Is Your Housing Community Ready for Fall?

By Elana Goodwin on August 29, 2017

With the Fall semester upon us at colleges across the country, students will be unpacking and settling into their off-campus homes in your housing community.

But even though they may already be moved in, is your housing community really ready for the fall? Here’s a checklist you may want to consult to be sure so you can avoid possible issues that may otherwise arise.

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com

1. Check on the heating. With fall and then winter quickly on their way, colder weather will be coming and your tenants will expect the heat in their apartments to work. To get your housing complex ready for fall, you need to do some maintenance on your housing community’s ventilation and heating so it’s in perfect working order and ready to be used. Since you last cleaned out the vents, there may have been a lot of dust buildup which can block the airflow and efficiency of the ventilation so you’ll want to check out all the vents to ensure they’re unimpeded and prepped for usage.

Next, and before your residents actually go to put on the heat in their homes, you’ll want to make sure there aren’t any issues with your furnace and other heating factors. Don’t wait until the weather really gets cold to check on these potential issues but rather check on them now as part of your fall prep to start getting your housing community ready for the upcoming drop in temperature.

2. Look into landscaping. As fall sets in, most of the leaves of all the trees on your property will start falling to the ground. While they may be pretty once they’ve fallen, you don’t want to allow them to build up too much or clog up your gutters either. Letting a bunch of leaves sit in your housing community’s gutters will create blockages in your drain pipes and in the gutters and if there’s rain, that can be a real problem. Additionally, if so many leaves pile up and they get wet, the weight can affect your gutters, not to mention they will stain the cement, too.

Regular cleanup of the leaves throughout the fall is crucial to maintaining the grounds of your housing community as well as your gutters and drains so as not to cause problems. Depending on how many trees and shrubbery you have on your property, you may need to hire a landscaping company or otherwise just buy a leaf blower or rake to maintain your complex.

Bugs and critters also thrive in leaf piles so making sure to frequently landscape the grounds of your housing community is important — plus, you want your property to look nice and for your residents to enjoy living there.

3. Do an exterior check. Before the weather gets too cold, do an exterior check of your property to see that everything is updated and ready for winter. You may want to repaint the exterior of your housing complex and if you do, that needs to be done before the weather gets more temperamental and unpredictable. Putting a new coat of paint on the outside of your housing community may offer a better layer of protection which will be useful in the coming months.

Additionally, if there are any damaged areas on your property, such as cracks in the sidewalks or in the parking lot, windows or doors that don’t have a good seal, etc., now’s the time to take care of them as they will be harder to repair once it’s colder out and can also negatively impact your residents during the winter.

4. Schedule some events. As part of your fall prep and to help foster a sense of community within your housing complex, consider scheduling some events for your tenants to attend. Many residents would welcome the chance to meet their neighbors or go to a party held in their housing complex and you can help facilitate that.

Throw a back-to-school potluck or movie night in your housing community. Consider planning a holiday party, such as a costume party for Halloween or a BBQ for Labor Day. You can also organize various weekend events like bowling, a volunteer day, etc., to encourage your tenants to get to know each other and do something fun together. Being an active part of these events will also help you get to know your renters, put in some face time, and make them feel as if you’re really involved in and care about them and their time at school and in your rental unit.

So before fall really sets in, make sure your housing community is up-to-date and completely ready for the semester ahead with heating and exterior checks, landscaping, and some fun fall events planned for your residents to help make them feel at home in your housing complex.

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