Maybe you could speak with someone who was a close friend of your dad and see if they have any of his contacts for those trades.

You guys should be looking at buildings that are trading for at least 30k unit.

He does the work himself and is going to teach me the trades.

It may not save me much money but it's a huge time saver and I put in the lease that the tenant is responsible for the trade call fee after 30 days occupancy.

I attend my REIA's trade show to meet any tradespeople (including janitorial) to see if there is any potential for working with them in the future.Hiring any person / business to do work always has that hit-or-miss risk; the above are just two approaches I have taken to try to get better odds.

"There’s a lot of -- bluntly -- stupid money that jumped into the trade without any infrastructure, without any real capabilities and a kind of build-it-as-you-go mentality that we think is somewhat irresponsible."

I'm an Interior Designer by trade and own a home improvement business.

With this info even for investor contractors when you give work to them off peak season for their trade you land the best labor rate plus parts might be on sale as demand is down.

It is ridiculous that such a common phrase can be trade marked. 

Like my profile will tell you, I am a 20+ year veteren of the construction trades.