I am soooooooo excited for the upcoming Mr. Landlord Convention. It is the #1 reason Pookie and I are where we are at today.

I am humbled and honored to be teaching how to automate and streamline the maintenance side of your rentals and let your team handle your everyday challenges.

To be better able to help more folks, I am asking you all this:

What are some questions you would love to ask a contractor or handyman?

Business goals?

Margins?

What does your favorite customer look like?

Why do you charge so much?

How can I get priority service?

Let's here what you want to know?

Great question Lee! Where do I start here?

I think the first thing you need to address is the importance of building a team of 'go-to' handymen or sub-contractors who are qualified to handle whatever needs a LL has. You will have to break down the typical cheapskate DYI mindset most LLs seem to have. You have to spend money to make money in this business.

I am involved in a major rehab right now and I could not do this without my team of 8 subs that I have worked with for years. All of my subs give me loyalty discounts or do some services which they do not even charge me for. Just yesterday my electrician replaced two bad breakers and installed a new bathroom exhaust fan and just said it was 'on the house'.

Spot on Roy! I will be sharing my spreadsheet of contractor list my VA uses when me or my superintendent is not available.

Came from my days coaching high school football. It is a depth chart. One man down, pull the next best up to put in the game.

Gotta play the subs every now and then to keep them on the team.

Congrats on the major rehab!

In my area it isn't so much about having subs as finding subs that are worth anything. I am fortunate enough to have a working knowledge about things from doing them in the past.

This is good because it allows me to see if the subs are doing it right. It is bad because it allows me to see if the subs are doing it wrong.

Barn I use for storage needed new roof, chimney dropped and some other things. Finally got a crew that could show and stay out of jail. Well, I have to stay on site because they know what they are doing but they don't do it right.

I keep finding things to do on the house or barn while they are there but I would rather be working on other places that help me make money.

I had to mow my two multi yards because I can't get the little guys to show and do it half way right. Only a couple of bigger guys around and they want to deal with bigger contracts so they charge ridiculous prices.

How does one vet a handyman or crew when you don't have a clue what is going on?

do you get copies of their worker's comp policy?

do you get them to fill out a w-9?

I have a great relationship with my sole contractor as he does good work and is trusted by our local building inspector. I just write the check.

How to find out what quality work he/she really does, before hiring. Don't always have a referral, and even then it varies.

With every contractor/handyman who is even halfway good getting jobs with builders - doing big jobs for steady money, How do I get someone decent to be willing to work for me?

I just have one job at a time, one house being rehabbed for rental, just need repairs done. Occasional work.

I can't even get to the cost. I will pay whatever needed to get it done, so it's not that I'm trying to negotiate too much. They won't even come to look at my scope of work. Thus the concept of put away your tools, hire it out, do something more productive, is not realistic. And of course, I still need my tools to go back and fix things they screwed up or didn't complete that I discover later.

Put it in writing - what I want done? Yes, but- The workers available to take smaller jobs don't always detailed checklists/inspections of their work. Then they'll be PO'd and not return for another job. So, best way to communicate & get (close to) what I need. Being on the job site constantly to verify work kind of defeats the point of hiring it out - except for the "I'm not physically strong enough, so I oversee guys who are" part.