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With a rental property comes repair calls, on a holiday weekend and always after 5PM on Friday. At least that's my experience. You will want your "to go" list of repair people before you need them. You don't want to be scrambling for a plumber when the sewer line backs up. Now that's ugly and pestilous. In Arizona, landlord has 48 hours to repair a broken air conditioner. Check with the laws in your state and be sure you follow them to the letter. Your A/C person may know an electrician, your plumber may be friends with a handyman. Ask for referrals, it's the best way to not be overcharged.
My favorite tenant pet peeve is when they tell me an item's been broken or acting up for weeks, but choose to contact me after 5PM on Friday. If it is NOT an emergency, I will send someone out the following week. If they request it be fixed before that, tenant is charged for overtime. Of course, this begs the question: what is an emergency?? A tenant last week felt a broken garage door was an emergency...really she did. I soooo wanted to ask her if her kid's arm were broken and the bone were protruding out of his arm, would that also constitute an emergency? There is only one definition to emergency and I don't think a broken garage door compares to a broken arm. Only in Scottsdale do you get these kinds of tenants.
Start your "to go" bare bones list with the following repair people: Air conditioning contractor, licensed and bonded; plumber also licensed and bonded; electrician, licensed and bonded; appliance repair company (I use B & B Appliances in Phoenix, they are great); a great handyman, doesn't need to be licensed and can also do small plumbing jobs. As you amass more rental homes, consider adding the following to your list: flooring person; pest control company (to remove pesky squirrels from dryer vents); garage door repair company who will promptly go out to an "emergency" call; professional roofer; yard and pool maintenance personnel.
But again, not to sound redundant, why not just hire a professional property manager and let me make the phone calls, coordinate appointments and follow ups? No hassle, no worries for a small fee. It's more than worth it!
