If you have numerous rental houses and you can afford to hire out most of your repairs and maintenance like I do,...I would like to assume you have a crew or a group of people that you call on a regular basis. Especially if you have a major rehab going on and all of your crew members will be working on that one house at various times whenever their services are needed.

Question: how many people are on your list of people you call on a regular basis and what are their specialties if they have one.

I don't have a crew as I don't do full on rennos like you do. My goal is always to have contractor lists "3 deep" at minimum. If I could all of those...

HVAC

Plumbing

Electrician

Cleaners

Handyman

Mower/Lawncare

Flooring installer

Painter

8 categories x3 = 24 people. I don't always have a full list, though, and sometimes I cross over one category to another. Example, handyman can do plumbing fixtures and light electrical (110 V circuits).

What work does your PhD do?

HVAC = I have 5 different companies that I rotate through, depending on circumstances, for install/repair/troubleshooting/etc.

Plumbing = I used to have 3 different companies, but now I'm primarily down to 1 again. They take good care of me.

Electrician = 2 different companies that I rotate through. I use one until they don't love me anymore; then I switch and give them a break from my projects; when the second one isn't performing, I switch back to my preferred one.

Cleaners = I have a few cleaners that I liked to use, but my favorite one preferred to be on a regular schedule rather than dealing with my one-offs. My next-favorite one was good for one-offs, but since my area isn't quite inside her range nowadays, it can be hard to get on their calendar in a timely manner. So now, I use some ladies from the local clean-and-sober nonprofits. They're not necessarily as thorough as the professionals, but I pay them for their time and their energy.

Dejunkers = Definitely the guys at the clean-and-sober nonprofit. They're awesome.

Yard guy = I have my yard guy. He gives me a good price in exchange for me using him exclusively on my yards. He also does small tree trimming.

Tree trimming = Mostly my yard guy, but for really big trees with heavy limbs that need climbers, I go to a different group of people that are more specialized. The guy who runs it actually works elsewhere, but he runs his crews on the weekends.

Handyguy = Primarily my handyguy + whoever his assistant happens to be. My husband will help me respond to a service call in a pinch, but I try not to impose too much nowadays.

Renovation guy = Also primarily my handyguy. He's a good carpenter/flooring installer/door installer/odd job guy. I try to direct even the easy plumbing to my plumbers, though, because some days he's very detail-oriented and other days... not so much.

When we were at 5-houses-or-fewer, it was mostly me and my husband, although my MIL enjoyed pitching in on the renovations. We would bring in outside assistance on the specialized stuff. As we grew, we were able to hire out more of the tedious stuff. And then when we grew some more, we were able to hire out some of the stuff that was easy.

Now, I probably have about <20ish people who help me on a regular basis, in one way or another. I might call on some of them 20-30 hours in a week, and I might call on others two or three times in a year. It's hard to predict. But it's good to know you have someone to turn to... and someone else who you have a good relationship with in case your first choice isn't available on your timeline.

There is only me and an assistant.

I really am not interested in building up a staff and dealing with payrolls. I find it so much easier to deal with go to contractors instead of keeping them on payroll.

Then again, I only keep myself on the very limited payroll so that I can do the Roth 401K.

The other day, I went to a project, capped 2 1/2” feed lines, capped drain, ran wire to a switch, and a light fixture, re-ran an electrical line for a baseboard heater, removed vanity, patched a few holes and walls with blowout patches from junk sheet rock laying around, hung four boards of sheet rock in the half bathroom that’s being remodeled, and taped the joints on the newly hung sheet rock. I did it by myself less than two hours. How many different team members would I have needed to do that job and would it have happened in two hours?

Sid,

My Ph.D lady is the one who cleans my houses during vacancies. She is top-notch on cleaning and is well worth the $25/hour I pay her. She brings her own equipment and cleaning supplies and all I have to do is give her the key to the house and write a check when she is done. She also paints pretty good too and I will be using her and one other lady to paint the fixer upper I am working on now. Her Ph.D was something she obtained in a "previous life" when she was 20 years younger.

My number one handyman just turned 80 years old and I remember when we first met 10 years ago when he had just turned 70. On Wednesday, he is going to remove the dining room floor in a rental and replace two of the sagging floor joist. These joists are 2x10x10 and I have hired my handyman #2 (young Mexican) to be his assistant tomorrow. My job is to get the lumber to the job site. Bought 3 sheets of 4x8 T&G Advantec today.

My plumber is someone I met in 2008 and I have used him exclusively since then. He has plumbed every house in my inventory too.

My master electrician is someone I met in 2015 and he and I have become personal friends in addition to business associates.

I have used the same HVAC man since 2016 and I have bought 6 central heat/air units from him over the years. He works full time in maintenance at a local college but does HVAC installations as a part time job. He is fully licensed and insured too.

I now have a man who mows grass and cuts down small trees for me and he is very reasonable priced. He cut down 3 trees for me yesterday and dragged them to the street curb.

NE, your doing what I did on rentals.

It only made sense to me and I enjoyed the exercise,

savings and less hassle factor.

At 67, 6'-1", 185 lbs, NO medications,and plumbing works,

my Doctor and my (female) Wife, both say I'm doing

6x6,

I understand what you are asking for Roy. I was thinking you were looking for the number of employees that we all had. I was thinking dang - if you are able to support a staff of six more power to you but that is upwards of 200-250 units to do that. That sounds like a royal headache.I measure my success on my bank statements and not employee retention tax credits.

There's no I in team.

No but there's me.

Hey Ray, I hear ya and I can relate when ya said,

"I measure my success on my bank statements."

Roy,

I purposely do NOT rotate. I give ALL my business to one person in that trade so I get good results because we have a good working relationship and understand each other. I give them thanks gifts of Texas Roadhouse cards, Holiday meals at Red Lobster, etc. Part of the GraysonProp "Family".

They know what I want because we've done it so many times. They call if they have a spare day. I get after hours/weekend "assistance/short term patch" if urgent.

If he leaves I just find another and start over.

All are independent contractors/non-employees with their own businesses. Each have their own trucks, tools, ladders, and helpers who THEY pay.

We put a lockbox on the door and they can enter on their own schedule and they can squeeze me in between their higher paying projects. We contact them as needed. Most projects are for a firm quoted amount.

Handyman/carpenter

Painter

Laborer - clean outs, lay flooring...

Mowing/small trees/yardwork

Big tree/stump removal

Plumber/sewer

HVAC

Electrician

Roofer/siding

Customer Service for signs, change locks, Photos, In Home Visits...

Housecleaner

Bookkeeper

and ME to oversee. I don't get a paycheck.

BRAD

Brad20k,

Once we've determined the trustworthyness of a contractor, we stick with them until there is a reason not to...our plumber, our electrician: we've worked with them for decades now. Our HVAC guy sold out to a national name, so we started working with another local guy and he royally screwed us...so we are on the hunt again for that trade. We found a well guy, and we've got a septic guy (our best guy retired - that keeps happening.)

Our semi-retired carpenter is only taking select, easy jobs: he helped with our personal window project but we don't call him for rentals anymore.

There is no one on my crew that I will hand a credit card or a Lowes pre-paid debit card to and say "take this and just go buy whatever you need". I know other LL's who do this on a regular basis and in many cases they get screwed to the max and may not even realize it! Again, all materials that my team needs to do their job with is bought by me and delivered to the jobsite by me. That is what I am doing today. My licensed plumber, electrician and HVAC man are the only ones who purchase their own materials and they will email me an invoice which covers there labor and materials.

Ken,

Speaking of doing cleanouts (mine are mostly related to evictions), my former prostitute/helper and her worthless jailbird boyfriend are the ones I call for cleanouts.

I agree with Brad, I try and use primarily the same guys. I like the consistency they bring to my business, they know what I expect, I know what to expect from them. I've always gone for the one or two man company in each of the trades and once I find a keeper I stick with him as long as I can.

One plumber (actually he has an apprentice now) and the guy he works for is who I've used for 25 years. The boss quit doing field work and just does the paperwork now. Eventually he will sell-out to the plumber doing the work now.

One HVAC guy. He sometimes hands the repairs off to his nephew that works for him. I've used him exclusively for 20+ years. He started off working on the side then opened his own business.

One electrician. I've only had him about 5 years, the one before retired.

These 3 get the brunt of the daily stuff. They each have a key that I use on vacant houses and I just text them the name, address, phone number of tenant, and a short about the problem and they handle their own scheduling with tenant and then bill me.

One top notched handyman that charges as much as my plumber per hour so I don't use him a whole lot. Only had him a couple of years, the last one moved out of the area.

A couple of kids (HS/College) that I call to do clean-out's, mowing, leaf raking, etc. If they stick around I will invest more time in teaching them handyman skills.

A cleaning and painting lady that was a client at a half-way house my wife volunteers at. We've hired batches of these ladies for a day long painting and clearing sessions over the years and then rehire the best of the best workers for cleaning and painting without constant oversight. It's been a good source of semi-skilled laborers for us.

One girl that does mostly office jobs. Booking/data entry, running errands. She will be taking on more as I get her trained up. She also takes care of my house and pet sits when we are out of town. She's a recently graduated daughter of a friend from Church so I have a little higher trust level with her.

The CPA that does the taxes.

A realtor, a wholesaler, a banker, an attorney, a title company, and a couple of friends that steer deals towards me

round out the team.

Oh and my son who's taking over is picking up more of the overseeing load. I'm planning on riding off into the sunset in the next 3-5 years.

Roy, if I came across that guy I would make it a mission of mine to ruin his free ride.

We have one guy for HVAC and one guy for plumbing/electrical/carpentry/painting/cleanouts (he has kids). One company for septic problems/pump outs. So I know we are Blessed! Our main guy is 60 so he is slowing down, but he stopped what he was doing Saturday when we called him (we were at the beach) and he drove about 30 miles to fix a pressure switch that kept 2 tenants from having water. They were only out for about an hour!

The local hardware store (8 miles away) lets us charge items and we only pay it off every few months. I do order from Lowes and Home Depot and handyman picks up.