Nampa area irrigation districts shut off the water supply in early October, but this year it was turned off in September.
• After the first deep freeze, it’s a good time to get some pruning done and dead tree branches removed. You don’t want winter squalls to send branches crashing through windows or raking shingles off your roof!
• Pretty soon your tenants will be using the heating system. If your house has a gas furnace, do you have Co2 detectors installed in your rental?
• If you have a wood fireplace and woodstove in your rental, now is a good time to get that chimney swept.
• Call RMA now if you would like us to take charge of any of these items on your behalf.
Our office does send out reminders to tenants to ensure that some of the above items are handled or to report issues to our office if they notice for instance, that gutters need to be cleaned out after the leaves have fallen. At the beginning of each year, RMA sends out an Optional Services form that has several items you can elect to sign up for in advance to have services performed throughout the year to maintain the property. If you have any questions regarding those services, please feel free to contact your property manager, they would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Maintenance Updates
For those of you with properties in the Nampa/Meridian area, the irrigation district will be ending irrigation water delivery on September 15th, one month earlier than normal. Some areas in Boise have been shut off as well. We have instructed your tenants to do hand watering where necessary to prevent the lawn from dying.
RMA would like to let you know that we have scheduled the optional services for 2021.
Optional Services being completed throughout the summer are:
- Gutter Cleaning
- Hot Water Heater Inspections
- Fall Yard Clean Up
- Sprinkler Blow Outs
The maintenance updates only apply to those of you who have pre-ordered these preventative maintenance services. If you didn’t opt in for a service you read about in this newsletter, and would like to schedule a service, just email your property manager to let them know.
Other questions? Please email your property manager!
Jackie Lusk – jackie@rentalsinboise.com. Amanda Godfrey – amanda@rentalsinboise.com
Accounting Updates
You can always see updates on the status of your property’s tenancy renewal on your OWA. Information about the tenants renewal or notice to vacate will be there for you to review once we get close to the end of the lease.
If you ever have questions about your statement, please contact your property managers:
Amanda Godfrey, amanda@rentalsinboise.com
Jackie Lusk, jackie@rentalsinboise.com
If you have trouble logging into your client portal, please contact your property managers or Brandy Ker at RMAinfo@rentalsinboise.com.
Tenant Update
This month’s tenant newsletter discusses the housing market outlook for first time home buyers.
Check out our tenant newsletter this month:
https://rentalsinboise.com/property-management-blog/october-2021-tenant-newsletter/