Breakdown of leadership of tenants in a STR

[Paul Sandhu]

Back in January I had 5 guys move in to a STR. They are refinery contractors whose primary language is Spanish. 1 guy was the superintendent. He estimates jobs for the refinery and makes bids on them for the rest of the crew to do the work. There was enough work to last a year. He was the leader. I invited him to my house to shoot guns and drink beer. I made him happy.

I need to keep the leader happy, because the rest of the people in the crew will do what the leader wants.  It was all good until he was transferred to another refinery.

Guy #2 is my next emergent leader.  He's a short tempered butt.  But I keep him happy.  He keeps the other guys in line and collects all the rent for me from the other guys.  

He found a short term senorita girlfriend to stay with and moved out of the house.  Now I'm left with 3 guys that are not leader types and I have trouble communicating with them.  They are grumbling about the rent, even though I'm giving them a discount.  There is a mobile home park .5 mile away where they could stay for about half the money, but no washer/dryer, no full kitchen, no wifi, no smart tv, or individual rooms.

What would you suggest I do to keep these guys in my STR and keep them happy?

[Mike Reynolds]

Originally posted by @Paul Sandhu:

Back in January I had 5 guys move in to a STR. They are refinery contractors whose primary language is Spanish. 1 guy was the superintendent. He estimates jobs for the refinery and makes bids on them for the rest of the crew to do the work. There was enough work to last a year. He was the leader. I invited him to my house to shoot guns and drink beer. I made him happy.

I need to keep the leader happy, because the rest of the people in the crew will do what the leader wants.  It was all good until he was transferred to another refinery.

Guy #2 is my next emergent leader.  He's a short tempered butt.  But I keep him happy.  He keeps the other guys in line and collects all the rent for me from the other guys.  

He found a short term senorita girlfriend to stay with and moved out of the house.  Now I'm left with 3 guys that are not leader types and I have trouble communicating with them.  They are grumbling about the rent, even though I'm giving them a discount.  There is a mobile home park .5 mile away where they could stay for about half the money, but no washer/dryer, no full kitchen, no wifi, no smart tv, or individual rooms.

What would you suggest I do to keep these guys in my STR and keep them happy?

You have been doing the right thing. The dynamics of a road warrior construction crew is just exactly like you say. The leader either keeps them in line or he doesn't. I speak from experience as I am a road warrior superintendent currently not on the road. Sometimes there is no easy answer and you just need to cut your losses. Not everyone is cut out to be a leader and it seems your current guy isn't. 

I learned the hard way on the Hispanic rules. One leader I had working for me was lazy so my father fired him. He asked  "Are you sure you want to do that?" Well yes he did. He left and thirty guys walked out the door behind him. Just like that. We were framing a large apartment in New Orleans.  Took three days to get another crew and two weeks to get the proper dynamic back.