Pest control for property managers and businesses

Nothing annoys customers like finding out a service or product they paid for is less than what the seller promised. It can happen with any transaction, including rental property. But when a rental is less than what the renter expected, the disappointment hits closer home.

That’s because people invest a lot of emotions in their homes; it is supposed to be a haven where they can retreat from the stresses of life. Even if that home is a rental property, it does not diminish the person’s desire to have a safe space they call home.

Several things can impair a tenant’s enjoyment of a rented home. One of the biggest is the presence of pests in the rental property. Pest infestation is an enormous problem in rental properties due to how easy it is for pests to get in and how hard they are to get rid of them.

How pests harm the tenants in a rental property

Pests constitute every possible problem for the people living in a rental property. Pest will:

1. Destroy tenant’s belongings

Rodents and termites can be particularly harmful in a rental. Termites destroy items that are made of wood by boring into them. Rodents will tear up tenant’s clothes and books to use as nesting materials.

2. Contaminate tenant’s food

If there are roaches, ants, and mice in the home, they will get into the tenant’s food. In addition to eating up food meant for humans, pests waste a lot of food. They will contaminate food with their saliva, droppings, and urine.

3. Spread diseases

Many pests carry diseases. These can be transmitted to humans through contact, bite, and eating food contaminated by pests. Many of the diseases transmitted by pests are fatal.

4. Make the home unpleasant

Pests will foul up the house with bad odors. These may come from pest’s urine and droppings or bodies. Some pests also make noises at night that make it hard for tenants to fall asleep.

5. Pests make tenant’s lives difficult

Bedbugs in a rental home can make tenants’ lives unbearable. They feed on humans, and that fact alone can be terrifying to most tenants. Bedbugs in a rental home pose massive problems.

If you are the manager of a rental home, the above are good reasons to have a professional pest control program for your property. All rental homes are vulnerable to this problem. Pest invasion can severely damage a rental’s earning capabilities. How should you deal with this issue?

How to deal with pests in a rental property

There are two ways you can handle pests in your rental property. You can be reactive, in which case you will always act after the fact. If you follow this path, you must wait until pests invade the home before performing pest control. With this plan, you are always a step behind.

Alternatively, you can be proactive by implementing a preventative pest control program. With proactive pest control, there is no risk to your relationship with tenants before you take action. That is the preferred way of dealing with pests in a rental property. Why is that?

Reasons why pest control is important for property managers

A. Effective prevention

Keeping pests out of the home is the best pest control strategy. But doing this requires good knowledge of their habits. It also demands an ability to identify potential pest entry points around the home and sealing those places.

B. Consistent outcomes

A professional pest control program includes periodic inspections of the home to detect and solve new problems that may lead to pest infestation. The assessment will identify changes in the environment and tenant habits that predispose the rental to invasion by pests.

C. Immediate action

You can solve most pest infestations completely if you detect them in time. But it is not always easy for tenants to identify the telltale signs of pests in their homes. Regular inspections by a pest control expert can help uncover problems before they bloom into significant issues.

D. Protect relationship with tenants

A professional pest control program will show tenants that the manager is invested in their welfare and not just interested in the rent. That can positively impact your relationship with the tenants in other essential areas.

E. Anticipate seasonal changes

Many pest infestation problems are seasonal; pest control actions taken in a previous season will often not work in another season. But a professional pest control plan will take the appropriate steps at the start of each season to ensure your tenants do not have pest infestation issues.

F. Tenant education

Finally, a pest control program that is overseen by professionals can help educate tenants on the best ways to prevent pest infestation. They can help you avoid legal issues with tenants over pest invasion of the house.