When I first started this whole real estate thing, I tried to prepare for every contingency. I looked at the business of property management and property acquisition, and concluded that I had prepare sufficiently for all the major problems. When I say major, I refer to ensuring that I don’t make the type of mistakes that would end my real estate career as a whole. For the most part, I’ve done that. But sometimes it’s the little mistakes that, if left unchecked, can do my reputation in.
For the longest time, Hanna and Umar of property Chi have complained that there were two outlets in their upstairs apartment that needs to be fixed. In the past I’ve had to gloss over the issue so that I could take care of the much larger problems that Chi had at the time. With property Chi relatively under control, I called handyman Alfonso to take care of the issue. He said he would be there on Wednesday, so I told Umar Wednesday. Alfonso couldn’t make it due to a roofing job taking longer than expected. He then said Thursday, so I told Umar Thursday. Again, Alfonso couldn’t make it due to the roofing job. He called me on Friday and said that he would definitely be there Saturday afternoon at 3pm, for sure. So I told Umar Saturday. Alfonso calls me u… no wait, I had to call him twice before he said that he had thrown his back out and couldn’t do anything until Monday. So I had to apologize to Umar and tell him that he’ll be notified when someone will be available.
When I started this whole venture, I didn’t count on the unreliability of handymen. I really didn’t. For me, the equation seemed simple: Handyman that wants work + Landlord that has work= Good business for all involved. But I’ve noticed that people just don’t seem to care. Sometimes I’ll call for a handyman and they won’t even make it to the appointment. That’s not just a small-time handyman, but medium-sized companies as well. I never understood what I was doing wrong. Is it too much to ask that a handyman who makes his money from doing property maintenance shows up to a job? Why do I have to call to find out why they can’t make it to a job? Aren’t they supposed to call me? Are my expectations too high for Smalltown handymen?
My best guess is that handymen have enough work, especially during the summer. My plan of having multiple handymen on call is the only way to solve this issue. When one is unavailable, I have to go to the next one until someone actually does the job. Right now I only have two handymen, Alfonso and handyman Stan. Stan doesn’t really like to do small jobs like replacing a couple outlets, so it’s usually left to Alfonso. Eventually, I’ll have to find others who don’t mind doing the small jobs. That takes care of the first problem. The second problem is how I look to my tenants. If I’m constantly telling Umar that someone will be there and no one shows up, I look bad—not Alfonso. I’ve hitched my good reputation to Alfonso and now I’m seen as unreliable as him. In order to fix this, I’m no longer giving exact times to tenants. Whenever someone calls about a problem, these are the steps I’ll take:
1) Go to the property to assess the situation.
2) Call a handyman right there to set up an appointment.
3) Give the tenant a vague time as to when the handyman will be there. Example: “Okay, I just spoke to the handyman and he’s in between a couple of jobs. When he’s done he’ll let me know and I’ll notify you.”
If the first handyman flakes out, I’ll call the next one on the list. And while all this is going on, the tenant knows that the problem is being taken care of because he/she saw me make contact with the repairman in their presence. So I come off looking good and, as long as the problem gets taken care of in a reasonable period of time, everyone’s happy. Eventually, I’ll have to learn that things don’t get fixed when I want them to be. Whenever a tenant calls me about an issue, I want it fixed right away. But many times that can’t happen because the handyman is busy at a job. As much as I’d like for things to get fixed immediately, I have to learn this lesson and have the process of getting an issue resolved, no matter how big or small, down to a science. Assess situation. Call repairman. Placate the tenant. Call next repairman if first one is busy. That should take care of it.
P.S.: Look, I know that the easiest solution is for me to do it myself. After all, I did that switch at property Alpha right? Yeah? Well forget it. Maybe if it were the Indians of Alpha I'd do it myself. But I'm not going over there. The second those Africans see me they're gonna start complaining about something else. Ugh. I really hope Narish's people want the Chi apartments.
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