Maintenance Done Right.
Documented. Without Markups.
Maintenance is the lever that protects your cash flow. Slow response loses tenants, sloppy work costs you twice, and surprise invoices erode trust in your management. We've built our maintenance operation to fix all three.
Licensed Florida Brokerage · CQ1068457 · Serving Orlando & The Space Coast
The Five Questions Every Owner Asks. We Answer Each One On This Page.
When you're evaluating a property manager, here's what actually matters. Anything else is noise.
How fast do you respond?
Emergency, urgent, and routine all have specific time commitments. We publish them.
Read moreWhat gets fixed without my approval?
A clear dollar threshold. Above it, you're called with a quote and recommendation before any work proceeds.
Read moreWill I get billed for cheap fixes that don't last?
Every vendor we use is licensed in Florida, insured to a stated minimum, and vetted by us — not the other way around.
Read moreWill my management company mark up repairs?
No. We don't profit on maintenance. Vendor invoices pass through to you at cost.
Read moreDo you actually understand Florida properties?
Hurricane prep, A/C in summer heat, salt-air corrosion, lanai and pool cage, septic, mold prevention. Built for Brevard and Orlando, not 'all 50 states.'
Read moreFrom Tenant Request To Fix To Your Inbox
Tenant Submits
Tenants submit maintenance requests through the tenant portal at any hour. Photos and videos are required for non-emergencies so we can triage accurately the first time. The exception: anything truly urgent — flood, fire, no A/C in summer, no heat in winter, gas smell — comes in by phone at the 24/7 tenant emergency line.
Sea Dog Triages
A licensed Sea Dog team member reviews the request within our published SLA window. We classify it as Emergency, Urgent, or Routine and decide whether the work is within our owner-approved threshold or needs your authorization first.
Vetted Vendor Dispatched
We dispatch from a curated network of Florida-licensed, insured contractors we've worked with for years. For most issues we know who to send before we hang up the phone. Each vendor knows our standards — show up on time, document, fix it right the first time, communicate.
Documented Work + Honest Invoice
The vendor completes work and submits a photo-documented invoice. We review for accuracy and pass through to the owner statement at cost — no markup, no kickback. For urgent quotes that exceeded the approval threshold, you've already approved the cost in writing.
Owner Sees Everything
Within 24 hours of completion, the work order appears in your owner portal with photos, the invoice, and a written summary. You can scroll back through years of history any time. We don't hide what happened — we want you to see it.
Tenant Submits
Tenants submit maintenance requests through the tenant portal at any hour. Photos and videos are required for non-emergencies so we can triage accurately the first time. The exception: anything truly urgent — flood, fire, no A/C in summer, no heat in winter, gas smell — comes in by phone at the 24/7 tenant emergency line.
Sea Dog Triages
A licensed Sea Dog team member reviews the request within our published SLA window. We classify it as Emergency, Urgent, or Routine and decide whether the work is within our owner-approved threshold or needs your authorization first.
Vetted Vendor Dispatched
We dispatch from a curated network of Florida-licensed, insured contractors we've worked with for years. For most issues we know who to send before we hang up the phone. Each vendor knows our standards — show up on time, document, fix it right the first time, communicate.
Documented Work + Honest Invoice
The vendor completes work and submits a photo-documented invoice. We review for accuracy and pass through to the owner statement at cost — no markup, no kickback. For urgent quotes that exceeded the approval threshold, you've already approved the cost in writing.
Owner Sees Everything
Within 24 hours of completion, the work order appears in your owner portal with photos, the invoice, and a written summary. You can scroll back through years of history any time. We don't hide what happened — we want you to see it.
What "Fast" Actually Means
The 2026 Buildium and NARPM industry report names slow maintenance response — anything beyond 48 hours for non-emergencies — as the #1 driver of tenant non-renewal. Each turnover costs a Florida landlord roughly $2,000 to $5,000. So the speed of our response isn't a marketing line. It's a financial commitment we make to your bottom line.
| Priority | Examples | Sea Dog Response |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency | Active flood or burst pipe, fire, gas smell, no A/C above 85°F, no heat below 50°F, sewage backup, lockout, electrical sparking | Tenant call returned within 30 minutes. Vendor dispatched within 2 hours. Owner notified the same day. |
| Urgent | Refrigerator failure, no hot water, single-room A/C failure, plumbing leak (contained), garage door stuck, broken window with security risk | Triaged within 4 business hours. Vendor on-site within 24 hours. |
| Routine | Minor leaks, appliance quirks, cosmetic issues, tenant-reported wear, scheduled servicing | Triaged within 1 business day. Work scheduled within 3–5 business days. |
Florida is a notice-of-cooling state. If a property has air conditioning, the landlord must maintain it once provided. We treat A/C failures with the urgency Florida law and Florida summers demand.
What Gets Fixed Without Your Approval — And What Doesn't
Sea Dog handles repairs under $400 without owner approval.
Anything over $400 — or anything that's structural, capital, or replacement — gets a phone call to you with a written quote, our recommendation, and any alternatives, before work proceeds.
The $400 threshold is set in your management agreement and is fully adjustable. Some owners want it lower (every dollar approved). Some want it higher (just handle it up to $1,000). It's your call. We default to a number that keeps small fixes from becoming a delay-and-approval-cycle bottleneck while keeping you in the loop on anything material.
Why This Matters
The $400 default exists for one reason: tenant retention.
A leaky faucet, a stuck garbage disposal, a failed exhaust fan, a torn screen — these are the small frustrations that, left for a week while we wait on email approval, push otherwise good tenants to renew elsewhere.
Every owner we've worked with has the same priority list at the end of the year: a fully occupied property with a quiet rent roll, fewer turnovers, and no surprise capital expenses. This threshold serves all three.
Every Vendor Vetted. Every Time.
The fastest way for a property manager to lose owner trust is to hand the property to an under-qualified handyman who fixes the symptom but leaves the cause. The slow way is mediocre vendors with mediocre insurance. We don't do either. Our vendor list is curated, audited annually, and held to standards Sea Dog publishes — not "industry standard," not "we trust them."
Florida Licensed, Verified Annually
Every plumber, electrician, HVAC tech, roofer, and general contractor on our list holds a current Florida license verified at myfloridalicense.com. We re-verify every January.
Minimum $1M General Liability
Every vendor carries a current general liability policy with a minimum $1 million per-occurrence limit. We hold a Certificate of Insurance on file for every active vendor.
Workers' Comp on File
Vendors with employees carry Florida workers' compensation coverage. Solo operators carry a properly executed exemption. No exceptions — accidents on your property are not your liability.
Background-Checked Where Appropriate
For vendors who routinely enter occupied homes — locksmiths, in-home techs, recurring service vendors — Sea Dog reviews background-check status before adding them to the active list.
Performance-Reviewed Each Quarter
We track on-time arrival, first-fix rate, communication quality, and tenant feedback. Vendors who don't meet our standards get coached or replaced. Quietly. Without disrupting your property.
Local. Not National Subcontractors.
Our vendors are Brevard and Orange County small businesses we've worked with for years. They know your neighborhoods, your HOAs, and your buildings. National-chain dispatch with rotating subs is not our model.
We Don't Make Money On Repairs.
Vendor invoices are passed through to you at cost. We do not mark up parts. We do not mark up labor. We do not collect kickbacks from contractors. The only revenue Sea Dog earns from maintenance is the management fee already disclosed in your management agreement.
If we ever do this wrong, your management agreement gives you the right to audit. We'd rather you never need to.
Q: How do I know?
A: Your owner portal shows the original vendor invoice attached to every work order. You can pull receipts any time.
Q: Why don't you mark up?
A: Because every dollar we add to a repair is a dollar you eventually recover by raising the rent — which costs you a tenant renewal. Bad math.
Q: What about emergency response?
A: Same answer. The vendor's emergency-rate invoice is what you pay. We pass it through.
Real-Time Owner Visibility, Not "Trust Us"
The owner portal is your real-time window into every work order Sea Dog has ever opened on your property. Every entry includes:
- The original tenant request (with photos)
- The classification we assigned (emergency / urgent / routine)
- The vendor we dispatched and their license number
- Time-stamped photos of the work in progress and after completion
- The vendor's original invoice
- Our internal notes on resolution
You can pull any work order from any year, build owner-statement reports, and download annual summaries for your tax preparation. We don't decide what you get to see — you see all of it.
Property
•••• Pelican Way, Cocoa Beach, FL
Priority
Urgent
Vendor
Brevard HVAC · Lic. CAC1819XXX
Documentation
Vendor Invoice
$287.50
Sea Dog Markup
$0.00
Sample owner portal view — your property, your work order history, always available.
Maintenance Built For Florida — Not "All 50 States"
National property management chains run the same playbook from Phoenix to Boston. That playbook fails the moment a tropical storm warning is issued, an A/C compressor seizes in 96°F humidity, or salt air corrodes a coastal condenser coil. We built our program for the actual conditions your property faces.
Hurricane & Storm Preparedness
Pre-season inspection of roof, gutters, exterior items, tree limbs, and storm panels. Tenant communication kit delivered at move-in with hurricane prep instructions specific to the property. During-storm protocol: when we shut off gas and electric on evacuation. Post-storm: tree removal coordination and insurance claim documentation. We flag coverage gaps in your homeowner's policy before storm season — most policies exclude wind/hurricane unless specifically endorsed.
A/C Program
Florida law requires the landlord to maintain A/C once provided. Our program: monthly filter replacement (tenant responsibility under lease, but we audit at every visit), annual pre-summer professional inspection, drain-line flush every six months (algae and sludge build up fast in FL humidity), and pre-summer freon check. Tenants get a single source of A/C information at move-in so they know what's expected.
Mold Prevention
Above 60% relative humidity, drywall, carpet, and wood become mold breeding grounds — and Florida summers run 70%+ outdoors. Our protocol for both occupied and vacant properties is humidity-aware: thermostat set points, climate-control recommendations, lease-required tenant ventilation habits, and quarterly inspection of bathrooms and laundry rooms. We treat mold as a humidity problem, not just a leak problem.
Pool, Spa, & Lanai
Weekly pool service (vendor of record on each managed property), pump-hour standards, chemistry log retention, pre-storm draining and securing protocol, and annual pool cage / lanai inspection — track cleaning, screen tear repair, pool cage anchor integrity, screen door spring tension. Florida pollen and afternoon storms eat screens; we maintain them on a schedule.
Septic Systems
For properties on septic — common in older inland Brevard locations — we maintain a pump-out cadence (typically every 3–5 years per Florida DEP guidance) and tenant education on what should never go down a drain. Septic backups are expensive emergencies; we prevent them.
Coastal & Salt Air
For Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, Merritt Island, and Melbourne Beach properties, salt air accelerates corrosion on A/C condenser coils, exterior hardware, garage door springs, and lanai screen frames. Our coastal maintenance interval is shorter than inland — A/C inspection twice yearly, vent and exterior hardware inspection annually. We've learned this the expensive way; you don't have to.
Why Preventative Beats Reactive — And Saves You 12% to 18%
Industry research consistently shows that properties on a structured preventative-maintenance program incur 12% to 18% lower reactive repair costs over a 5-year horizon than properties that wait for things to break. The math is simple: a $90 annual A/C tune-up prevents the $4,200 compressor replacement; a $200 quarterly attic-and-gutters inspection catches the small leak that becomes a $12,000 ceiling rebuild. Sea Dog's preventative program is included with management — not an add-on charge.
| When | What We Do |
|---|---|
| January | Annual vendor license + insurance re-verification. Annual owner review. |
| March | Pre-summer A/C inspection (filters, drain lines, refrigerant, electrical). |
| April–May | Hurricane-season prep: roof, gutters, trees, exterior items, storm-panel hardware audit. Tenant hurricane-prep communication kit re-sent. |
| June | Summer cooling-system spot checks for occupied homes; mid-season filter audit. |
| September | Post-summer interior inspection (mold, humidity-related issues). Coastal exterior hardware and screen inspection. |
| November | Annual property condition inspection — interior, exterior, photo documentation, owner report. |
| December | Year-end owner statement and 12-month maintenance summary delivered to your inbox. |
| As needed | Pool/spa weekly service. Lawn maintenance per agreement. Septic pump-out per cadence. Pest service per cadence. |
Schedule may shift to align with your specific property type, tenant occupancy, and your management agreement. The principle stays the same — anticipate, don't react.
Frequently Asked Questions
This page describes Sea Dog Property Management's standard operating procedures for property maintenance. The specific terms, including approval thresholds, response-time commitments, vendor standards, and program inclusions, are governed by the executed property management agreement between Sea Dog and each owner. The 2026 Buildium and NARPM industry report cited above is published at narpm.org. Florida law requirements regarding habitability and air conditioning are codified in Florida Statutes Chapter 83 — see leg.state.fl.us for current text. In any conflict between this page and your signed management agreement, the agreement controls.