Jackson County – Cold Strikes your Properties Hard!

Wow! Feel that cold snap last night?  Well we are in Oregon and we are in november now. The question I have for you is, is your property ready?

This is the time of year when rentals become a little bit harder to fill.  This is just not the time of year when people are generally in need of rentals.  Don’t get me wrong, there are ways to maximize the potential of your property getting a quality Tenant, even now, but it is not nearly as easy as springtime.  Having said that, with this cold weather can come many complications in your property, lets talk about each one and what you need to do to prevent them from happening:

1. Sometimes owners try to save a buck on a vacant property by turning the heat off and not regulating a constant temperature.  This is a big no-no in this time of year.  If you do this, you are opening up a can of worms for your house pipes to turn into a big popsicle.  As you know and can imagine, the consequences of expansion and contraction from freezing and subsequent de-thaw of your water pipes will be disastrous.  So keep that temperature at a normal comfortable level.  You can install a thermostat with a schedule to lower it at night, but not too far!
2. Did you cover your hose bibs with a simple, less than $3 each, insulated hose bib cover.  It takes less than 3 minutes to install and will prevent your hose bib, namely the copper beed weld, from cracking.
3. Did you clean out your gutters yet?  Make sure you get them nice and clean fort he rain and snow season.  Having clogged gutters will cause the rain to back up, run down walls and go other places that none of us want.  They are anticipating a lot of rain this year in Medford, so make sure your rental is prepared.  I wouldn’t leave that up to your Tenant unless he/she is just that on top of things and they have told you that they cleaned them out.
4. Depending only our elevation, did you drain out your sprinklers?  Many houses in Medford are really don’t need this because they are buried low enough and the frost level doesn’t generally drop that low much here.  However in the case of a very bad winter, they just might need it.  So it is always a best practice to go ahead and drain and/or blow out your sprinklers in preparation for the winter months.  If your rental is in the outlying areas like Applegate or Butte Falls, then you definitely need to drain them.
5. Check tress and shrubs near your house.  Anytime the rain and snow pack on, they will weight down your foliage.  If there are any tress that look like they have week limbs, they may need to be either removed or supported to prevent crashing on your home, fence or neighbors.  We have already helped a few Tenants this year in recommending removal of some branches that would have probably caused a big mess.
6. If you have a conventional fireplace, make sure your chimney has been inspected.
7. When was the last time your roof was inspected?  Always a good idea to crawl throughout the attic and inspect during a rainstorm to see where you need attention.

I hope this helps.  These are services that we routinely perform for our property management clients, if we can help you in your Medford area rentals, please give us a call at 541-816-4140.

Asurent Property Management