From Hurricane Irma to Hurricane Ian, the lessons that shaped how Rentifi prepares for storms, communicates with residents, and manages Southwest Florida rental properties when everything changes.
Four years ago today, Southwest Florida changed.
On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall near Cayo Costa as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. The wind was devastating. The storm surge was catastrophic. And for those of us who live and work here, the destruction playing out was not happening somewhere else.
It was our neighborhoods. Our homes. Our residents. Our owners' properties. Our community.
Hurricane Ian's storm surge in Southwest Florida on September 28, 2022. Photo shared with our team during the storm.
For our property management team, Ian wasn't our first major hurricane. Five years earlier, Hurricane Irma had already taught us lessons we hoped we wouldn't need again. We did.
Hurricane Irma: Our First Major Test
In September 2017, Hurricane Irma was approaching Florida, and our team was preparing for what could happen to the homes under our care.
When you're a property manager, preparing your own home is only part of hurricane preparation. There are also residents preparing their families and property owners, many of them hundreds or thousands of miles away, wondering what is happening with theirs.
Before Irma arrived, our team communicated with residents and owners about preparations and what they could expect from us after the storm. We also warned owners that once the storm arrived, communication might become extremely difficult.
That turned out to be true. Power went out. Cell service became unreliable. Fuel was difficult to find. Roads were obstructed. Contractors were overwhelmed.
So after the storm passed and it was safe to get back on the roads, we divided our portfolio geographically and went out. Property by property. Neighborhood by neighborhood.
We checked on residents, assessed visible damage, took photographs, documented what we found, and tried to get information back to owners who could do little more than watch Southwest Florida on the news and wait.
Olivia Kaplan, one of Rentifi’s owners, had evacuated for Hurricane Irma. When she returned to Southwest Florida, she went straight to work checking properties.
She checked her own home last.
Not because her home didn't matter, but because eventually she could physically see it herself. Many of our owners couldn't.
Irma taught us a lot about managing rental properties through a major hurricane. Five years later, Ian would test every one of those lessons.
Then Came Ian
By September 2022, hurricanes weren't new to our team. But Hurricane Ian was different.
As the storm moved into Southwest Florida, some of the first information we received wasn't from contractors, inspectors, or insurance companies. It came from our residents.
Storm surge outside a resident's window during Hurricane Ian. Photo shared with our team during the storm.
Residents began sending photographs and videos of what was happening around them. Water was not simply pooling in streets. It was surrounding buildings. It was rising against homes. And in some places, it was coming inside.
Floodwater rushing through a building during Hurricane Ian. Photo shared by a resident.
Seeing those images in real time was terrifying. These weren't pictures on the news. These were people we knew. People living in homes we managed.
And while Ian was still moving through the area, there was not much anyone could do except make sure people were safe and wait until conditions allowed us to begin understanding the damage.
When the Storm Passed
Once it was safe enough to begin assessing properties, we started seeing what Ian had left behind.
The damage was not uniform. One property might have relatively minor damage while another, just a short distance away, had suffered catastrophic loss.
We found missing shingles and sections of roofing.
Roof damage discovered during post-Ian property assessments.
We found trees down and landscaping destroyed. We found fences, lanais, and pool cages ripped apart.
One of the Rentifi-managed properties assessed after Hurricane Ian.
We found water intrusion and flood damage. And we found homes where the damage went far beyond something that could be solved with a quick repair.
Interior damage following Hurricane Ian.
Sometimes one photograph could tell you exactly how high the water had gotten.
The flood line left behind after the water receded.
Those inspections were only the beginning. Because identifying the damage and getting it repaired are two very different things after a major hurricane.
Property Management Changes After a Hurricane
Under normal circumstances, if a rental property needs a roofer, electrician, plumber, restoration company, or other contractor, you make a phone call. After Ian, thousands of people were making that same phone call at the same time.
Contractors were overwhelmed. Materials were scarce. Insurance companies were inundated with claims. Cell service was unreliable. Some roads remained difficult or impossible to access. Gasoline could be difficult to find.
And many of the vendors and property management professionals trying to help other people were also dealing with damage to their own homes.
Meanwhile, an owner sitting hundreds or thousands of miles away understandably wanted an answer to one very simple question:
Is my property okay?
Sometimes we could answer immediately. Sometimes we couldn't.
And one of the most important lessons both Irma and Ian taught us is that managing properties through a hurricane isn't only about repairing buildings. It's about communication and expectations.
Owners need honest information, even when the answer is, "We don't know yet." Residents need guidance. Damage needs to be documented. Vendors need to be coordinated. Insurance claims may need information. Repairs have to be prioritized based on urgency, safety, habitability, and available resources.
All while the entire community is trying to do the exact same thing.
Behind Every Property Was a Person
It's easy to look back at hurricane photographs and focus on the damage. The collapsed pool cage. The missing roof. The water line. The destroyed furniture.
But four years later, that's not really what stands out to us. It's the people behind those photographs.
The resident sending us pictures while water was rising outside. The owner staring at a phone from another state waiting to hear whether their property was still standing. The contractor answering calls while dealing with damage at their own house. The employees checking rental properties while wondering what they were going to find when they finally made it home. And neighbors helping neighbors because there simply were not enough resources to go around.
Flooding remained throughout Southwest Florida neighborhoods after Hurricane Ian.
That's the part of property management that doesn't fit neatly into an owner portal or monthly statement.
Why Being Local Matters
Technology has changed property management tremendously. A hurricane has a way of reminding you of technology's limits.
You can't move a fallen tree with an app. You can't tarp a roof through an owner portal. And when cell towers and power go down, sometimes property management becomes very old fashioned very quickly.
You get in the car. You drive to the property. You take pictures. You knock on the door. You check on people. You document what you find. And then you move on to the next home.
That was true after Irma. It was true after Ian. And it is one of the reasons being a truly local property management company matters so much to us.
Southwest Florida is not simply a market where Rentifi operates. It is our home too.
Storm damage at a Southwest Florida property following Hurricane Ian.
Four Years Later
Four years have passed since Hurricane Ian made landfall.
Southwest Florida has rebuilt an extraordinary amount since September 28, 2022. Homes have been repaired. Roofs have been replaced. Businesses reopened. Trees grew back. New families moved in.
But anyone who lived here during Ian remembers.
And anniversaries like today aren't really about telling people how well we handled a hurricane. They're a reminder of what property management looks like when things aren't easy.
Anyone can manage a property when the rent comes in, nothing breaks, and the Florida weather looks like the postcard everyone moved here for. The real test comes when things go wrong.
Hurricane Irma taught us how important preparation and communication are. Hurricane Ian taught us just how far those lessons could be tested.
Both reinforced something that has remained at the heart of how we operate:
Property management is ultimately about taking care of properties and the people connected to them when they need you most.
We hope Southwest Florida never experiences another Hurricane Ian. But we also know where we live.
So we prepare. We communicate. We build relationships locally. And when the storm passes, we get back to work.
Because this isn't just where we manage properties. This is home.
The photographs in this article show actual Southwest Florida properties managed by our team or were shared directly with us by residents during and after Hurricane Ian. We are grateful to the residents who documented what they were experiencing and allowed our team to see conditions when reaching properties ourselves was not yet possible.
Rentifi Property Management
Local. Family-owned. Southwest Florida property management.
