There have been a number of threads on this forum asking about the feasibility of rehabbing properties without being “handy.” The consensus is: contractors do the work, so make your deals and manage your contractors and it should work out.
I am more or less handy. My family, and my wife’s family, are all pretty much farmers and tradespeople. By nature I’m a bookworm, but I grew up doing electrical work, plumbing, light framing (walls and sheds, not houses), etc.
How much of an advantage is this? The way I see it, I am my own safety net in terms of dealing with unreliable subcontractors. If they don’t show up, I’ll just do it for them. If they do a bad job, I can fix it rather than calling them back - all for the sake of keeping things on schedule.
Also: when it comes to being a landlord, hiring contractors to come in for every little thing can be $$$. I know; my mother-in-law is a landlord, and she lavishes care upon her rental property to prevent it from deteriorating. I don’t think she’s ever had positive cash-flow from it.
For those of you who are handy: have you found it to be an asset when rehabbing, or irrelevant?
I find it to be a great advantage. It keeps me from hiring a lot of subs to take care of piddly stuff – others here will tell you that you are wasting money doing it yourself because it is time lost that should be used looking for deals…each to his/her own.
I will tell you, however, that if I hire a job to be done and it is not satisfactory, then they will re-do it or they will pay to have it re-done or they won’t get paid (at least not the contract amount) – I am not going behind contractors and re-doing their work for them.
I agree with Keith. I was a maintenance man for an apt complex for 5 years before I started my business and it comes in handy all the time. The thing is…
I have found myself spending way too much time trying to “save money” and doing alot of the work myself. How does the saying go, Don’t trip over a dime to make a dollar.? Well, I just skinned my knee.
Anything you bring to the table is an asset ! Some people are VERY good at handling the Subs and Negotiating the cost …fantastic ! Some people are VERY talented with their hands and are handy and capable of some of the small ( or large ) details involved with rehabbing… fantastic ! Experiment and learn what your better at and use it to YOUR advantage.
I like to think that you contract stuff out for any number of reasons except “I don’t know how”…that goes especially true for property management, the taxes, etc. You gotta know how!
I have arthritis and can only do so much physically. I did a rehab with a cell phone and and an American Express Card (and 6 weeks).
Yes, I pay more, however I do have a network of inexepensive labor that helps lower my costs. If the project can afford it, I go ahead and let the contracters do it. I may make less but I’m still making it.
It’s all about the math. I have to pass on some properties because I have to pay the labor.
Better to have 80% of something thatn 100% of nothing.
Im an electrician and i love to work on my home. i like the barter network more than anything. hanging some lights and replaceing a few switches doesn’t take very long. Changing a fuse panel to circuit breakers is cheaper for me to do. I do favors to get favors. All i do is the electrical work. i pay one way or another for other stuff. if i change a service in a rental for a friend thats a plumber, he usually returns the favor.
I am handy and a licensed residential contractor in my home state. Several years ago a friend and I started buying and rehabbing houses. He was a hands off type of individual and I liked the hammer and saw. Now he is a multi-millionaire and I still use the hammer and saw. If you plumb you are a plumber. If you sweep floors you are a janitor. If you buy properties you are an investor.
Thanks for the responses. I’m very independent and have a can-do spirit, so I’ll try to keep my eye on the ball and resist the urge to waste my time doing things myself.
I can see how being handy would be helpful to a landlord. ;D
If you have the time, doing it yourself can save alot of $$$. The question I always ask myself, regardless of anything, “What else could I be doing with my time, what else could I be doing with my money” Is your time better spent fixing or finding another deal?
PS I,m a contractor in Central NY. Landlords/investors don’t like paying more then they have too, but I have not met one that doesn’t want it done right the first time. If you have to go behind them, a buck a hour is too much to pay.
For a few months, I worked for a low-voltage wiring company - phone, cable, security, central vac. We most definitely did not get it right the first time.
No fault of my own, I might add, but there were serious problems with the way the company was run. I wouldn’t hire them to wire my house - odds that everything is installed and in the right place was 50/50. I spent a lot of time fishing wires after the fact, and even worked for a short period of time as a sub-sub-contractor fishing wires to clean up after their crews.
Interacting with other tradespeople frequently revealed such things as framing code violations (which the builders’ labourers would fix), bone sinks installed next to ivory toilets, and countless other problems. Our device boxes were frequently buried by the drywallers, and we made sure to install our wires after the plumbers and HVAC guys, or else they’d just cut them to make way for their material.
Am I selling contractors short? Based on my experience it just seemed that asking them to get it right the first time is asking a bit much.
I own a 4 family house and I am in the process of purchasing a 3 family. I have though of the same concerns myself if there are repairs. I am not too handy myself, but I am one that can figure things out. Basically I take each situation that comes up on a case by case basis. I can replace the guts of a toilet, and I know how to snake a drain. I know how to paint and use plaster. But of course. How long is the stuff going to take you to get done and how long will it take a contractor / handyman. Are you better off doing it yourself?
As I said before, you need to evaluate the situation before you make a blanket decision to call a contractor.
Another thing what is all this contractor talk? I know plenty of guys that are handy looking for side jobs. Why would you take friends / family members that can use some extra $$ or are out of work? I would rather give them money before I pay a contractor.
If you are handy, it does save money & is a delicate balance between do-it-yourself & hire out. At the same time it is difficult to hire stuff out when rehabbing as you never know what you will run into. My husband seems to be able to figure out almost anything, but time is sometimes of the essence!
We found a neat guy that wants ‘sporadic work’ - does almost anything except electric & plumbing which my husband is good at. We usually get bids & then decide from there what he’ll do & what we hire out.
Being handy is key at being able to make a qualified decision regarding the condition of a property. Someone who understands the condition of a subject property has made a decision and is purchasing the property while someone unskilled is attempting to schedule a contractor to determine the feasability of deal.
being able top make good decisions standing on your feet can be the difference between buying a good deal or dragging your feet and letting the good deal get away.
This is something I’ve been thinking of too just going in. I have construction experience in electrical, framing, roofing and siding. How much will I do on my own? I have a steady 40 hr / week job and want some side work. Even tho’ I can do the work, how profitable is it for me to do the work? Holding costs play a big part. I may save $$ doing it myself, but holding costs may wipe that out. I agree with the above posts about being penny wise and dollar foolish - we must be careful.
We have a different way of evluating this situation… our ‘rule of thumb’
My husband has now gone full time into rehabbing & he is handy at most everything but here is what we tried to use as a guide when he worked full time…
If it was something that cost more to hire out than he made in the est. time, he did it. If he could get it done for the same or less than he made in the same time, we hired it out. The thing that also entered into the picture was his schedule… if we had to wait to get it done when he had a day off, we were loosing ground & would hire it out.
By the same token, builders, trades people, everyone here is so swamped we can often do it our selves while waiting for someone else…
ultimately what made the decision to go fulltime on our own stuff was as a nurse almost everyone was making more than he ws so we were loosing for him to have a job! :o