Should Landlord make repairs themselves?

[Derek Peterson]

I have a friend who recently started investing in rentals last year. He has a background in construction and has been making repairs himself. However, he is also a firefighter and has limited time To make the repairs. It took him several months to get one particular house ready to rent. Now he has another one where the tenant up and left without notice and destroyed the home. It has now been vacant for a few months, and he is nowhere close to being finished. He is very stressed.

My personal advice to him has been to hire someone to make repairs and get it done quickly so that he can resurrect that cash flow. But he is looking at how many months of rent it will take to recoup the added cost of hiring a contractor. 

So we are at a disagreement on this. I look forward to hearing everyone’s opinion on whether landlords should make repairs themselves, or contract it out. 

[Aaron K.]

DIY if you can get it done quickly, he can't so he should hire someone, if he does the math and it will take 3 months to earn back what he paid, but he lets it sit for 4 months hoping to finish DIY the answer is clear.