Single-family rentals continue to attract significant investor interest, but the costs of operating these properties underscore the challenges of managing a geographically scattered portfolio. A new benchmarking study from property services provider Lessen highlights just how expensive and complex repair and maintenance can be for the sector.
Drawing on more than 680,000 work orders and $470 million in spending from 2024, Lessen compiled what it calls the industry’s first large-scale analysis of single-family rental repair costs. The data is based exclusively on the company’s managed services, covering both major and secondary SFR markets. While Lessen notes the findings are not statistically representative of all owners or operators because of the self-selected sample, the report points out that comparable industry-wide data does not currently exist. Costs also vary depending on location and whether landlords use in-house staff or outside vendors.
According to the study, general maintenance emerged as the most expensive category of service calls, covering repairs such as drywall, structural issues and water intrusion. At the 75th percentile, such calls ran $707, with a median of $687 and a 25th percentile of $649. HVAC was the next-priciest category, averaging $622 at the 75th percentile and $597 at the median. Other categories, which can include roofing or smart-home services, followed close behind at $609 and $565, respectively. Plumbing services fell in the $425 to $501 range, while doors and windows cost between $366 and $421. Electrical and lighting work was the least expensive, ranging from $280 on the low end to $343 at the upper quartile. Overall, across all job categories, the median per-call cost landed at $516.
The study also tracked how long it took to resolve service requests. Jobs classified as “other”—ranging widely in scope—took the longest to complete, at a median of 17.2 days and as much as 21.2 days at the 75th percentile. General maintenance required a median of 13.3 days, while door and window repairs averaged 11.6. Electric and lighting calls were solved more quickly, with a median of 8.3 days, as were HVAC and plumbing jobs, which typically wrapped in under a week. Total service times across categories came to a median of 9.6 days.
At the property level, cumulative expenses add up quickly. Annual repair and maintenance costs per house reached $2,612 at the 75th percentile, compared with $1,752 at the median and $1,360 at the 25th percentile. General maintenance again led the pack, costing landlords a median of $582 annually, while plumbing averaged $484. HVAC followed at $271 per property. Smaller recurring costs included categories such as electric and lighting ($84 median), doors and windows ($83) and miscellaneous work ($243).
Lessen noted these figures reflect its own operating system, which bundles services such as management, dispatching and potentially inventory and materials handling. The firm also cautioned that distributions in some spending categories appeared bifurcated—where medians sat closer to lower quartile figures, suggesting that a significant share of service calls fell into higher-cost or longer-duration outliers.
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