ORDER OF IMPORTANCE FOR WORK ORDERS
Division 4 Dep 10, Property Preservation oversees several hundred properties including occupied and vacant. For the most part your job will consist of handling vacant homes including any set-up, further repairs, break-in, and recurring maintenance like grass cuts. And you may encounter code violations related to occupied homes which will need to be handled when the families do not handle it themselves.
This results in a high volume of work orders/tickets. You can become easily overwhelmed without an order of importance. There may be the rare rush order from you senior or higher up execs but for the most part the sequence of job priority is as follows:
RE-KEY: Rekeys and any order to re-secure a property. This can be caused by break-ins or because a lockbox broke and the home is exposed or inaccessible. Any home that is open whether from a broken door, window, etc. is of the highest priority to avoid theft, squatters, and vandalism. Additionally, if a home has a broken lockbox, we cannot show it to a family and that greatly affects the sale of a property.
UTILITY INSPECTION: The next work order in the sequence is to set up a qualified vendor to be at a property when utilities are turned on. This is important because knowing if the home has working electrical, water, gas, etc. is very useful in selling a home. A vendor must be there when the city turns these on to catch any issues and handle them right away or handle any immediate problem and send us a quote for any larger jobs needed. For example, if the water is turned on by the city and there are leaks the property will flood unless we have a vendor there to catch it and turn off the water or seal any pipes, etc. In cases where the prospective family is able to be there themselves, always ask them first so we don't have to pay a vendor.
SET-UP: New homes need to be set-up before they can go on the market. Investors have to cover all the bills connected to vacant homes so they have a lot of attention on getting the home on the market quickly and set-up. You should be able to get a home set-up in one week from the moment Div. 2 informs you that we have fully closed on the property.
RE SET-UPS: Homes that were sold to a family but then the family terminated or was evicted now need to be re set-up before they can go on the market. Hopefully the family has taken all of their belongings but sometimes they leave lots of trash and personal belongings behind. You will need to negotiate a good price for the trash out and make sure to determine who will cover the dumpster rental, junk yard fees, etc. You MUST confirm that the family has left the home and get data if their belongings are gone or if what they left behind is ok to throw away. You should be able to get a home set-up/ re set-up in one week from the moment the family has been confirmed to have vacated the property.
CODE VIOLATIONS: Code violations will result usually from grass growing too high or trash being left out in the front yard, or any visible external damage. This can be for both vacant and occupied homes. When a code violation arrives, it goes to the department of Trust Services (AnneMarie) and she will handle paying any fee but you will need to hire a vendor to handle the actual code violation. Traditionally there is a deadline to handle the violation and if it is not handled by that date, they charge us even more money so make sure this gets handled fast and ahead of the deadline.
FURTHER REPAIRS: Anything not mentioned above is considered a further repair (excluding reoccurring grass cuts). This includes roofs, electrical, plumbing, foundation, floors, mold, septic tanks, pets, etc. These repairs are important for the sale of the home as well because the family is looking at what they can and can’t handle and these major repairs can scare them away. Sometimes you will need to do the whole repair and sometimes you will just need to get quotes so that the family can get an idea of how much it will cost them to repair it.
GRASS CUTS - CONDITIONAL: In the summer you will need to schedule recurring grass cuts for vacant homes every 2 -3 weeks. The idea is to get them scheduled and cut before we get code violations. Grass cuts on a schedule may include problem properties when families do not adhere to city code. In these cases, check with Trust Services.
Written by:
Angelica Gomez
SVP OPS E&H Inc.