Single-family rentals
After-hours answering for single-family rentals
Your homes are spread across town, your tech is in one place at a time, and some owners call as often as tenants do. Mae answers after hours, works out which home the caller means, sends real emergencies to the right on-call tech for that address, and routes owners to whoever handles them.
Tuesday night
Summit Rentals, 85 homes- 10:18 PMCarla Nguyen · 555-0152 · 4410 Birch Rd“The water heater is leaking all over the garage.”Emergency
- 10:19 PMCalling Mike Torres, on-call for the north side · answered, connected
- 10:41 PMRobert Hale · 555-0108 · owner, 4410 Birch Rd“My tenant texted me about a leak. Is someone going out?”Owner
- 10:43 PMMessage to owner relations, with the open emergency noted
Example calls. Names and numbers are invented.
Short answer
What does an answering service do for single-family rentals?
It answers your line after hours for every home in the portfolio. Mae takes the address, checks the problem against your emergency list for that home, and calls the on-call tech who covers it, then the backup. Owners are recognized and routed, routine repairs are logged for the morning, and each call is summarized by email.
Last updated
Why are single-family calls harder after hours?
Every home is somewhere else
There is no super on site. The nearest tech may be across town, so the call needs to reach them before the problem grows.
Tenants are not sure who to call
Some call you, some call the owner, some call a plumber off the internet. The call that matters may never reach your team.
Owners call too
Owners hear about a problem from their tenant and call you at night to ask what is happening. Without an answer, they call again in the morning, unhappy.
What does a slow response cost in a rental home?
Damage nobody sees
A water heater leaking in a garage or a pipe in a crawl space can run for hours before anyone notices. The repair grows with every one.
Travel time adds up
With scattered homes, the drive is part of every repair. A call that reaches the tech at 8am instead of 10pm starts that drive ten hours late.
Owner trust
An owner who hears about a leak from their tenant before they hear from you starts to wonder what else they are not told. A timestamped log answers that.
What changes when every home has a plan?
The tech who covers that address hears about the leak tonight, and the owner gets a straight answer.
The right tech for the address
Mae picks the on-call ladder by home or by area, so the call goes to whoever is closest by your rules.
Owners routed, not ignored
Owners are recognized by name and number and passed to whoever handles owner relations, as a message or a transfer.
A record for every home
Every call and attempt is logged with the address, ready when the owner asks.
What do single-family calls look like after hours?
- Emergency
Water heaters and leaks
Leaking tanks, burst supply lines, water in the garage or basement. These go to your on-call ladder.
- Your list
Heating and cooling
No heat in a cold snap or no AC in a heat wave. Your list sets the line for each.
- Your policy
Lockouts
Handled by your policy, every time: on-call, a locksmith list, or the morning.
- Owners
Owner calls
Recognized and routed to owner relations, with any open emergency on that home noted.
- Your list
Outside the home
A fallen fence, a broken garage door, a sprinkler running into the street. Logged or escalated by your rules.
- Logged for morning
Routine repairs
Appliances, slow drains, a stuck window. Details and address logged for your team in the morning.
Who is the right tech for this address?
Each home, or each group of homes, gets its own on-call ladder. Mae asks for the address, finds the home, and calls the people you set for it.
Example areas. Names are invented.
- Group homes by area so the on-call tech is the one who covers that part of town.
- Give each owner's homes their own rules if an owner wants something different.
- Name owners so their calls are recognized and routed, not treated as tenant calls.
- Keep one after-hours number for the whole portfolio. Mae asks which home the call is about.
North side homes
On-call: Mike, then Dana. Lockouts: locksmith list.
Lake County homes
On-call: Dana, then the manager. No hot water waits until 8am.
What does it cost?
Billed by the second, not rounded up. Spam and wrong numbers are not counted. Setup is $297 on monthly plans and free on annual plans.
Starter
$197 / month
500 minutes, about 150 calls. Then $0.35 a minute.
Growth
$397 / month
1,250 minutes, about 400 calls. Then $0.30 a minute.
Portfolio
$797 / month
2,500 minutes, about 800 calls. Then $0.25 a minute.
Call counts assume about 3 minutes a call. See full pricing and how it compares
Single-family manager questions
Do I need a separate number for each home?
Can owners reach someone after hours?
What if the tenant cannot give the address?
Which plan fits a portfolio of about 85 homes?
Bring your map of homes. We will build the ladders.
On a 20-minute setup call we go through your properties, your emergency list and who is on call. You leave with a plan and a price.