All Forum Posts by: Daniel Mawyin

@Christine Swaidan thank you for your feedback, very much appreciated.

Hello out there. I am selfishly asking this question as it relates to my maintenance business but it may also be a helpful topic for landlords. Hope I am not breaking any rules here but I figure what better place would there be to ask this question than on a forum loaded with experienced investors.

I am a small business owner aspiring to one day make my way into REI.

I have recently relocated my maintenance business to So Cal (Temecula, CA). We are a handyman business who is focused on working primarily with buy and hold investors and property managers. Our goal is to provide service calls for tenant occupied properties. We do the small stuff. Examples would be: replace a faucet, light fixture, leak under the sink, garbage disposals, outlets switches, tub spouts, caulking, replace blinds, etc. Similar to what an apartment maintenance tech would do but for investors and PMs.

Our service call fee is 65.00 first hour (minimum) and 49.00 each additional hour. Most tenant service calls are completed within 1 hour. 

We are licensed and insured, our customers typically submit a work order online or by email, we contact the tenant for scheduling, provide pictures of all completed work along with description, and invoice is sent immediately upon completion of the job. In most situations we cover the cost of materials up front as well. Clients are notified through email of all activities. 

 My question is; do you think a 65.00 service call fee is reasonable, too high, too low for the service we provide? 

Hello there, a bit late on this post but welcome to BP! I provide maintenance services for investors and property managers in Temecula and the surrounding areas. 

I am here to learn about investing and network as well. Please feel free to reach out if I can be of service in any way. 

Good Luck!

@Bernie Germani 17 since the new year certainly sounds promising and keeps me more confident about reaching my goal of completing my first rehab in 2015.

Thanks for taking the time to look into it further, I really appreciate it. 

Trying to get some info about how active the flipping business is here in Las Vegas. I have sourced a possible private money lender so that is pretty exciting since that is ONE of my biggest hurdles with regard to getting started. 

There are a lot of posts here on BP with people saying that flipping in Las Vegas has become very slow and that it is more of a buy and hold market. 

Would love to hear from active Vegas flippers on the subject. 

I am looking to purchase my first rehab property this year and I am also interested finding experienced rehabbers to partner with and learn from. Not looking for a handout, I am a hard worker with construction experience, a business owner, and have a private money lender who is very interested in working with me. 

Thanks ladies and gents!

@Max T. great input, dealing with the small stuff directly is an awesome way to access your unit for an impromptu inspection and catching a small problem before it develops into a big one.

@Mindy Jensen agreed, charging a tenant for all or even xx amounts of service calls / repairs will likely cause you to not hear from them when a problem needs to be addressed. I love the example of the monthly visit to change the furnace filter, a great low cost way to keep a close eye on your property while making your tenants feel valued at the same time.

@Cheryl C. perfect example of no news being bad news and great advice about educating tenants. Sounds like an expensive repair bill. Do you recall the reason for the leak? 

@Tim Lindstrom  <------just figured this out now lol.

Perfect example of due diligence. Glad you got your property in good health and I think its great that you will be performing quarterly inspections. It's a small price to pay to avoid big problems in the future.

I ran a service call on a rental a couple weeks back for a non working garbage disposal. The owner had just purchased the property with the new tenants already in place. While there i asked if there were any other issues and uncovered a wobbly toilet that had no washers in place to hold it down properly,  a bathroom sink that had a bad leak coming from the pop up drain assembly with a bucket under it to catch the water, a toilet with a bad fill valve and flapper which caused the water to constantly run, and a non working garage door opener which had never been wired. Tenants reported that most of these items were this way for over 2 years. The previous owner told them it was their house and that they could do whatever they needed to. Cost of repairs totaled about 300.00 a small price to pay for what could have turned into multiple large ticket repairs. 

Hello BP, just posted this to my website and thought this might be helpful for some of you out there. 

Tenants will not always let you know:
While many tenants are notorious for requesting maintenance on every little minor item they can get their eyes on. The real culprit may be the tenant that you never hear from. No news is not always good news, you may be renting to a tenant who will not report an issue with the home. Perhaps they are used to living in bad conditions, they assume that they are responsible for the repair but cannot afford it, have been renting from slumlords for so long that this is the norm for them, or they just don't like the confrontational feeling they get when requesting a service call. Whatever the reason for not reporting problems, it may end up costing you a small fortune in the future or in extreme cases you may end up in court for hazardous living conditions.

Security Deposits may not be enough:
Security deposits are ideal for covering the cost of rental ready services such as minor repairs and cleaning but will most likely not be enough to cover major damage caused by negligence. Not only will you need to spend money beyond the security deposit for correcting the damage but you will also have to consider the time it will take to have the damage repaired. In more extreme cases correcting the problem can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

How to protect yourself or your client?
To avoid being struck by this silent property killer you will want to consider scheduling quarterly or even bi annual property inspections. These simple inspections can be performed by a property manager, owner, or your handyman service provider. If you find that a hazardous condition such as mold infestation is present you will want to contact a certified inspector or a company who is property licensed to handle the removal / remediation of such conditions.

Often times when we are dispatched to service a tenant occupied unit we find that other problems are present that the owner or property management company may want to address. Many tenants will not bother to report problems that they feel are insignificant because they just don't know better or do not care. Be sure that your tenants understand what their responsibilities are with regard to home maintenance and that they should not hesitate to let you know if something needs repair. A simple service call, or visit from a landlord to fix the problem could be all you need to prevent a serious problem with a costly repair bill.

Thanks for your input Richard, I appreciate you making yourself available. I will most definitely keep you in mind should i come across any deals that look promising.

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