I done did it. FINALLY! I took the tools out of the truck!

I have a crew cab truck and I haven't seen the back seat down since a week after I bought the truck about 8 years ago. It was surreal. I couldn't help but think of BRAD20k while I was hauling everything into the garage. The feeling of FREEDOM it caused was amazing!

I now have a team that does this kind of stuff. I have moved myself into the office and concentrate more on running the business than working the business. I won't say I'll never do maintenance/repairs again. However from now on, it'll be by choice and not by necessity. I found that I wasn't growing because I was always in the field. I had no time to work on the business. In the last 4 months, I purchased 4 more doors. Kind of funny what that more time will do. I also have a partner that wants to grow another side of the business more as well (small subset of the rental stuff), but also works an 8-5. I now have more time to concentrate on that too.

It's been just over a year in the making. I hired someone that was new to the industry and trained them up. During that year, we used more handymen and I worked the field less. Now, I'm out of the field. Hopefully when I retire, this employee will buy everything from me and keep going themselves. So far, it's looking good for that to be a reality. We got a ways to go yet, so we'll see how it actually goes.

But yea, I finally did it! FREEDOM!!

I'll never get DH to take the tools out because he likes the work BUT I have managed to get him to expand our own team of contractors on our list.

Biggest issue remains incompetence. DH knows more than most of them and it frustrates him to have to sit back while they dither. He's a problem-solving engineer by training and nature and most of these guys are not :(

Example: special project. Needed a particular kind of steel plate for top of pilings. Licensed Contractor has been trying for months to get the local iron and steel place to make them. DH worked with a licensed engineer to try to find a replacement. Nope, these plates or nothing.

DH walks into Home Depot and buys them. The same plates engineer had spec'ed...

I tell my sons, who will be taking over someday, that the reason to know HOW to do the projects is to know when your contractors DO NOT. It's a conundrum.

Congrats

I didn’t post that here but I did that about a year ago.

Congrats on achieving your goal!

I am slowly finding people to do specific things, but most are just not critical thinkers.

Still doing the majority of the work myself.

I call it the middle work.

I do not do roofs any more, and I do not do foundations any more. I do all the stuff in the middle.

6x6 - I understand what you're saying. I would push back on you though. When I had a few units, yes. That makes perfect sense. Once you get to the point you can't keep up, you have 2 choices. Quit growing and you're capped. Or, you can delegate. Either choice is fine. I chose to delegate. I would much rather find 5 more deals (and make more money doing so) than change out a toilet that I can pay the plumber $300 to do. (I'm in KS, I'm sure the cost is different in every part of the country. Principal still applies though.)

Not "Critical thinkers" that's good Zero.

I still enjoy working with my hands. I hire out the stuff I don't like doing.

Congrats to Doogie

Excellent answer Gevans.

Let me explain a few things. If you are in the handyman business - and there is absolutely no shame in using that model, you are limiting yourself to only about 20 to 25 units. There is no shame at having ONLY 20 or so units. Folks like Mike Butler will tell you to strive for that level, especially if they are free and clear.

All rental units should be at a very bare minimum, be paying for themselves. Unless there is a significant upside ahead and the real estate market dictates it (Currently it doesn't)

If you elect to limit the use of those contractor tools and start to use real estate tools - you can oversee easily 75-100 units. Again these units should be paying for themselves. What are these tools? Niche marketing, options, master leases, land trust, and sandwich leases to name just a few.

Some people think making that extra $300 a month is what the business is about - and for them they are right. For me, I saw many folks see how the government took away some property rights back in 2020 and they tossed in the towel. In a mere five or so years, real estate values have doubled. Now sadly a million dollars in real estate simply isn't that much. If you had a million invested in 2020, it should easily be worth at least $2 million now. How many $100 trouble calls does the repair contractor need to do to make that same amount? They have to without taking off a single day in 5 years do about six trouble calls daily.

I like my vacations; I will be leaving for the Cape tomorrow morning for about a week. While I am gone, I want my real estate to work for me. That doesn't mean I still don't do a few trouble calls, but those are done more on my terms and based on contractor availability. It requires a balancing act.

Congratulations on the milestone. It's hard to get and STAY there. I was there, had a similar experience. Unfortunately, a divorce of my key person killed it when he and his wife dropped out.

So, I suggest you make a plan for what happens when your key person drops out. When that happened to me, I had no procedures, it was all word-of-mouth one-on-one training. Back to square one. Plan for the unexpected that you could expect to happen, so you minimize the effects when it does happen.

MikeA, that is wise advise. Things happen!! Our plumber, our appliance guy and our best HVAC guy have gone or are going away soon.

Ray, we can do 40 units because there are two of us sharing the business: I shuffle the paper, he does the labor AND we have a kid to pick up some of the slack from both of us. But I have had to put my foot down - no more. We don't NEED more and we are too old to deal with more. You are right that 20 units per person is about it.

I'm 70 years old. I've been a landlord for over 50 years. This is my job. I still "work". I am not chasing deals, looking for something else. If I want to buy or sell something I do it. I know my area and I know the old people. I don't know most of these young guys who are reinventing the wheel. I don't spend time searching.

But I cannot imagine paying someone for routine, nothing to it tasks when they are right in front of me. Example: the other week I went by one of my buildings. I saw that the new lawn guy hadn't sprayed the weeds behind the shed. It was set to rain for a few days. I got out and sprayed them. I could have called and he would have done it.... but a good chance not until the next time he came to mow and I had no idea whether it would be raining then or not. Took me less than 10 minutes and that included thinking about it and texting him to do it next month when he sprays.

A few months ago I noticed a mailbox on the wall of a front porch was hanging sideways. No idea how but one of the screws was missing. I had it fixed, again in less than 10 minutes, and that included walking back to the truck, thinking about it and getting a screw and screw driver out of the tool box.

Doogie,

CONGRATS!!!!

(It only took you HOW long to take my advice :) :)

Congratulations on moving to the next level. The air smells sweeter.

My new challenge to you is SELL THE TRUCK and buy a Porsche.

As long as you have a truck YOU will be tempted to help with a run to HD "to get the job done". No one will ask you to pick up a cabinet or 2x4 in your Porsche!

To those who think other cannot do the work you do - think again. (I've seen some of the lousy work done by LLs who say "If you want it done right...")

Helpers are like renters - never as good as you but you learned how to manage the renters. Learn how to work with contractors and don't get upset when they don't perform perfectly.

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE NAILGUN.

Are you an investor/business owner or a $20/hour handyman?

I get it. I did ALL the repairs until I realized it was killing me. A retired man and his son offered to help and they got stuff done IN A DAY that would have taken me a week.

"The big landlords around here that I know do almost all the work themselves" is a misnomer. You don't SEE the truly profitable LLs because they are NOT walking the aisles of HD or Lowes, hauling stuff, paint on their clothes, etc. Those are struggling LLs.

YOU learned how to make those repairs, they can too - free education on YouTube!

Sure you are going to pay $50 for a service call but when I truly logged my time, I spent more time than I thought. It was just mixed in with personal shopping or errands.

Pay a little higher and your worker pool will grow.

I don't want to die of a heart attack hunched over a toilet tightening the floor bolts!

I'm trying, honest I am.

Just had a full roof and two roof repairs done by a contractor. He was a little cheaper than the others that quoted me.

Then I started asking around for people to install an entrance door. I can do it but this is one of the last smoking places I have and I thought I could pay someone else to smell like smoke.

Well the quote that I got was for $500. That is just the labor to install the door. I have all materials already. It is local to them so no drive time.

This is one of my higher performing units. But I only clear just under $800 a month. (That will drop once I get the new taxes input)

So now, with the cost of the door, I will be out a full month's cashflow for something I can do in a few hours at most.

Even if I took five hours that is still a lot more than I want to pay a handyman.

I am still on the lookout for help tho. I will never get rid of my truck, but I have no problems having it sit empty of tools.

Have done that a few times, Ken.

With one I was actually taking jobs on so I could build up enough funds to keep him on payroll. He said he needed time to go get his daughter from out of state. During a bigger job that I took on for him. Turns out he jumped ship. Didn't last long and he came crawling back. I worked my behind off keeping him busy and yet that happened.

Last one I was burning thru the reserves while I had him working on a new rehab and my new place. Then Covid hit and he got a sweet job making twice what I was paying. I have used him a few times since, but he is a dreamer as well and chases the fast buck.

Might be getting him back but it will not be full time as I don't have the work, or the funds, for that now.

I have gone thru so many handyman types the last few years. They don't know anything or have on the job chemical issues. Had one guy that came recommended but he lived on the other side of the county and had no driver's license. Sure I could get him and return him but I would be losing an hour a day. Plus I couldn't count on him for emergency calls.

Zero I have had the same experience as you. I have enough stuff going on that I can keep a handyman pretty busy. Every time I have tried to train someone to independently handle things it has eventually ended in failure.

I hear you on finding the perfect handyman type.

Always tell them that they are being recorded in the property. Make sure you don't do or say anything that could come back to bite you.

I act the same way, not just because you never know, but that is the way to do business.

I loathe this, but I am going to get on FB and look for someone who cleans.

You will not hear me say that all my working tools are ever out of my truck. It is a balancing act. Hour for hour wages, finding that next deal wins hands down. Avoiding paying 40% of that profit to our unfriendly Uncle makes more sense typically than playing with someone's toilet.

FB might have paid off. In talks with a lady that has four people that clean for her.

Setting up a date so we can meet face to face for the first one.