Maintenance & repairs
A PM handles roughly 40 requests a month per 100 doors. Reading, classifying, and deciding urgency manually takes ~10 minutes each; AI triage cuts that to ~2. That's ~5 staff-hours a month per 100 doors back (over $2,000/yr at $35/hr) — and a genuine emergency surfaces in seconds instead of sitting in a queue. Indicative figures; every portfolio differs.
The single biggest time-drain in residential property management is maintenance. PMFriend turns that into a clean assembly line.
The before-and-after
Before PMFriend
Tenant texts you a photo of a leaking dishwasher. You read it on the bus, plan to action it later. You forget. The tenant texts again two days later, less polite this time. You call three plumbers. Two don't answer. The third can come Friday. You text the tenant. The owner texts you asking what's happening. You'd forgotten to tell them. The plumber arrives, the cost is over your owner's threshold, the owner needs to approve it, you have to chase that. Time spent: ~2 hours scattered across 4 days.
After PMFriend
Tenant submits the issue via the report page (link on the fridge sticker). It lands in the maintenance inbox with a photo. AI suggests "Plumbing / Urgent" — you accept in one click. Three plumbers ranked by relevance — you pick Watertight. AI drafts the work-order scope; you bump the budget ceiling; click Send. Plumber gets a magic-link, accepts, books in. Tenant + owner both see status updates automatically. Friday afternoon: it's fixed. Time spent: ~8 minutes total.
What the AI does for maintenance
When a maintenance request lands, PMFriend's AI suggests four things in about two seconds:
- Category — Plumbing, Electrical, Appliance, Structural, Pest, Cleaning, Smoke alarm, Pool, Other.
- Urgency — Emergency / Urgent / Normal / Low.
- Likely causes — short list typical for AU rentals.
- Suggested actions — 2-3 next steps the PM should take.
💡 Real-life example: Tenant submits "water under the kitchen sink, dripping when I run the tap". The AI suggests Plumbing / Urgent, lists likely causes (loose drain trap, cracked S-bend, failed cold-water inlet), and suggests "1) ask tenant to place a bucket and not run the tap, 2) dispatch plumber within 24h".
You can accept, edit any field, or override entirely.
How tenants submit
Three channels, all flowing into the same inbox:
- The web form —
pmfriend.com/r/<token>link on a fridge sticker. No login. Tenants can attach up to 3 photos. - The tenant app — coming soon.
- Manually by the PM — tenant called, PM types it in.
Photos help the AI
When a tenant attaches a photo on the web form, the AI reads it alongside the text. A vague report like "there's a leak in the bathroom" becomes a confident triage decision once the AI can see whether the photo shows a slow drip or a flooded floor. Photos appear as a thumbnail strip in the inbox so you can verify at a glance before dispatching.
SLA tracking
Once triaged, PMFriend starts an SLA clock based on urgency:
- Emergency — 2 hour target
- Urgent — 24 hours
- Normal — 7 days
- Low — 30 days
The dashboard shows breached / about-to-breach / on-track. Sort and filter the list by SLA bucket.
Duplicate detection
When the same problem's reported twice (often phone + web form), the AI flags potential duplicates so you don't dispatch two plumbers.
💡 Real-life example: Tenant calls Sarah at 9am about a faulty oven. Sarah types it in. At 10am the same tenant submits via the web form because they're worried Sarah forgot. PMFriend recognises the duplicate and shows Sarah the link rather than spawning a new ticket.
One-click contractor dispatch
PMFriend ranks your contractors by:
- Trade match
- Recent activity at this property
- Insurance status (expired = pushed to bottom)
- ⭐ Preferred flag
- Past job rating
Pick one, the AI drafts a scope, you set a cost ceiling, hit Send.
What stays in your PMS
PMFriend handles the workflow. Trust accounting, owner statements, BSA record-keeping all stay in PropertyMe / PropertyTree / Console.