Property management is unusual in this guide because some of what you send has legal significance. A maintenance update is just communication. An entry notice or a rent demand may have statutory requirements about form, timing and delivery method that a text message does not satisfy.
A text is usually not legal notice
Most jurisdictions specify how formal notices to a tenant must be delivered — written, posted, hand-delivered, sometimes with a minimum notice period. A text is a courtesy heads-up alongside that, never a replacement for it. Check your local requirements before you rely on any of this. Not legal advice.
Use it for the three things it is genuinely good at
- Maintenance triage. A tenant photographing a leak and texting it beats a voicemail describing it, every time. You can often diagnose from the photo and send the right trade first go.
- Contractor coordination. Access windows, who is coming, when they arrived. This is the same arrival window problem home services have.
- Courtesy rent reminders. A few days before due, friendly, with a payment link. Most late rent is forgetfulness, not distress.
export const property = { maintenanceAck: (c: Ctx) => `${c.company}: got your report about ${c.issue} at ${c.unit}. ` + `${c.urgency === "emergency" ? "Treating this as urgent — someone will call you shortly." : `We'll book a trade and confirm a time by ${c.byWhen}.`}`, contractorVisit: (c: Ctx) => `${c.company}: ${c.trade} is booked for ${c.dayDate} between ` + `${c.windowStart} and ${c.windowEnd}. Formal entry notice sent separately.`, rentCourtesy: (c: Ctx) => `${c.company}: friendly reminder that rent is due ${c.dueDate}. ` + `${c.link} — reply here if anything's come up.`,};“Reply here if anything's come up” surfaces problems early
A tenant in temporary difficulty who feels able to say so is a tenant you can arrange something with. One who feels chased goes silent, and silence is how a late payment becomes an arrears case. This is the same dynamic as invoice collection.
Log everything against the unit
Every maintenance conversation should attach to the property, not just the tenant. When a tenant moves out and the next one reports the same damp patch, the history is the difference between a recurring mystery and a known problem with a paper trail.
Emergencies need a real path
Do not let a text thread be the only route for a burst pipe at midnight. Publish an emergency number, say plainly in your templates that texts are monitored during office hours, and make sure the automated acknowledgement points urgent cases at the phone. A tenant waiting on a reply while water comes through a ceiling is a failure you cannot explain away.
Next step
Browse the other industry playbooks, compare the services that can send this on the providers page, or tag your links with the UTM builder.