Outsourcing Maintenance Requests

[Matthew Irish-Jones]

HI All,

My partners and I own 25+ units.  We are also managing 10 units for others with another 10-20 on the way.  We are struggling with minor maintenance repairs, dishwasher not working, broken lock, toilet clogged etc...  These jobs are too small for any of our contractors so they won't take them.  For the most part we are doing all of these little repairs ourselves but, with our added growth we will not be able to do this much longer.

Other property management companies in the area are charging $25-$35 per hour for maintenance.  We are finding handymen that are $40-50 bucks an hour.  We are not large enough to hire a full time person yet but, too large to handle all of the work ourselves.

Anyone else had this issue?  Any advice would be great.

[Matthew Paul]

The  $40 to $ 50 an hour is cheap in my area .  Honestly if you hire someone in house , buy a van or truck , ladders and misc tools , give them  40 hours a week , pay them around $ 20 an hour for someone who is pretty good add on workmans comp , insurance etc .  It will cost you close to what the handy men are charging . The difference is the handymen you may only need 5 hours a week , the employee will expect a full work week or they will find another job .  Either way you are going to have to spend the money .

With an additional 10 to 20 on the way plus what you have , I would consider hiring a full timer . With that many properties you should be able to keep them busy  40 plus hours a week . And bill out for him