How do you decide whether to DIY repairs or call a handyman?

Question

I just started my first house hack on a duplex in Denver. We live in the 2/1 and our tenants live in the 3/1. I am finding myself in their unit doing routine repairs like fixing the dryer duct, repairing the toilet flush valve, etc. at least 2-3 times per week. Granted, we just purchased the house and filled the 3/1 a lot faster than expected, so some of the prep work and small repairs has yet to be done. Nothing major though. I am sure that I will not be going in there for routine repairs at the frequency I am now for the long-term, however, I would like to avoid spending my time as a handyman altogether to allow for more of my time to be spent finding more deals and funding. So here is my question in a nutshell... how can you avoid doing your own handyman work without spending way more on repairs than necessary? If the answer is “put a handyman on retainer” can someone please give me some basic advice for going about setting up something like that? Thank you BP community!

John Teachout · Answer

That's understandable if you have limited time. So you may want to have access to a handyman to handle some of the repairs but for something minor that you can do in 20 minutes for example...If you don't do it yourself you have to communicate with the tenant to find out when they can give access to the handyman. You have to communicate with the handyman regarding the problem and what they need to repair. You need to deal with the invoice from the repair and not only pay it but do the requisite accounting associated with it. In the long run, you may literally spend LESS time just fixing it yourself regardless of the expenses involved. As you scale and would have commuting time involved getting to the property, then the time savings may not be there but just something to keep in mind.

Matt M. · Answer

@Chris Gomes

I take care of so many properties for so many investors. A “retainer” has never ever come into play. Establish a good relationship, pay them on time, as long as they don’t try and rip you off, just have them take care of the issue and send you a bill.

Luis Espinoza · Answer

Hi Chris,

Congrats on your first house hack!

Do you already have a trusted handyman or group of skilled laborers? If not, I would start working towards that. Ask your realtor, friends, family, fellow investors , etc. in the Denver area if they know people who can do XYZ (or search on BP!). Once you have somebody, start developing a relationship with them. Ask them to come out and quote you on a certain workscope. During that first encounter, I would make it clear to them that you are a real estate investor and that your plan is to purchase more and more properties. If their quality and cost remains competitive, you will continue bringing them constant work. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. Ask if it's ok to call them asking for advice on certain repairs. Those guys are busy. A small job is not worth it to most of them. I will often call my trusted handyman, explain the issue to him, and he will tell me whether it's something I could fix myself (<1hr of labor) or if it's something that's a bigger job and it's better to bring him in. In my experience, that helps with not paying way more for repairs that are pretty minor.

John Teachout · Answer

If you self manage, getting into the property from time to time for repairs is a good thing. Lets you observe potentially troublesome situations.

Chris Gomes · Answer

@John Teachout that is essentially my issue. I work a full-time job as an engineer and work on investing in the evenings and on weekends. I am certainly capable of fixing a lot of things in my house, but I would rather be spending the little extra time I have focusing on the parts of investing that will help me grow my business. Work on your business not in your business is the phrase I’ve heard preached.

Bill S. · Answer

@Chris Gomes so what exactly are you going to be doing with your time that you were using to do the repairs? How is doing the repairs "holding you back" exactly? No I understand the headache and inconvenience of handling those items but realistically is it so time consuming with one unit that you can't fit it in between other activities?

I completely agree with the business hours approach to repairs. At a minimum, only respond during business hours. You can arrange to take care of the work yourself during non-business hours but remember you are setting a precedent. If you do hire a handyman, what hours do they keep (likely 8-5 and weekdays only)? Who meets them between 8 and 5 during the week? If the tenants both work normal hours then what? Are you going to take time off to meet the handyman or does your lease require them to do that? Some folks give their handyman a key and they let themselves in. Would you let a handyman in your own home when you weren't there? If not, don't let them in your tenant's home when no one is there. Many many ways this can go bad.

My advise, do your own repairs as long as you live next door (it's quicker, cheaper, and likely easier). When you move again, then consider the hiring it out route. You might even consider hiring a property manager even for the simple reason that they have the contact for these kind of issues. In reality, your are starting the process of building a property management company once you starting hiring people to do work on the rental. Is that the best use of your time? If not, perhaps hiring the PM right out of the gate might be the way to go. Starting out, unless you have a high demand w2 job. DIY. You can even "pay yourself" so that you are used to seeing the funds leaving the rental business. Your next purchase you will have those costs known and can bake them into the purchase if you desire. That (having the funds earmarked to hire it out) is more the key to growing your business then actually going out and hiring someone to do it. If you didn't buy it with the budget to hire someone else to do it but you hire it out, you will lose money. If you budgeted to hire it out, then pay yourself and perhaps some of that resentment for time away from the actual business of real estate will be more palatable.

Paul Sandhu · Answer

This is what I don't or can't do.  Anything that gets sh!t on my hands, HVAC work that requires refridgerant, electrical work between the panel and weatherhead.  Everything else, I do it myself.  Probably saves me $500 a week on average.  23 STRs.

Jin Kim · Answer

Hello Chris! Congratulations on your first house hack! I think you are on the right steps towards gaining more properties. What I recommend is doing a cost analysis and see how much your time is worth. If you believe hiring someone would be cheaper compared to when you do the job and include your time, I would say hire a handyman. I hirer my handyman to go out and figure out why a certain plug is not working or why something is leaking. But to change an air filter, that is something I do because it is cheaper for me (including my time) to do it rather than hire a handyman.

I also agree with Luis and Matt with establishing a good relationship. The handyman I have does not charge me when I call him to go somewhere to figure out a problem. But at the same time, I have taken good care of him where I have paid him a little extra because he has taken care of me in the past. I treat him more like a friend when I talk to him rather than a worker of mine.

But another thing to consider is since it is your first house hack, you will have to work in your business sometimes. Especially starting off. The end goal is to not work in your business but in the beginning you got to put in work. Hope this helps and good luck! Feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

Jeffrey S Helms · Answer

@Chris Gomes congratulations on your first house hack. I have had a lot of experience with construction over the years and I would say, take care of the things you feel comfortable doing and then ask friends, family members, other investors and agents in your area for names and numbers of people they trust. Meet with them and get to know them and build trust between you both. Let them know you are an investor and you plan on doing more investing in the future and you will need more work done in the future as well. I hope you can find someone who works out for you and you both can build a lasting work relationship. Good luck to your future investing!

Bonnie Low · Answer

It might not help with the current tenant since they already know you're the landlord and they're now used to the convenience of having you next door, but in the future, create a privacy shield and put in some systems to help you screen repair requests. Several property management systems have a repair requests tenants can fill out online. It helps you stay organized, track your repair costs and it makes it a little less convenient for them to hit you up to fix every little thing. And, unless you intend to knock on their door to collect the rent, it's possible to keep your identity a secret from them. They don't need to know their next door neighbor is also their landlord. Again, that cuts down on the convenience and frequency of them just knocking on your door to fix every little thing. It's obviously too late for this one, but in the future those things might help. A good property management company will have a handyman available to handle repairs, but it WILL cost you. So it's really just a time vs. money tradeoff.

How do you decide whether to DIY repairs or call a handyman?

Most Popular Reply