Maintenance Scaling Options

[Keegan Durment]

Hello everyone!

I am a property manager in Chicago. We currently hire building engineers and pay a monthly fee for them to do maintenance on the building ( go check out maintenance work orders, etc.). The are technically 3rd party contractors and each have their own set of buildings. They are paid about $33/unit/month and it seems like we have to hire outside contractors for most HVAC, plumbing, etc. They also get paid for turnovers, get rehab work, etc., so have a lot going on. We are thinking of hiring in house maintenance to just pay salary (I believe he was offered 60k) with emergency included in it and benefits. I was wondering if anyone has experience with hiring in house instead of contracting and whether or not it generally improved communication and completion of tasks. For reference, we have over 600 units.

I know this is hard to give a really distinct answer on whether or not it is a good choice in our situation, but was curious if anyone has had a similar one and what happened or thought in general.

Thanks!