Maintenance Methodology

Caretaker aims to create a new, more efficient set of practices for maintaining homes. Our maintenance methodology combines the power of software with high-quality, local maintenance service providers to lower maintenance costs. We accomplish this with:

1. Property health tracking: Data about each unit's maintenance status is collected as frequently as possible. Our software connects all of this data to itself which makes it easier to track changes over time and detect issues early.
   • Issues get resolved as they surface and while they're still relatively inexpensive to address, preventing expensive and costly turnovers between tenants. go away because
   • Emergencies service appointments are minimized when root causes are identified before they have a chance to turn into emergencies.
2. Algorithmic issue handling: Technology lets Caretaker's staff more efficiently order, manage, and pay service providers. Programmable service requests and maintenance spending automates a lot of the coordination work that forces traditional property managers to markup maintenance.

Property health tracking

Caretaker works towards collecting data about the physical health of each unit on a monthly, weekly, and even daily basis using mobile, tenant-led inspections, tenant reports, and smart devices for passive data collection. Most health data comes from issues and inspections.

Our process starts by collecting baseline data from property owners, former managers, and current tenants. At least one initial inspection must be submitted by you or your former manager during plan activation. The initial inspection gathers all at-risk areas within the home so they can be tracked going forward. Current or new tenants will also submit an inspection right after they move in.

Unlike inspections, which happen periodically, issue reports were designed to gather as much data as possible about each unit's health over the course of a tenancy. An issue represents anything that must be repaired immediately, will (or may) need to be repaired in the future, or could be done as a discretionary improvement at some point in the future. Issues can be reported at any time by anyone. Creating a new issue is quick and easy, and occupants, contractors, and owners are encouraged to report even the smallest issues so that everything is tracked.

Many issues will build up for a given unit and only some will be resolved with a service appointment. All of the other issues are tracked over time and aren't treated as verified until they have been confirmed during an inspection.

The role of algorithms

Caretaker uses algorithms - another word for "if this then that" rules - to triage and respond to issues. The more these rules are used the more accurately they predict the most efficient way to respond to issue reports. Rules decide two things:

• If an issue warrants dispatching a service provider and, when it does, which provider to order and how much the work should cost.
• What happens to an issue as soon as it's created. It may remain open and outstanding forever, get turned into a service request immediately away, or the occupant may be given instructions for how to resolve it themself.

Once Maintenance is activated, built-in rules for handling discretionary, essential, and emergency issues will take effect.