Your Maintenance Strategy for Rentals

[Ehab Shoukry]

Hi all -

I am up to nine SFR rental properties and am starting to get maintenance requests from my residents. Some of them are very minor such as tightening an outlet that has come lose which is a 5 minute fix.

I inherited a maintenance man who does good work but likes to get paid $150 a day whenever I require his services.  This works out well when I need him to change out a couple of window units or do sheetrock repair but to tighten a plug it's not so great.

I'm interested in how folks with multiple properties have agreements in place with their maintenance crews/contractors?  What would be the best approach for me with 9 houses?  I'm not ready to hire a full-time maintenance person.

I was also thinking about buying a home warranty on all the houses as another solution.  I'm open to feedback on that as well.

Thanks,

Ehab

[Bryan N.]

My initial business plan involved me fixing most problems to save money.  But, a couple months ago I got a call about two five minute fixes.  I was smoking a cigar and enjoying my afternoon.  I had a choice to make.  Go over there, troubleshoot, go to Home Depot, fix, go back to Home Depot because I didn't have the right stuff, and then rinse and repeat.  So, while smoking that cigar I called several handymen. $75 dollar charge later it was fixed and I was still smoking my cigar.  Sometimes it's a $150 for the same repair even though I know I can fix it with a couple hours time.  But, for me time is money and time is valuable.  For the cost of the service I'm still enjoying a cigar and not worried about it.  I would rather spend my time relaxing and looking for the next acquisition vice the next leaking sink.