Trusted vendor lists are gold as a RE investor...curious how people built theirs?

Question

I'm working on building mine with the hopes of eventually dumping my current property manager and curious to hear from others:

1. Did you use traditional marketplaces like yelp, thumbtack, angi?

2. Is it common to protect your list or are you open to sharing with fellow investors your know?

3. How do you store it? Google sheet? Do you use software?

4. Do you have multiple for vendors per trade?

5. How or where have you typically found the best contractors? Online forums? Referrals? FB Community Pages? Nextdoor? etc.

6. Do you perform regular preventative maintenance to avoid emergencies or are you more reactive?

Rene Hosman · Answer

Hi @Bryan Schwartz welcome to BiggerPockets!

Happy to answer with my own personal experience though I'm sure everyone has their own opinions and ways of doing things and ultimately whatever works is what works for you

1. Did you use traditional marketplaces like yelp, thumbtack, angi?

Personally I have not had the best experiences with these sites, I typically go via word of mouth referrals from other investors I know from in-person networking in my market, or from the BiggerPockets referral tools. Those who are marketing on BiggerPockets specifically know the investor mindset and specifically want investor clients vs the typical homeowner.

BP doesn't have a "finder" tool for everything yet, just agents, lenders, tax pros, PMs and Syndications, but there are more being added! And once you find an investor friendly agent, they probably have a good referral for an investor-friendly painter, and an investor-friendly painter may have a referral for a good investor-friendly electrician, etc.

2. Is it common to protect your list or are you open to sharing with fellow investors your know?

I believe in community over competition personally, that's just my philosophy so I treat my workers really well so that they prioritize me and respond if I'm ever in an emergency and I share my referrals with friends and other investors who I am familiar with and they do the same for me.

3. How do you store it? Google sheet? Do you use software?

All my properties are in a small regional area so I only have 1-2 people per task I need and I have all their numbers saved in my phone. For me it's that simple but I'm sure folks with more properties or properties in different areas have better systems than I do!

4. Do you have multiple for vendors per trade?

I have my primary person and then a backup. My primary people have been good at referring others to me generally - like when my handyman was on vacation, he referred me another handyman when I had a need that had to be tended to within a few days

5. How or where have you typically found the best contractors? Online forums? Referrals? FB Community Pages? Nextdoor? etc.

Referrals from other local investors, and also referrals from other homeowners in my area on local facebook groups!

6. Do you perform regular preventative maintenance to avoid emergencies or are you more reactive?

Regular preventative maintenance, typically during turnovers between tenants I take note, anything that will likely be a need to repair in the next 12mo I try to fix during my turnovers before a new tenant, but I also take note of anything that may be needed in the next 24mo and the next 5years and I estimate the cost and budget it into my reserves

Best of luck with your self management journey!

Peter Mckernan · Answer

1. I would use referrals, and build the list of that way.. Yelp is the second position if non of my referrals worked out, or not able to get to the job and complete it. 2. Open to sharing the list of vendors to people that work with my team and me.3. I use Excel in Dropbox and have my team access it that way too 4. Yes, you need multiple (see #1).. Some people are out of town not good for that job or there are a ton of other reasons5. Referrals... You need to see there work and the way they get jobs done... That is how I do it

Colleen F. · Answer

@Bryan Schwartz  I have a spreadsheet but honestly the critical ones are on my phone.  If you are the plumber your last name on my phone is plumber. Also always have backups. People die, they go out of business or they get super busy and tighten the radius in which they do business. Some of my biggest issues finding someone were from the trusted vendor retiring or limiting their business.  Word of mouth is the best way to find people and if you have someone who is good keep giving them business.

One caveat on small shops, they are great but also you have to know when a job is too big or difficult for them. I had the electric ripped off a property a tree. Reg electric guy is two man shop. I thought the guy was gonna have a heart attack pushing the conduit pole up onto the side of the building. I really should have had someone with a bucket truck or a couple younger guys.

Marc Rice · Answer

Absolutely- the OP was asking where he stores these in his "database". My database is a spreadsheet. I then make email referrals from there.

Michael Smythe · Answer

@Bryan Schwartz a lot of trial and error - and even then, you have to watch them as they get greedy when you aren't looking.

Try going to Home Depot Saturday 6am - those are the hard-working guys!

Warren Powers · Answer

@Marc Rice The best Real Estate Agents have trusted contacts who can get inspection items taken care of. A true Investor friendly agent will have all of the contacts and likely use them on their own projects. I rely mostly on referrals from my agent and my contractor.

Adam Bartomeo · Answer

1. It is hit or miss no matter where you go. I have used them all.

2. We always share if we are confident in the vendor. It is a win/win for all involved and builds trust.

3. We use property management software.

4. Yes.

5. They are always hit or miss but the best way is a referral because they have already proven themselves to someone you know.

6. Both. It depends on the item.

Marc Rice · Answer

I organize mine with local vendors in a Google Sheet.

Chris Seveney · Answer

@Bryan Schwartz

We built our list through research and referrals and try multiple vendors in each field to rate them. We keep our list in SharePoint and every quarter we grade them like my kids and have a report card. We had a vendor past few years who was an A. Then they get bought out and now are an F and we are removing them from the list.

Also we always recommend having more than one vendor for each aspect of your company. Always good to have several in your back pocket.

Trusted vendor lists are gold as a RE investor...curious how people built theirs?

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