Commercial property reports typically focus on occupancy rates, rent collection, and open work orders, but property manager Zach Sanns argues that the most telling indicators of a building in trouble are often found outside those standard metrics. "A report tells you what already happened," Sanns says. "The signs I watch for are the ones that tell you what's about to happen." His approach emphasizes patterns over isolated incidents, offering property owners a forward-looking framework for maintenance and budget oversight.
One key warning sign Sanns identifies is response time drift. Rather than focusing solely on whether a work order is completed, he examines how long it takes to close. "If a repair used to take two days and now takes five, that's worth asking about," he says. "It might be a vendor that's stretched too thin, or a part that's harder to get than it used to be. Either way, it's information." Individually, these delays may seem minor, but aggregated over a quarter, they indicate a building falling behind on its maintenance schedule—a trend that can lead to costlier repairs and tenant dissatisfaction if left unaddressed.
Tenant complaints are another area where Sanns looks beyond the surface. While complaints are routine, the warning lies in where they originate. "If different tenants on the same floor start mentioning the same issue, temperature, noise, water pressure, that's not four separate problems," he says. "That's one problem showing up four times." Property managers who treat each complaint as an isolated ticket may miss a shared system failure, such as HVAC or plumbing, that could escalate into a major repair. By analyzing complaints across tenants, owners can catch underlying issues early.
Sanns also monitors vendor invoices for changes that don't align with the scope of work. "If a service cost is going up and the scope hasn't changed, I want to know why before I approve it again," he says. "Sometimes it's a fair adjustment. Sometimes it's a sign the vendor relationship needs a second look." Similarly, he applies this vigilance to common areas, where unscheduled wear—in lobbies, parking areas, or hallways—represents a budget decision made by default rather than intentionally. "Nobody decided to let that go," he says. "It just didn't get prioritized. That's worth noticing before a tenant notices it first."
For property owners, Sanns recommends a simple habit: track trends, not just totals. "A single number on a report doesn't tell you much by itself," he says. "What tells you something is whether that number is moving, and in which direction." He suggests following repair closure times, the frequency of similar complaints across tenants, and whether vendor costs are rising faster than the work itself. "None of these signs mean something is broken," Sanns says. "They mean it's time to look closer before it is." The goal, he adds, is not to eliminate every small issue but to catch those building toward something bigger while they remain manageable—protecting both tenant relations and the bottom line.
