How to Prepare Residential Properties for the Next Hurricane

Hurricane season is underway and expected to stretch deep into the fall with rising ocean temperatures. Extreme climate events are anticipated to worsen. Hurricanes began ripping across the southern states with an impact that continues reverberating across the country. Hurricane Beryl first touched down in Mexico, driving widespread power outages and swamping areas with flash flooding before dropping to a category one storm—pounding its way through Texas. Beryl caused more than thirty fatalities and cost up to $32 B in damages. 

Typically, six to seven hurricanes form annually in the Atlantic, and usually, only two make landfall in the United States. Unfortunately, the intensity of the cyclones has grown increasingly devastating. And storms now span into mainland regions, hammering cities like Asheville, North Carolina in biblical proportions.  

What does all this mean for residential property managers and owners? 

Hurricane property damage is the most expensive for property owners in Texas and Florida, where home maintenance and repair costs top the national average. Both multifamily and single family residential property managers have a lot at stake during hurricane season. You should consider meeting compliance standards, preventing liabilities, avoiding costly property repairs, and ensuring resident safety to protect your brand reputation and future business growth. 

Prevent post-hurricane fatalities with proper hurricane preparation 

Evaluate equipment before storm seasons approach. A critical example is providing your residents and tenants with recently tested generators to keep HVAC systems running. 

In recent years, the lack of such preparation cost lives, even after the storm passed. Throughout the southern region, residents rely on HVAC systems for survival in the dead of summer. Some Texans and Floridians using poor, portable generators to support their HVAC systems suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning—overwhelming emergency rooms statewide. A Floridian couple died from possible CO poisoning following Hurricane Milton while using a generator that hadn’t been properly tested or prepared before the historical storm rumbled through. 

Communication is key during hurricane season 

Proactive communication with vendors, residents, and tenants is a must. For property owners, your communication should fall into two buckets: First, proactively communicate with your vendors to ensure they will have the flexibility and bandwidth to respond.  And second, reach out to both your tenants or residents in advance and share how they can act to get back into their units or homes sooner. Reinforce that residents and tenants play a key role in preventative maintenance and must work with property managers to coordinate regular testing, repairs, and necessary upgrades or replacements. Residents should be alert and report issues in and outside of their home or unit when they arise, including exterior damage to roofing, tree branches reaching over patio awnings, etc. Exterior issues that may seem harmless to residents at the time can be major safety concerns during hurricane season. 

“Communicating before the storm hits is so critical,” said Josh Swift, President of  Lessen, LLC  Residential. Swift adds that after the storm it’s important to “ensure everyone aligns on what needs to be done as soon as you get back on site to see what has happened and address the critical issues first. At Lessen, we saw over four times the work orders in the weeks following recent storms.” 

Protect your residential properties with breakthrough technologies 

Amidst this sea change of continually ongoing and escalating extreme weather, you and your residents can leverage technology to better navigate the performance, health, and portfolio risks to mitigate threats and bounce back sooner. MFR and SFR property owners and managers who are prepared for potential risk factors at the portfolio and individual asset levels can better tailor weather preparedness plans. Technology can also better prepare residents for potential hazards ahead of storm seasons with regular communications on best practices that help residents flag any problematic factors, structural or otherwise. 

Technology gives stakeholders a glimpse into potential damage areas well-before a weather event. Data-driven technology aligns maintenance, repairs, and environmental metrics and flags properties and assets in the projected storm path, showing where major damages could occur. Projections based on property age, roofing conditions, and open work orders also help you prioritize dire needs. Breakthrough technologies pinpoint the most pressing priorities so your vendors can inspect them and apply necessary maintenance and repairs before and after the storm.

Here’s how Lessen can help

Extreme weather and related work orders are only increasing. At Lessen, hurricane Ian alone tripled work orders from our single family property portfolio to over 30,000 repair tickets. Our fully managed services leverage our One by Lessen technology, enabling you to communicate with vendors at scale and track progress on work orders in real time.  Residential property managers can also empower residents to report and track repairs immediately using a mobile app. Meanwhile, they can view and optimize work order progress and see vendor and technician-generated photos showing progress.

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