North Royalton, OH · Member since 2014 · 21 posts · 6 votes
I've been using college kids, just out of college, stay at home mom's, etc to work on our crew to help fix our flips. We subcontract concrete, roofing, and exterior painting, siding, windows if we are doing the whole house or bigger jobs. I've found its been a balancing act of choosing cost over quality, speed of completion, etc when choosing between a using GC's, contractors, and hired labor. its been working ok for me as long as I don't have alot of turnover on my crew. As my in house crew gets better and faster with each house it becomes better to use them vs. GC's and contractors. please reply to this post about your thoughts or experiences using hired workers to fix up your flips or other properties.
bedford, VA · Member since 2014 · 11 posts · 4 votes
11y
I use unskilled labor. If they last 3 months then they are not unskilled anymore. If they have not learned how to paint a wall in 3 months you hired the wrong person. If they didn't last 3 months you hired the wrong person. I would only hire unskilled people I know because there is to much risk otherwise. If you have a lot of turn over before a year. I would sub it out.
it takes about an hour to train them, and it saves about $100 per room. Break even after one room. If they do five rooms, I saved $500. Times four houses, $2000. Not bad.
Until a buyer walks in and sees poor cut-ins, streaks, uneven applications, etc., and they decide that because of the quality the house is worth more than $2000 less than market value...
And, if you can teach someone to paint like a professional in an hour, you could be making a lot more money teaching than flipping houses! ;-)
Real Estate Investor · Harvey, LA · Member since 2015 · 119 posts · 80 votes
11y
yes, when you use help like this, you are paying for an extra set of hands. If you want to pay for tools,a truck, and talent, >$10/hr doesn't work. $10/hr gets you time and labor. That's it. You supply the leadership and the tools.
you could sub it out to someone else who might hire someone for $10 or less, so they provide the leadership and tools.
Flipper/Rehabber · Woodland Hills, CA · Member since 2011 · 4 posts · 0 votes
7y
Just finished and sold my first flip. I hired individual local contractors who were licensed, insured, and got good online reviews. All work was done well and on time. One problem: The cost was so high that I made no profit! Looking for a better way next time.