I am fortunate in this work environment that I have a good electrician. A tenant called to say that his circuit box was arching and my guy left the job he was on and went and fixed it. All it was was a loose ground wire, so an easy fix.

I don't know yet what it cost me. My guy isn't cheap, but he shows up which makes him worth the price, and the work he does is good..

He tells me that he is booked solid through November and that many of his jobs have delays because he is still having problems getting parts and materials. He also mentioned that his buddies in other trades are still having supply issues when trying to get jobs done.

Roy

As a contractor/landlord I have inventory for many trades -- all of the common and hard to get parts. Last month a client had a tub/shower diverter fail so when you showered, half of the water went to the shower head and half to the tub spout. I had 4 left of these obsolete 1930's diverters. I charged them $100 for the part, including installing it. I thought we were friends?

Their other plumber said they paid too much. For $100 they could have gotten a new three handle HOT COLD Diverter manifold with handles. They asked me to return and put back their old diverter. I did so and voided my bill.

Their plumber cracked open the tile on the inside of the tub/shower wall to access the plumbing to replace the fixture. He didn't think about opening up the closet wall on the other side. He charged them $100 for the fixture and $400 installation. Then the owner had to hire a tile guy to re-tile around the controls. Not matching tile. Cost $375.

So instead of paying me the $100 to replace the diverter, the owner had to spend $775 to get a new fixture with a white tile patch on a yellow tiled wall.

Bill,

Each of the 85,000 IRS agents have to earn their keep. So in my case there are going to say why I hadn't reported income from a dozen units over the past 2 years -- like $280,000. And try to hit me with a million dollar fine plus jail time.

"What does 85,000 new IRS agents have to do with anything here?"

Well I'm guessing the electrician does this a lot,..and depending on whose desk it falls on, some auditors can dig pretty deep in finding out income,..AND who they got it from. So they go on a fishing trip to who they worked for and how they paid him,..

Maybe not a big thing with you, and one 50 dollar payment,..but they sometimes like to see what else you are doing,

With 85,000 additional agents,..I think you are going to get some gung ho people with a lot of time on their hands and feel a need to prove their keep.

Bill,

Roy, I agree,..there is nothing illegal to use cash, nor there ever should be,.but it does make some IRS agents look at it with suspicion, AND they have the power to make life miserable, even if you do everything right.

There are gray areas, that can be used,..to pay less taxes, but those same gray areas are often used by the agents to charge you with more tax. (showing that their time wasn't totally wasted) I heard this from a lecture from a former regional head of the IRS.

I have been told by a few friends that were audited by the random audit (I can't remember the name of it rt now) but they use it for gathering general information,..not really being suspicious of any wrong doing,. but it's crazy long and complex and makes one go through hell, even if they find little,..

But they also try to apply a few gray areas to make the audit show something.

True most audits are fairly simple, but they still try to find a few little things. However, my concern is with these new agents being gung ho , and with perhaps a lot of time on their hands and trying to show what they can find,.justifying their existence .

I'm not sure how many agents are currently employed now,.but whatever that number is,get a map of the United States and add that number with an additional, 85,000 and put that number of black headed pins in that map,..its going to take you a while and really cover that map,..

I had a GREAT electrician like that for decades.

He retired and moved to Florida last fall.

I’m really lucky. I have a tenant who has worked as an electrician for 25 years. He doesn’t hold the license but is qualified to do anything. He does tons of stuff for me for minimal charges (hangs fans, fixtures, runs new lines, replaces panels, etc… If we need to pull a permit he runs it through his bosses company and the boss lets him do my work because I’m his landlord. I do send him a 1099 every year when it’s warranted.

I sold my plumber the house he was renting from me and financed it for him. We only did a 20 year amortization, he borrowed 150k on a 235k purchase price (so he put a bundle down) and the house is easily worth 350k now with our market and the upgrades he’s made. So no worries there. And he takes care of all my plumbing needs and he owns a used appliance store so he’s good for appliances and repairs.

Now I just need AC tenant. So far the best I’ve had is the next door neighbor of one of my tenants is an AC tech so he does side jobs and jobs after work for me, so I do have him in a pinch.

[[[[[....... the IRS that irritates me is they ASSUME that ALL TAXPAYERS are nothing but cheats and liars.,,,,,,]]]]

Oregon Woodsmoke, Thanks for sharing your good fortune of having a electrician who is reliable. I hope that his rate will be reasonable when he does bill you. I'm glad that he fit you in for a job even though he is booked until November.

Some things you can cut corners on and other items you really shouldn't.

Someone trouble shooting and preventing a fire - isn't a place to try to save a buck.