In this introductory video, Mendell Gosnell explains that owning a rental property is not a get‑rich‑quick venture and outlines the four primary factors that determine maintenance expenses. He details how the age of a building influences inevitable repairs, how regional weather patterns (rain, wind, snow, heat) affect wear and tear, how specific site conditions such as proximity to water, trees, or poor drainage create additional risks, and how the type of rental—single‑family homes within HOAs versus multi‑family complexes—creates distinct cost structures and economies of scale. Gosnell closes by previewing a second video that will cover budgeting rules of thumb for expected maintenance spending, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per year depending on the property’s condition.
Chapters
Alright, today we're going to talk about maintenance and how it relates to your rental property. This one's going to be titled "How Much Does Maintenance Cost on Your Rental?" This is going to be a two-part series. So part one, we're going to go over the, uh, what factors affect or determine the cost of upkeep. I mean, there's going to be things like the age and weather and all that, but we'll get into that in this video. The following video, which I will link later on once we shoot it, the second part of this will be, uh, what should I expect to spend? I mean, people ask all the time, how much does it cost to own a rental? Um, so we're going to get to that on the second part, but let's get started on the first. So let me start off by saying that owning rental property is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Most people think you can just buy a rental and then find a tenant and just set it and forget it, but that is not, not the case. And just like as if it was your single-family residence or your primary residence, you're gonna have to fix things. They're gonna break even if you were living in them, so why would it be any different if you have a tenant then? The first factor when determining what to spend on repairs for your rental property, we're gonna look at the age of the rental property. I think this may seem pretty obvious, but if you've got a historical home in downtown Salem and and it was built in 1908, you can expect that there's going to be siding issues, roofing issues, paint, flooring, appliances for sure. It just comes with the territory, and that seems self-explanatory, but a lot of people who buy homes or when they're looking to buy an investment property and they see such a great deal for an older home, they don't realize that they're going to be— the cash flow isn't always what it seems. You have to prepare for more expenses for those types of properties. Number 2 is the weather. We here in the Willamette Valley, in Oregon in general, deal with everything from rain, hard winds, snow, heat. So it takes a pounding. It's not like Arizona where you get this dry heat year-round and very little rain. Number 3 is location. So what do I mean by location? You could say, well, you just covered that, you live in Oregon, right? We're not talking about weather here, we're talking about the, literally, the location of your property. Is it near a river?, right? Is it under a bed of trees, a whole, um, near a forest, right? Because if it is, you're going to look at a lot of moss. Moss is a big thing that people don't think about. On the sidewalks, on the roof, when you're near moisture, you can create, um, it can cause more humidity for your property. So it comes with a whole set of problems in itself where your property's at. If you're at the bottom of a hill, look for drainage issues, right? You might need a sump pump. There's a lot of things that owners need to be aware of when picking out their investment properties. Last but not least is the type of rental. So the type of rental, what we mean by that is, is it a single-family home in an HOA? Because if that's the case, you're going to be looking at more upkept properties, but it comes with its trade-offs because you're going to be paying the HOA fees every month. But when you're looking at multi-family units you're gonna be gaining the economy of scale when you look at larger complexes. So there's trade-offs, absolutely, when you're looking at the location, or when you're looking at the type of rental property. Alright, in closing, what we just discussed is the 4 things that affect and determine the cost of upkeep. And to recap, it was the age of the property, the weather, location, and the type of rental. The next series that we're gonna do on this same topic of how much does maintenance on my rental cost We're going to be going over what should I expect to spend. So what should I put away and expect to save? Some years you may be only spending a couple hundred bucks a year, some you may be spending thousands because it may need a new roof, right? But in general, I'm going to go over two rules that investors use to determine what they can expect to spend on their rental property. Thank you so much, have a good day, happy investing! Mendell Gosnell.
