Reading the title, you might be thinking, “You got to be kidding. With all the money I have been paying to you, you are going to charge me just to change a light bulb?” My answer to that is, “Yes, absolutely, and it’s very expensive.”
We all know how to change a light bulb. It might be the quickest and easiest home “improvement” you can do. A light bulb is relatively cheap and is available all over the place. So why do I, the property manager, have to charge you to change it?
First, let’s think about why the property manager gets to the point where he has to change it. If a tenant changes it, then the property manager doesn’t have to change it. If it’s so easy, quick, cheap and is available all over the place, why isn’t the tenant doing it? It’s probably because while the changing part is quick, there are a lot of “hassle factors” hidden behind this simple task.
- Maybe the light bulb is too high for the tenant to reach. In that case, a ladder might need to be brought to the place. To do that, you have to have a ladder and a place to store it. Maybe the tenant doesn’t have the proper ladder or is not comfortable to go up the ladder.
- Maybe the tenant doesn’t know what kind of light bulb to get. There are different types of light bulbs, such as incandescent, halogen, CFL, and LED. If there are other light bulbs around the one that needs to be changed, buying the wrong type could mean the light will not look uniform. Overwhelming amount of light bulbs all over the place may be working against the tenant in this case.
- Maybe the tenant doesn’t know what color to get. There are soft white, warm white, bright white, cool white, and daylight. Again the one that needs to be changed is surrounded with other light bulbs, buying the wrong color will end up losing the color uniformity.
- Maybe the tenant doesn’t want to spend time driving to a store, just to pick up a light bulb, drive back home, and change it.
- Maybe the tenants don’t want to deal with the proper disposal of the dead light bulb.
- Maybe the tenant wants to save money.
As you can see, it’s starting to be more than a quick change. As a matter of fact, when tenants leave a property or I take over a new property, it’s very common for some light bulbs to be dead, and I assume they are not changed because of the “hassle factors” I mentioned above. Again, changing might be simple, but what needs to happen before and after the change, maybe a hassle.
Knowing the above, what do we charge for changing the light bulb? I can’t go into what I actually charge for different reasons, but I can make up an example. Joe, the tenant, calls me to change a light bulb. I tell him that per the lease agreement, he is responsible for the change or I have to charge him. He understands and asks me how much.
First, I have to drive to the property to find out what kind of light bulb is needed. This may not be necessary if Joe can send me the picture of the dead light bulb. However, that might not be possible if there is no identification of the color type and such on the light bulb itself or it is located to high for Joe to take a picture. Let’s say he lives 20 minutes from my office, so that’s 40 minutes to commute, and maybe another 20 minutes to take a look at the light bulbs or get ready to go to the property. I already spent an hour, and I haven’t really done anything yet. Now I have to go to a store, buy the right light bulb, come back to the property, change the light bulb, and come back to the office. Maybe another hour here?
While this is not a difficult task, I can’t just hire some college student to do this. No liability insurance and such won’t work with me. So I have to use a person with a proper trade, which means it’ll cost some money.
The next time you wonder why some simple things cost so much, think about this blog, and you will hopefully understand better about the cost.
