Maintenance Madness

This Is A Summary Page
The below topics are discussed in much more depth
on our members' Maintenance & Repair page.

Should you hire a person or use a maintenance contractor?

Should you pay by the hour, or by the job?

How long should a job take?
see maintenance time estimates

Employees cost money:

In America today most business owners try to avoid hiring "employees" whenever possible. Even very large companies, with thousands of employees, use "temps", from companies like Kelly and Corporate Staffing, whenever they can. It costs more per hour, but pays off in countless other ways.
Because of mandated employee costs, and the difficulty in getting rid of a bad employee, many employers would rather pay an existing employee overtime than hire another.
The same kind of considerations must be made when hiring maintenance help for rental housing. The ramifications that can result from a wrong decision on maintenance help can be devastating. They range from over-billing to shoddy workmanship, but can also include charges of criminal behavior when the wrong person is given access to a tenant's home and property.

Hiring tenants is dangerous

Many property managers are tempted to hire tenants to do the work in their own unit, or even other units. That always seems like a quick and easy way to solve minor maintenance problems. Wrong! That is very high risk and often much more expensive in the long run that paying more money to an experienced person who is also insured.

Independent contractor is usually the answer

A typical mom and pop landlord is usually better off hiring an "independent contractor" to do their maintenance and repair work and avoid an employee relationship when ever they can. You can hire a company with employees of their own, or a local handyman who works alone, but complies with the IRS definition of a contractor.

Follow IRS guidelines

If you decide on a "one man operation" make sure that you carefully follow the IRS guidelines for defining an independent contractor. You could pay a maintenance person thousands of dollars as a contractor and later be held responsible for their income tax as well.

Negotiate an hourly rate

Ask for an hourly rate in writing. Even if they tell you they want to work by the job, insist on a written quote of their average hourly rate. There will be times when you need to send someone on an emergency repair where there will not be an opportunity to bid the job in advance. You don't want to discover after the fact that an inexperienced handyman expects journeyman plumber wages.
Whether you maintenance person is paid strictly by the hour or by the job, the payment is usually based on cost of materials and how long they take or estimate they will take to do the job. You need to agree in advance how much they expect per hour.

How long should a job take?

The length of time a job should take is an area where many property owners and managers get ripped off. Unless you are knowledgeable about repairs, you pretty much have to take the service person's word about the length of time needed to complete the job. Although one man may quote $10 per hour and another $25, you may well be better off with the $25 dollar man if he knows what he is doing and the other man doesn't. Their estimate of the time it will take should give you some indication of their competence.
Ideally, you should get more than one estimate on any job, but that is not always practical. Your best hope is to find good experienced help, agree on a fair hourly rate, then pay them by the job whenever possible. Once you find a seemingly reliable contractor, you want to be able to get him when you need him and not have to always call around to find someone and see if you are being charged fairly.

When a contractor quotes you a price for a repair job, always ask how long he thinks the job will take and try to get him to agree to a maximum time period you will be charged for. We have provided a list of time estimates compiled from several remodeling and maintenance sources to be used as a guide in deciding whether a contractor is being straight with you. Making a decision without any frame of reference is not ever good management.
Use our list of repair time-estimates to begin a list that you develop for yourself consisting of the types of repairs you most commonly need to hire help for. Whenever you have a repair done, add on to this list, and make adjustments to time estimates if necessary. Your continually updated list or repair time estimates can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the next couple of years.

How long should a job take?
see maintenance time estimates

The above topics are discussed in much more depth
on our members' Maintenance & Repair page.

Non-Members' Homepage