How to manage my situation and house hack

Question

Hey BPers,

I'm in need of some solid advice/guidance in my situation.

I currently have a SFR primary residence in which I rent out two of the rooms. For my W-2 job, I travel a lot and am often times out at sea for weeks at a time.

I am currently out to sea and there have been some problems the have sprung up at home.

-Coworker who went by the other day noticed the main toilet is leaking at the base

-One tenant just emailed me saying the dishwasher won't drain and smells like death

There have been previous problems such as the shower clogging (which I cleared) and the washer drain line backing up. These two problems I was luckily in town and got them resolved right away.

How do I go about managing these problems in the future/now while I am away? Find a jack of all trades handy man? Are they willing to wait for payment when I get back or online payments if available? Bite some of the cost and get a property manager?

What do you guys do? Stressing out here...

Kevin Phu · Answer

One tenant is one of my co workers and travels just as much as I do so he's kinda out of the picture. The other tenant works in HR at my company and doesn't travel. However...when we're gone, he keeps a baseball bat next to the front door just in case there is a home invasion. Take a second to think about that...He's not the brightest so I don't trust him to attempt fixing anything on my property. He's moving out in a few weeks though.

I'll have to start looking for a reliable and trustworthy handyman. If anyone lives in the Ventura County, CA area and has any recommendations, please send their info my way.

Chaz Mathias · Answer

@Kevin Phu Hi Kevin, the easy solution would be to find a great handyman you can trust. A better long term solution is to rent the rooms out to people you can trust who are also handy. Low their rents slightly to fix small issues. The problems you listed are fairly easy to fix and can be handled by a handy tenant.

Matt K. · Answer

Use something like https://latchel.com/ and have a backup who can authorize work, maybe leave that same person a credit card (assuming they are trustworthy, like say someone you'd give power of attorney to).

Jacob Villalobos · Answer

1.Property manager

2. Plumber

Aaron K. · Answer

Yes there are many vendors who will accept online payment, you don't even need to find a single person if you can assess the problem from a distance.  A Property manager might be more difficult to find because you are renting by the room and presumably have different leases with each tenant.

Kevin Phu · Answer

There are times I cannot assess the problem. Times like when I am out at sea with no communication with the outside world. If something were to arise, I would need a contact that my tenants can call to have the issue resolved without me being there. This is the problem I'm juggling the most...

How to manage my situation and house hack

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