How to get and keep a good maintenance person

[Angela Jossy]

As I prepare to make my second real estate purchase, I need to find reliable help. This was one of the hardest lessons from my first purchase. The stress of using unreliable friends and friends of friends was unbearable. What sort of parameters do you set up when you hire someone to do little remodel jobs and/or be your on-call maintenance person should something go wrong with the rental property? I don't have enough properties to hire someone on salary. I'd probably need them a lot when I first buy it (depending on the property needs) and then  only occasionally. How do I secure a person to be there for us when we need it? Also, if its an individual and not a company, do you ask them to do a drug test? I ended up with 2 alcoholics, a drug addict and one guy who just disappeared and we suspect he might have been undocumented. This is one area I REALLY need to improve on. Any advice or referrals would be appreciated. I want to be fair to the person and also know I can rely on him/her. 

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Angela Jossy:

As I prepare to make my second real estate purchase, I need to find reliable help. This was one of the hardest lessons from my first purchase. The stress of using unreliable friends and friends of friends was unbearable. What sort of parameters do you set up when you hire someone to do little remodel jobs and/or be your on-call maintenance person should something go wrong with the rental property? I don't have enough properties to hire someone on salary. I'd probably need them a lot when I first buy it (depending on the property needs) and then  only occasionally. How do I secure a person to be there for us when we need it? Also, if its an individual and not a company, do you ask them to do a drug test? I ended up with 2 alcoholics, a drug addict and one guy who just disappeared and we suspect he might have been undocumented. This is one area I REALLY need to improve on. Any advice or referrals would be appreciated. I want to be fair to the person and also know I can rely on him/her. 

 Sounds like you're running into a wall here. Reason is, you are trying to hire an employee but your business isn't big enough to sustain an employee. What you need to do is work with a reputable contracting company. Not a mom & pop but a big time company with professional ads, marketing, administrative staff etc....Let them handle all the nonsense and churn that is natural in the construction trades. 

If one day you get to a large enough scale you can move into that role and get yourself your own employees to increase your margins but right now it's just a waste of time. Any cost savings you receive on these random one off jobs will be off set by the lost time and resources you're currently going through as this is the normal churn in the construction industry.