Successfully Centralizing Maintenance: Unbundling the Maintenance Request and Maintenance Trip

Imagine ordering a burger at your favorite restaurant. Now, instead of getting just the ingredients you want—say, a classic cheeseburger—you’re served a towering monstrosity with every ingredient in the kitchen: extra patties, pineapple rings, mushrooms, a fried egg, bacon, and more sauces than you can handle. Sure, it’s packed with ingredients, but it’s also inefficient, overwhelming, and definitely not what you needed. And guess what? That fully loaded burger is going to cost you $150. ugh.

Now think of this in the context of maintenance. Every time a service trip is dispatched, you’re paying roughly $150 per visit. That’s what happens when maintenance requests and trips are bundled together in property management. You’re served more than what’s needed, paying for inefficiencies like travel time, missed diagnoses, unnecessary visits, and labor that could have been avoided with the right systems in place.

The perfectly priced burger is built with only the ingredients you actually want and need. Similarly, a streamlined, centralized maintenance process gives you only what’s necessary to resolve the issue efficiently. When you unbundle the maintenance request from the trip, you’re left with just the right layers, allowing you to deliver faster resolutions, cut costs, and avoid unnecessary complexity.

What does the Maintenance bundle look like? After 40,000 work orders; this is what we've learned:

1. Request – The resident submits a maintenance request.

2. Triage – The request is assessed to determine its urgency and complexity.

3. Scheduling – Time is scheduled for a technician to visit the property.

4. Vendor Coordination – If a third-party vendor is required, coordination is done.

5. Permission to Enter – Gaining permission from the resident for entry into the property.

6. Travel – The technician or vendor travels to the property.

7. Simple Resolution – The technician tries to address and resolve the issue on-site (could be a simple fix or first attempt).

8. Parts Work – If parts are required, the technician identifies what’s needed, and a second trip is planned.

9. Second Trip – A follow-up visit after gathering the required parts to complete the repair.

10. Complex Resolution – The more complex issue is resolved during the second visit after the parts have arrived.

11. No Show – Potential issues where the technician or vendor fails to show up for the visit, or maybe they can't access the property.

12. Afterhours Work – Additional complexities and costs for work done outside regular business hours.

13. Labor – The technician or vendor performs the necessary labor on-site.

14. Education – After the work is completed, the resident may be provided with instructions or troubleshooting guides for future issues.

15. Report – Documentation of the resolution and final work, submitted for review.

16. Final Review – Ensuring the issue is resolved and reporting the outcome to the property manager or resident.

ugh. I guess this is why it takes $150 / trip & 1.5 trips.

Why Centralized Maintenance Falls Short Without Unbundling

Bundling Slows Everything Down

Bundling requests and trips together means treating every issue—no matter how small—like it’s a major repair. Simple problems, like a thermostat reset or appliance troubleshooting, get thrown into the same workflow as complex repairs, which slows everything down. Your team ends up bogged down with small, easily fixable issues, and residents are left waiting longer than necessary.

Without unbundling, every request automatically leads to a physical trip, making it impossible to prioritize or resolve issues efficiently. That directly undermines what centralization is supposed to achieve: faster, more streamlined workflows and happier residents.

You’ll Watch Your Costs Go Through the Roof

When requests and trips are bundled, you’re sending technicians out for every single issue. That’s a lot of unnecessary labor and travel costs adding up. You’re paying $150 per trip to handle problems that could’ve been solved remotely or even by the resident themselves with a little guidance.

Centralization is supposed to optimize your processes and reduce costs, but when requests and trips aren’t separated, it does the opposite. Technicians spend their time driving between properties instead of focusing on the repairs that truly need their expertise.

Unproductive Travel Time is Killing Efficiency

Windshield time is expensive. When you bundle every request with a trip, you’re locking in a ton of wasted travel time. That’s hours every day where your team isn’t actively fixing anything; they’re just driving around from property to property. This time on the road could be completely avoided if those minor, fixable issues were handled remotely.

Unbundling allows your technicians to be more productive by keeping them on-site for the jobs that actually require their skills.

Your Team Gets Overwhelmed

When every request leads to a trip, your technicians are get overwhelmed--fast. They’re handling small, non-urgent problems, which means they aren’t available when something serious comes up. Your team is stretched too thin, leading to burnout, frustration, and even turnover. Plus, the important repairs—those complex, urgent issues that really need attention—get delayed, which impacts resident satisfaction.

Unbundling: The Key to Unlocking Centralized Maintenance Efficiency

Unbundling the request from the trip is the game changer that lets centralized maintenance actually live up to its potential. Here’s how:

1. Remote Resolution for Common Issues

A large portion of maintenance requests don’t need a technician on-site. Things like resetting appliances or handling basic plumbing issues can be resolved remotely. AI diagnostics, live-guided video support, and simple troubleshooting guides can allow property managers to handle most of these requests in real time, without sending a tech.

Unbundling makes sure that only the complex or serious problems result in a trip, allowing your team to work smarter, not harder.

2. Smarter, More Predictable Technician Trips

When a trip is required, unbundling ensures it’s efficient. AI-generated work orders give your technicians the full picture—they know what parts are needed and what tools to bring before they get in the truck. This cuts down on wasted trips and follow-up visits. Plus, it reduces human error, especially in high-turnover maintenance roles.

By unbundling, you also avoid the common problem of unexpected side promises popping up. When you handle requests remotely first, you triage more effectively, reducing the chances of an unpredictable “to-do list” showing up when the tech arrives.

3. Control Costs and Reduce Risk

Bundling makes it hard to control costs because you’re throwing every problem into the same expensive workflow. Unbundling gives you a predictable resolution strategy: fix simple issues remotely, and dispatch technicians only for the real problems. This leads to lower overall costs, reduced travel time, and more efficient use of resources. And by reducing the risk of side lists and human error, you create a more streamlined, scalable operation.

4. Deflection and Education to Empower Residents

Unbundling doesn’t stop with remote resolutions and optimized trips. When you provide residents with self-service options and educational tools—like troubleshooting guides, bots, how-to videos, and FAQs—you deflect many simple maintenance requests entirely. Residents feel empowered when they can solve small issues on their own, and your maintenance team is freed up to focus on the bigger problems that really need attention.

Why Residents Love This Approach

Unbundling maintenance requests from trips isn’t just great for your team—it’s a game changer for residents. Here’s why they love it. (we see this with an average Net promoter score of 90+)

1. Convenience and Speed

Residents appreciate the convenience of having their issues solved quickly, often without the need for a technician to visit their home. When maintenance can be handled remotely, it eliminates the hassle of scheduling appointments, waiting for a technician, or rearranging their day. They’re also much more satisfied knowing that common problems can be addressed immediately, without the typical 48- to 72-hour wait.

2. Empowerment Through Self-Sufficiency

When residents are educated on how to handle simple fixes themselves, they feel more empowered and less dependent on maintenance teams for every small issue. This empowerment boosts their satisfaction and builds trust between them and property management. They know that the system is working efficiently, and their needs are being prioritized.

3. Clear Communication and Transparency

The unbundled approach also brings transparency to the maintenance process. When residents can see how their issue is being handled—whether it’s a quick remote fix or a detailed work order—they feel more informed and engaged. This level of communication helps build trust and reduces frustration.

The Risk of Centralized Maintenance Without Unbundling

When centralization isn’t supported by unbundling, the system will underperform. The very reasons for centralizing—efficiency, cost savings, and improved resident satisfaction—are compromised.

Slower Response Times and Lower Resident Satisfaction

Residents expect quick solutions, especially for simple problems. When they have to wait 48 to 72 hours for a technician to show up for an issue that could’ve been resolved in minutes, frustration builds. Bundling maintenance requests and trips together makes it impossible to provide fast, effective service.

Unbundling leads to remote resolutions for small issues and faster overall service, which significantly improves the resident experience. We learned this from our product customers, it's the only way.

Operational Strain and Increased Turnover

When maintenance teams are overloaded with unnecessary trips, operational strain builds.

Over time, this leads to burnout, high turnover, and a revolving door of inexperienced technicians. In a bundled system, turnover is especially damaging because it increases the risk of human error—each new technician is learning on the job, making mistakes, and adding to the inefficiency.

Unbundling addresses this by reducing the need for constant technician dispatches and ensuring that when trips are necessary, they’re optimized for success.

Without unbundling the maintenance request from the maintenance trip, centralized maintenance will consistently underperform. The bundling approach leads to slower response times, higher costs, overwhelmed technicians, and a lot of unproductive travel time. Centralization should be a pathway to greater efficiency, but that can’t happen if the process treats every issue the same, bogging down the system with unnecessary trips. And just like that over-the-top, fully loaded $150 burger, it ends up costing you way more than it should.

Unbundling is the only way to unlocking the true potential of centralized maintenance.

It enables remote resolution for common issues, reduces human error through AI-powered work orders, and empowers residents through education and self-service. The result? Faster service, lower costs, and happier residents.