How much should you hold in reserve per rental unit?
Hold enough per unit to cover a routine repair without a funding request. RL Property Management requires $350 to $1,500 per unit depending on plan. A 2-hour in-house repair is $183 on a weekday and $519 on a Sunday.
The short version
- RLPM holds a reserve of $350 to $1,500 per unit, by plan
- The reserve stays your money and is returned when management ends
- In-house labor is $84 per hour plus a $15 trip charge, 2026 rate
- No minimum charge on maintenance work, and materials are provided at cost
- A 2-hour repair runs $183 on a weekday and $519 on a Sunday
- Vendor project management is 15% of vendor cost up to $3,000, capped at $450
- Rebuilding a $1,500 reserve over twelve months is $125 a month
- Median 6 days to close a repair across the portfolio
What is a maintenance reserve, and what is it not?
A maintenance reserve is a working float held per unit so a repair can be authorized and completed without waiting on a funding request. It is not a capital budget. Owners who confuse the two end up with a healthy float and no plan for the furnace.
The working reserve
Held on your account, per unit. RL Property Management requires $350 to $1,500 per unit depending on the plan. It covers the repairs that arrive this month. It stays your money and it is returned when management ends.
The capital budget
A monthly set-aside you hold yourself, for the components that fail once a decade: roof, furnace, water heater, service panel, sewer line. It is sized from real replacement quotes on your specific property, not from a rule of thumb.
The reserve amount is set by plan.
How do you calculate a maintenance reserve?
Start with the largest repair you want handled without a phone call, and hold at least that much. On our plans the per-item repair approval limit and the reserve are the two halves of the same decision: the limit says what we can authorize, and the reserve is what funds it.
Three lines, in order
- The float. The cost of one to two routine repairs at your manager's published labor rate. Ours is $84 an hour plus a $15 trip charge, so a 2-hour job is $183 before materials.
- The refill. The float divided by twelve, set aside monthly out of your disbursement. $1,500 divided by twelve is $125 a month.
- The capital line. For each major component, a real replacement quote divided by the months you expect it to last, summed. This one is yours to build, because it depends on the age of your specific roof and furnace.
Lines 1 and 2 are operating money. Line 3 is capital. Keeping them in separate columns is what stops a busy repair year from quietly eating the roof fund.
We do not publish a typical annual repair spend per unit, because we have not published the underlying sample.
What does a routine repair cost?
The same 2-hour in-house job, at each of the three time bands, at our published 2026 rates. Materials are billed at cost on top, and there is no minimum charge.
| When the call comes in | Labor rate | 2-hour total | How it is built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday, normal hours | $84 per hour | $183 | $84 per hour times 2 hours, plus the $15 trip charge. |
| Weekday evening or Saturday | $168 per hour | $351 | Labor at 2x, trip charge unchanged. |
| Sunday | $252 per hour | $519 | Labor at 3x, trip charge unchanged. |
The Sunday row is the argument for a reserve rather than a phone call. A $519 emergency that has to wait until Monday for funding is a resident without heat for a night, and the complaint that follows costs more than the difference between $183 and $519.
What does vendor work cost on top of the vendor?
A project management fee of 15% of vendor cost, applied to costs up to $3,000 and capped at $450 per project. Because it is capped, the fee stops growing on larger jobs.
| Vendor invoice | Project management fee | Total to you | Fee as a share of the job |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $150 | $1,150 | 15.0% |
| $2,500 | $375 | $2,875 | 15.0% |
| $3,000 | $450 | $3,450 | 15.0% |
| $6,000 | $450 | $6,450 | 7.5% |
The fee is waived entirely on property and casualty insurance claim work. Turns run on a separate tiered schedule: $8,000 at 15% is $1,200, $20,000 at 10% is $2,000, $30,000 at 7.5% is $2,250.
What does each reserve level actually buy?
The two ends of our published range, translated into repairs at our own rates and into the monthly amount it takes to rebuild the reserve over a year.
| Reserve held per unit | Weekday repairs at $183 | Sunday repairs at $519 | Rebuild over 12 months | Share of one month's 3 bed rent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $350 | 1 | Under 1 | $29 a month | 20% |
| $1,500 | 8 | 2 | $125 a month | 88% |
The last column uses the $1,708 portfolio median rent for a 3 bed. A $350 reserve is 20% of one month of that rent, and a $1,500 reserve is 88%. It is a one-time float, not a recurring charge, which is why the rebuild column matters more than the headline number.
Across a portfolio
The reserve is per unit, so it scales linearly. This is the working capital a portfolio ties up at each end of the range.
| Units | At $350 per unit | At $1,500 per unit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350 | $1,500 |
| 5 | $1,750 | $7,500 |
| 10 | $3,500 | $15,000 |
| 25 | $8,750 | $37,500 |
It remains your money the entire time. It sits on your account, it is spent only on your properties, and it is returned when management ends.
How do you set your own number?
Six lines. Fill them in once per property and revisit them annually.
- 1.Your manager's hourly labor rate, times two hours, plus any trip charge. That is one routine repair.
- 2.Multiply by two. That is your working reserve floor: enough for two repairs without a funding request.
- 3.Divide the floor by twelve. That is the monthly amount to hold back out of your disbursement to keep it full.
- 4.List your major components: roof, furnace, air conditioner, water heater, service panel, sewer line, windows, flooring.
- 5.For each one, write down a real replacement quote and the months you expect it to last, then divide. Sum the results.
- 6.Add lines 3 and 5. That is your true monthly maintenance number, and it is almost always larger than the one owners carry in their heads.
Line 5 is the one people skip, and it is the one that decides whether a failed furnace in February is an expense or an emergency. Our quarterly inspections exist mostly to give you the inputs for it: what is aging, what is failing, and what should be quoted now rather than replaced under pressure.
Maintenance reserve questions
How much should I hold in reserve per rental unit?
Enough to cover a routine repair without anyone waiting on a funding request. RL Property Management requires $350 to $1,500 per unit depending on the plan, held on your account. At our published rates a 2-hour in-house repair is $183 on a weekday, so a $350 reserve covers roughly 1 of them and a $1,500 reserve covers roughly 8. That reserve is a working float, not your capital plan. Both are explained on this page.
Why does a property manager hold a maintenance reserve?
So a repair can be authorized and completed the same day instead of waiting on a transfer. Without a float, every small job turns into a funding request, and the delay costs more than the repair. The money stays yours: it sits on your account, it is spent only on your property, and it is returned when management ends. Median time to close a repair across our portfolio is 6 days.
What does a repair actually cost?
In-house labor is $84 per hour at the 2026 rate, plus a $15 trip charge per visit, with materials at cost and no minimum charge. After hours multiplies the labor: 2x on weekday evenings and Saturdays, 3x on Sundays. So the same 2-hour job is $183 on a Tuesday morning and $519 on a Sunday.
How is vendor work billed?
At vendor cost plus a project management fee of 15% of vendor cost, applied to costs up to $3,000 and capped at $450 per project. A $1,000 job carries a $150 fee; a $6,000 job carries $450, because the cap has been reached. The fee is waived entirely on insurance claim work.
What is the difference between a reserve and a capital budget?
The reserve is a float for the repairs that happen this month. A capital budget is a monthly set-aside for the items that fail once a decade: roof, furnace, water heater, service panel, sewer line. The reserve keeps the property running. The capital budget keeps a single failure from becoming a forced sale or a HELOC draw. Size them separately and never spend one on the other.
How do I set a capital budget without guessing?
Take each major component, get a real replacement quote from a contractor you would actually hire, estimate the years left on it, and divide the quote by the months remaining. Sum across components and that is your monthly set-aside. It is your own quotes and your own inspection that make the number defensible.
What does it cost to rebuild the reserve after a big repair?
Spread over twelve months, $350 is $29 a month and $1,500 is $125 a month. Most owners top the reserve back up out of the monthly disbursement rather than sending money in, which is the simpler mechanic and the one we default to.
What about turn costs?
Turns are billed on their own tiered schedule rather than the standard project fee: 15% on turns up to $15,000, 10% from there to $25,000, and 7.5% above that. A turn is a planned event, so it is budgeted against the vacancy rather than drawn from the working reserve.
Does the reserve cover pet damage?
It does not need to, up to a point. If an approved pet causes damage beyond normal wear and tear and the cost exceeds the security deposit, we cover the difference up to $4,000. That coverage is funded by a monthly pet administration fee and does not apply to service or assistance animals, because those are not pets.
Last verified September 2026. Reviewed by Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker and CEO.
Labor and vendor rates are the published 2026 rates from the RL Property Management Client Handbook. Repair totals on this page are illustrations of the rate structure applied to a 2-hour job before materials, not quotes for any specific work.
Where to go next
- Vacancy cost calculatorWhat an empty unit costs per day.
- How maintenance worksTriage, approval limits and after-hours response.
- Pricing and the full fee scheduleEvery maintenance charge, published.
- All owner toolsCalculators and the market report.
- Self-managing vs a managerWho coordinates the repair, and what that is worth.
See every maintenance charge before you sign anything
The complete fee schedule is published, including labor, after-hours multipliers, vendor fees and the turn tiers. If a charge is not on that list, we do not make it.