18 Huge Fall Home Maintenance Checklist Items to Remember

As you make your rental property home maintenance checklist, there are certain items you can’t ignore. For instance, if you forget to drain your exterior pipes, they could burst. So, prevent disasters by adding the items below to your fall maintenance list.

Main Takeaways from BMG Northern Virginia

• For your exterior home maintenance checklist, you should address any soil or grass issues, have a professional prune and cut your trees, remove failing annuals, trim perennials, rake the leaves, cover plants with mulch, clean the gutters, and drain your exterior pipes.
• For your interior home maintenance checklist, you should tend to door and window gaps, inspect your roof, chimney, and fireplace, seal away pests, review your insurance policy for coverage gaps, get a snow service, test your detectors, and examine your locks for damage or jamming.

Exterior Home Maintenance Checklist Items to Consider

First, let’s delve into some home maintenance checklist items to work on outside. Property management companies in Northern Virginia recommend you:

1. Address Any Soil and Grass Issues

If you want your grass to look better, you could seed your lawn and change your soil composition. This way, it will grow more come springtime.

2. Get Your Trees Pruned and Cut

Throughout the year, your tree limbs may have developed undetected rot or diseases. This could spread to the rest of the tree if unaddressed. Also, winter storms could break the limbs, putting your tenants and property at risk. It’s critical to stop these outcomes in their tracks before they cause costlier damage down the line.

So, hire a professional to inspect and cut any wobbly or dead limbs. It may be tempting to handle this yourself, but removing heavy, huge tree trunks can get dangerous very quickly. Paying for a contractor might seem costly, but a stay at the hospital is far worse.

Another fall maintenance must is trimming the lawn bushes. So, put that on your home maintenance checklist, too.

3. Plant New Shrubs

Fall may be a good time to plant new shrubs. It gives them time to set their roots for the spring before winter comes. So, take this moment to get them ready early.

5. Remove Annuals and Trim Perennials

Help your plants get through the winter by removing failing annuals. Also, let your perennials focus more energy on the roots beneath by pruning them to be shorter to the ground. This way, they can be more resilient in the wintertime.

6. Cover Your Plants with Mulch

By covering your plants with mulch, you insulate your plants from the cold and enrich them with much-needed nutrients. It’s a win-win.

As a fall maintenance tip, if you don’t have mulch on hand, the next best thing would be adding straw or leaves. It may not have the same nutritional value, but it will do the trick.

7. Prevent Frozen Exterior Pipes

Even a tiny amount of water can freeze your pipes. Before winter comes, drain your exterior pipes and hose bibs. Close off valves now so the pipes don’t burst later. Disaster averted!

8. Clean the Gutters

Leaves can quickly clog your gutters. And then they can overflow, causing water to accumulate near the roof and siding. Avoid this outcome by putting gutter cleaning on your home maintenance checklist.

While you’re at it, check to see if the gutters themselves are cracked, leaking, or damaged in any way. This way, you can address any fall maintenance issues there.

9. Rake Up the Leaves

Give the leaves a rake. It’s basic, but it keeps your property looking clean and organized for visitors.

What to Add to Your Fall Interior Maintenance List

Now, let’s get to home maintenance checklist items relating to your property’s interior. Keep these points in mind for your fall maintenance work:

1. Examine Your Doors and Windows

Even small windows or door gaps can cool your property and force your HVAC to pump out more heating energy.

So, check for leaks and cracks in the doorways, windows, attics, and basement. Look for gaps that need caulking or ones whose existing caulking must be repaired.

If you don’t want to caulk your surfaces, simple spray foam might work. Or, you could insulate your attic to protect the rest of the home from the cold. Either way, by checking this step off your maintenance list, you can make your property more energy-efficient.

2. Take a Look at Your Roof

Your roof could harbor missing shingles or damaged roof tiles. Even worse, these could be obscured by leaves and branches, undetected. So, examine your roof for structural issues, like damage, missing tiles, and weak spots, and address them ASAP.

3. Look Over Your Chimneys and Fireplace

If your property has a fireplace and chimney, hire a professional to inspect and clean them. After all, winter is the prime season when people use these features. Leaving them unchecked can build up carbon monoxide and even fires.

4. Maintain Your Furnace or HVAC System

If you have a furnace or HVAC, you should change its filter. You also should hire a professional to handle furnace or HVAC maintenance.

5. Seal Away Pests

Pests can easily slide through your property’s smallest cracks and crevices. Prevent this from happening by sealing cracks all over the house. To do this, you could use steel wool, caulk, or spray foam. Adding this to your home maintenance checklist can fend away these unwanted guests.

6. Look at Your Insurance Policy

As the weather gets colder, the risk of property-impacting power outages or storms grows. So, if you’re a landlord, look over your insurance policy to ensure there are no coverage gaps. After all, you don’t want to find yourself unprotected and unprepared this upcoming season.

7. Get a Snow Service Ready to Run

Your lease agreement will tell you whether the tenant or landlord is on the hook for snow removal. If you’re not, congratulations! You can cross this off your maintenance list.

But if you are, you should get on this as soon as possible. The longer you wait to get a snow service, the harder it will be to find one as demand for them heats up.

8. Test Your Detectors

If you’re a landlord, it’s your job to have and test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. This is especially important as tenants transition from air conditioning to heat. While you’re at it, ensure the fire extinguisher is full and functioning.

9. Examine Your Locks

The cold weather can cause your locks to get stuck. So, make sure they’re working correctly and replace or repair ones that don’t. As a fall maintenance tip, spraying WD-40 on locks can help loosen them so they don’t jam.

Let BMG Northern Virginia Handle Your Home Maintenance Checklist

For your home maintenance checklist, you must take care of both your exterior and interior fall maintenance alike. Your maintenance list should include looking at your roof, gutters, pipes, and more. With a little tidying up now, you can eliminate headaches later.

However, if you look at all these home maintenance checklist items and feel overwhelmed, we don’t blame you. Luckily, there’s a solution: property management.

Our property managers can take care of maintenance and repairs on landlords’ behalf. Our professionals apply industry best practices in our procedures. Furthermore, we ensure landlords comply with all health and safety standards. This way, tenants are satisfied, and landlords can rest assured their property has the most up-to-date care possible.

Even better, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We also can handle:

• Tenant customer service
• Lease renewals
• Tenant screening
• Accounting
• Inspections

…and more! So, contact us today to learn more about our rental listings and services!