Hire a "Handyman" or sub each Job?

Question

I am about to start a rehab on a duplex I own. I am wondering if I should hire one person/company to do the entire job, or hire out someone separate for each thing. In the past I did the work myself and this will be the first job where I am paying to get everything done. I am thinking I might get better prices if I hire the painter separate then the plumber as well as the job will get done quicker. This is for a real low end rental where cost is a major concern. Any thoughts?

J Scott · Answer

How much do you pay yourself?

Aaron McGinnis · Answer

The questions you need to ask are -

1) How much time do you have to micromanage
2) How detail-oriented are you, as pertaining to the scope of work.
3) How much is your time worth.

Contrary to popular belief, managing even a small job is NOT a simple task. Subs have schedule conflicts, varying personalities, and varying requirements. Often, if a sub walks on the job site and the job isn't ready for the sub (Like the painter left the site dirty and the floor guy doesn't have the time or inclination to clean up), they'll simply leave and you may not get them back for a few days... or worse.

You need to be able to leave EXACT... SPECIFIC instructions for each sub and check behind them and in front of them to make sure that they did what they were supposed to do, and that the site is 100% prepped for the next man in.

This means that you really need to have a functional understanding of what's involved at every step in the process... otherwise, frustration and misery will be your lot in life.

If this is your first or even second rodeo, you might be better off hiring someone to do the management for you, and watching what they do before you try and tackle it yourself.

Word of caution - beware the handyman who claims to be able to do "absolutely everything"... houses are complicated products, and I personally don't trust someone who claims to be a master at every aspect of construction. There is a reason why plumbing, roofing, electrical, etc. are dedicated professions for masters in those fields. Carpentry is the same way... good, skilled carpenters are IMO about the equivalent of Master Degree holders on a job site. Electricians are like PhDs.
The time necessary to learn these crafts is not insignificant, and there are aspects of the job that some people will simply never master (For carpenters, it's usually bastard gables. You know you've got a great carpenter when he can do a good bastard gable.)

Rob Gillespie · Answer

Michael, 
GREAT question. I gotta tell ya though. even if you do use one guy for the entire job, break it into small pieces. These guys get burned out and have a hard time finishing. 
Never let the coin get ahead of the work. If you need any paperwork, I can give you a bunch of contracts for subs.

Good luck!

Des Shei · Answer

THis is something that always gets considered by most investors; but you need to think about what is the value of your time? what is your time worth? I personally don't like GC'ing the job unless it's a small project with a quick turnaround and i'm not very busy. The benefit of having a GC on the project is that you have 1 person to hold liable for cost and schedule; dealing with contractors it's not always pleasant so no need multiplying the effort.  At the end of the day you can do it either way but depending on scope and timeline i'll typically hire a GC.

Justin Pierce · Answer

Hire one general.  It is very hard to find tasks that don't overlap.  You need one person to be responsible for the quality control.  If you hire out each task and the work is crap, well, the drywaller will blame the carpenter, the painter will blame the drywaller etc.  License and certainly INSURANCE is a huge issue as well.  One point of contact makes it much easier to keep yourself covered and legal.

Mark Coulet · Answer

i do most of the work myself, i can do it in a quarter of the time, the quality is good, and don't have to worry about other people.  the more involved or skilled jobs can be hired out

Kyle Meyers · Answer

I managed most of a major rehab myself, hiring all the subs. I got kind of tired of all of them telling me that their part of the project wasn't done because the other sub hadn't finished something, etc. I found a great GC while I was doing that rehab and I have called him for almost every project, big or small, since then.

Alan Storry · Answer

This is a valid question that we had when doing up our first rental property. Do we use an all in company for the work or individual tradesmen. We tried the individual tradesmen and we had quite a few problems getting the tradesmen to turn up at the right time for our well planned schedule of works, which put us back several weeks and caused us so much grief.  For our second project we used www.ourhandyman.co.uk company which stated they did all the work under one company.  This worked well for us as they were in charge of organising he tradesmen to turn up at the right time during the project. We had one point of contact for all questions and overall made us feel a lot happier knowing we didn't have to speak to every single tradesman. Tradesmen tend to always blame each other for works they had problems with so using one company there was only one company that had to answer to any problems.

Buddy Chou · Answer

Hi Rob,

Can you email a set of the contracts?  Thanks.

Hire a "Handyman" or sub each Job?

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