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Author: Mark Ainely | Partner GC Realty & Development & Co-Host Straight Up Chicago Investor Podcast
GC Realty & Development LLC manages over 6,000 rental units across Chicagoland. With all those doors, you can’t help but collect a few battle scars, plus tons of work orders.
Recently, we sat down and counted them. Did you know that between 2022 and mid-2025, we completed over 31,000 maintenance work orders? That’s not a typo. That’s the cost of doing business when you manage properties in a city where the winters freeze pipes and the summers melt patience.
But all those work orders helped us collect tons of data on what it takes to keep rental homes in good working order for tenants.
We crunched the numbers from our work order data and learned a lot. We use what we’ve learned from those lessons to help our clients make better investment decisions.
In this blog, we’ll also share some of what we’ve learned with you.
But it’s not the number of calls tenants make that matters here. It’s what those 31,000 submitted work orders reveal. Because behind every repair ticket is a lesson in tenant experience, property performance, and landlord profitability.
So what did we learn? Here it is, broken down.
Your Building is Always Talking (Are You Listening?)
Top 5 Maintenance Issues by Trade (According to 31,000 Chicago Work Orders)
You Can’t Always Do Everything Yourself
The Real Cost of Delayed Maintenance: Vacancy
How Smart Landlords Use Data to Win
What 31,000 Work Orders Taught Us
Your Building Is Always Talking (Are You Listening?)
Many first-time landlords think the most challenging part is buying the property and placing tenants. Then you sit back and collect the monthly rent check while sipping mai tais on the beach.
Yeah, no. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In reality, the hardest part is keeping a rental property running well.
Once a tenant moves in, your property becomes a living, breathing system. Every appliance, outlet, pipe, and vent factors into the delicate equation. And in Chicago? That equation gets brutal fast.
If you pay attention, you’ll see the signs of potential issues early. But if you don’t listen to the whispers, the building starts to shout its problems at you. Sometimes, the boiler and pipes literally scream.
The winter freeze doesn’t wait for your HVAC guy to have a day that’s convenient in your schedule. The humidity creeps through every gap in your caulking job that you thought was flawless. That older refrigerator really isn’t going to make it through one more tenant before crapping out (and probably leaking all over the kitchen floor). Whatever caused that water spot on the ceiling won’t fix itself.
By the way, those tenants of yours? They're measuring your response time down to the hour.
Conducting regular maintenance cuts down on issues. We’re also strong proponents of conducting periodic check-ins to find and address the minor problems even before your tenants hit Submit on a work order.
Knowing the most common problems tenants report can help determine where to focus your attention during inspections.
Top 5 Maintenance Issues by Trade (According to 31,000 Chicago Work Orders)
We've logged the calls and tracked the tickets. Here are the most common issues tenants reported.
1. General Handyman: The Little Things Are Big
Far and away, fixing random stuff amassed the lion’s share with 10,600+ work orders (nearly a third of all work orders).
Loose doorknobs. Cracked trim. Wobbly screens. Missing or torn window screens. They may not constitute tenant emergencies, but they matter more than you think.
We consider this category of renter annoyances to be tenant experience bombs. That’s because tenants remember how quickly you handled these requests more than almost anything else.
Want longer lease renewals? Fix the little stuff fast. While you’re there, search for other potential problems before the tenants have to send in their next work order.
đŤ Landlord Myth: "It’s just cosmetic." Nope. To the tenant, it’s your standard. Nothing will get you (unfairly or not) labeled a “slum lord” faster than sleeping on fixing minor issues.
2. Plumbing: Water Will Always Find a Way (to Ruin Your Rental)
We logged nearly 5,000 plumbing work orders. Ever notice how water is used as a torture device (Chinese water torture, waterboarding)? It’s also a silent landlord-tenant relationship torture device. One drip at a time or fast and furious, water is sneaky and quickly very expensive.
Outdated infrastructure, deferred maintenance, and tenant education issues quickly translate into repeat plumbing issues that become more expensive each trip.
Common Chicagoland offenders:
Leaky toilets that skyrocket water bills to torturous levels
Vintage pipes in North Side buildings that burst during cold snaps
Clogged drains thanks to creative tenant behavior
đ Landlord Math: One running toilet = up to 200 gallons wasted per day. That’s $60+ a month. Multiply that across units. (Bonus points for toilets running because they’re also leaking and causing structural damage.)
Want to know if your unit’s condition aligns with the rent you're charging? Try our Free Rent Analysis.
3. HVAC: When Climate-Controlled Comfort Becomes Crisis
HVAC systems in Chicago have two main seasons for emergencies: freezing in February and boiling in July.
GC Realty & Development handles more than 2,500 HVAC work orders. Many of those work orders came from tenants without heat or air conditioning at the worst possible times.
In some cases, these were completely preventable emergencies. So what went wrong?
Unchanged air filters clog up
Units without servicing broke down
Prior managers/owners never warned their tenants of their responsibilities or when to report issues
A proper property management plan includes seasonal maintenance and trusted vendors who actually show up. Otherwise, a $120 filter cleaning becomes a $3,500 furnace replacement years sooner.
â ď¸ Winter Warning: In Chicago, heat-related complaints are taken seriously—you could end up with fines and a destroyed tenant relationship.
4. Appliances: Small Failures, Big Impact
Appliances provided as part of lease agreements can silently kill tenant satisfaction. When even one burner on the stove stops working, tenants don’t yell. They simmer. And when the lease renewal shows up, they vanish.
We saw nearly 2,500 calls for:
Broken ovens
Dead refrigerators
Dishwashers with attitude problems
Washers or dryers that don’t wash or dry
If you provide any appliances with your rental unit, your tenants expect them to operate correctly. Appliance issues might not make a mess like plumbing or HVAC, but they absolutely erode goodwill.
If you self-manage your rentals, the costs of servicing or replacing dud appliances can pile up fast. You have to know when to replace worn or upgrade appliances between tenants that offer the best ROIs.
A good tenant placement process should include educating renters on appliance use and spotting units due for upgrades.
4. Electrical: The Hidden Hazard
Electrical problems don’t always make static until they do.
With over 1,300 electrical calls, we saw everything from loose outlets to full-blown breaker panel failures. Many were tied to:
DIY wiring jobs
Old aluminum systems
Overloaded circuits from modern tenant use
If you're acquiring buildings or scaling up, get electrical audits done. It’s one of those things that won't bite you until it does.
đ Inspection Alert: Chicago code compliance is real. Don’t inherit someone else’s shortcut.
You Can’t Always Do Everything Yourself
Many self-managing landlords imagine that they’ll be able to handle every tenant maintenance request themselves. After all, they’re handy and have no trouble solving issues around their own residences.
Ah, but remember that living, breathing system we mentioned earlier? Yeah, you can’t monitor every factor of that equation. Weird things happen, and without proper tenant screening, you can expect weird things to happen more frequently.
https://www.gcrealtyinc.com/tenant-placement
Limitations of Knowledge and Time Constraints
It should go without saying that if you don’t know how to complete a maintenance or repair, don’t do it yourself. Also, be honest with yourself about the time commitment to complete a work order properly. Cutting corners or putting off work until you have time is a recipe for cranky tenants.
Licensed Professionals for Certain Maintenance Work Orders
In some cases, the City of Chicago or specific suburbs require licensed professionals for major construction or renovation work or skilled trades like roofing, plumbing, and electrical work. These require a business license and registration with the State of Illinois. Unless this is your day job, we’re guessing you don’t have these credentials.
Permits and Codes
In addition, sometimes you’ll need to apply for permits or ensure your work is up to local codes. If you don’t know your local codes or when to apply for permits, you could quickly find yourself in the quicksand of violations and fees.
In addition, specific projects for significant structural, plumbing, or electrical modifications require a licensed architect or structural engineer to prepare plans for a permit application.
How Smart Landlords Use Data to Win
You don’t need 31,000 work orders to get smarter. You just need to start paying attention to yours. By using the data you collect, you can make smarter choices. Data helps you anticipate and plan for potential issues before they happen, and screen out problematic tenants before they wreck your rentals. The best investors we work with do these five things:
A good rule of thumb is to budget roughly 1% of the property’s value in maintenance fees. Before you purchase a rental home, make sure you’ve budgeted for maintenance so you’re not surprised by big-ticket repairs. Having the reserves on hand makes it easier to make repairs quickly. Just as importantly, keep up on maintenance so you minimize the costs to begin with.
Charging the right rent is a science. You can’t let your feelings or what you’ve heard others charge their tenants cloud your judgment. While you want to get the highest rent rate to maximize your ROI, you don’t want to charge a rate so high that it repels tenants. Ensure you’re asking the right amount for your unit's condition, location, and amenities. Remember, a vacant property gives you $0 ROI.
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Despite managing 6,000+ doors, GC Realty proudly boasted exactly zero evictions in 2024 for residents we placed. That didn’t happen by luck, though. We worked very hard to minimize the potential for issues before we hand over the keys to an applicant. Anyone with a questionable background or references can cause you tens of thousands of dollars in damage (not to mention headaches). It all starts with a thorough screening process that helps weed out any applicants with red flags.
Download the Chicago Tenant Screening Guide
Addressing over 31,000 work orders over 2 ½ years means you need a robust tracking system. Even if you only own a handful of rental properties, track work orders by category and cost. Recognizing patterns in the orders can help you anticipate where problems may lie and plan for them like you’re a clairvoyant. You’ll know what problems to expect, when they happen, and which vendors to have on speed dial for properties you haven’t addressed this issue in yet.
At the lease signing, clearly instruct tenants on what maintenance is their responsibility. Then, ensure they know how to do those required tasks and remind them that ignorance is not a defence for not conducting basic maintenance tasks. To help GC Realty tenants, we provide a list of common maintenance issue videos right on our maintenance request portal page. Finally, we outline what constitutes an emergency and when to submit a work order for something.
What 31,000 Work Orders Taught Us
If you own investment property in Chicago, understand this: proper maintenance is the silent heartbeat of your portfolio. If you conduct regular maintenance and address repairs quickly, your systems will support tenant retention, boost your reputation, and maximize your profitability. But if you ignore little problems until they become big, unignorable ones, you’ll slowly bleed out (tenants, reputation, and money).
The Real Cost of Delayed Maintenance: Vacancy
Every day you delay maintenance, you're a day closer to losing a good tenant. You’re also a day closer to having a really big problem that a little maintenance would’ve mitigated. Many emergencies can be avoided with a little proactive attention to detail.
Our data showed that properties with reliable maintenance responses (within 48 hours) had 30% higher renewal rates and far fewer legal complaints. That’s not theory or random numbers; it’s straight from our database.
If you manage everything yourself, you might save money… until a boiler breaks, a tenant leaves, or your online reviews tank.
The worst part? You often don’t know it’s happening until it’s too late. These are costs you don’t have to incur as an owner. But you have to pay attention to the signs of potential issues, educate your tenants on when to report small problems, and address them quickly.
If you lost a tenant tomorrow or had to vacate them to solve a major emergency repair, how much would it cost you? Find out by using our vacancy loss calculator.
You Don’t Have to Manage Your Rental Alone
By optimizing our maintenance program at GC Realty, we’ve learned how to gain time, trust, and cash flow. We can show you how we do it so you can benefit from our previous mistakes that got us where we are today.
Whether you need tenant placement, full property management, or just want to see if your rent is on point with a free rent analysis, we’re here to help.
Not because you can’t do it alone.
Because you shouldn’t have to.
Capitalize On Your Team
We’ve shared a lot of information here on investing in real estate locally in Chicagoland. If you live outside the area, it may seem overwhelming for those wanting to invest in the Chicago market. But we really just look at it as a team sport.
Who’s on your investing team? Do you even have a team? GC Realty & Development, LLC has a dedicated team of professionals willing to share decades of experience in all facets of real estate investment. We handle everything from brokerage, leasing, and property management. Whether you hire us or not, we’re happy to provide our resources and expertise.
What gets me up in the morning and keeps me going 12 hours a day is the ability to add value to local area investors in Chicago and beyond! Those who connect with me often hear me say that our goal is to bring value to everyone we come in contact with.
We hope that in return, they will one day hire us for our tenant placement or property management services, refer us to someone they know, or leave a review about our services. We would clearly love all three; however, we’re happy whenever we get the opportunity to help!
Reach out today!
Partner / Co-Host of Straight Up Chicago Investor Podcast
