How to know when to hire Maintenance person on payroll?

Question

Hi all! We self-manage our properties. We will have 45 doors at the end of the summer and I'm wondering how to figure out the right time to hire our own maintenance guy instead. Like many other managers, we find it difficult to find contractors that can do the work right in a timely manner. But I don't want to jump on having someone on payroll unless it is really necessary.

What do you recommend? What have you done?

Richard F. · Answer

Aloha,

When to hire depends  on the general condition of all of the properties, and the real skillset of the potential hire. You should have a thorough preventative maintenance program for each property, which will help to keep the help busy when there are no renovations or service calls. You also could develop a capital improvement plan for each property...a "wish" list that you can utilize to further increase the actual value of the property over a 5 or 10 year period. Be sure to obtain proper worker's comp insurance, and familiarize yourself with OSHA and EPA regulations for the industry. Also, from a practical standpoint, there are a lot of tasks that must, or should, utilize two people, either due to bulk, or safety concerns. Be sure you have at least a part time person available as well.

Bill Ham · Answer

You hire a full time maintenance person once the cost of money spent on contractors exceeds the salary cost of the employee. If you get a maintenance tech that is HVAC certified you can pay for them by avoiding one or two calls to an outside HVAC vendor.

Rule of thumb- 2 employees per 100 units. 1 in management and 1 in maintenance per 100 units.

Steven Foster Wilson · Answer

It sounds like you need to scale more. If you are worried about loosing him and want to keep him then pay him more. I would look over all of your systems, see what needs to happen to get scale and when would it make sense with the numbers to hire someone. There is always someone else out there.

Sergey A. Petrov · Answer

Keep subbing it out. Your own someone on your own payroll won’t get things done quicker or better. I’d never rely on just one individual who most likely will be part time with 45 units and may not have the experience with all the things you need (will that person mow the lawns, vacuum hallways, replace light bulbs, do drywall work, flooring, climb on roofs, clear out drains?). You’ll still need others where your guys isn’t strong. And if you find that person who can do all these things and is so great at them I’d be wondering why they are looking for a job…

What happens when he calls in sick? Goes on vacation? Gets injured on the job (hopefully you will have bought enough insurance for that)? Who is doing payroll?

I’d wait to hire until I have enough work for at least two people and keep subbing it until then.

Justin Moy · Answer

In multifamily once you get to about 70 units you'll typically have a part timer. Full timer for every 100 units as a general rule of thumb. Based on those numbers it doesn't sound like there'd be enough work for them to do unless your properties are very old and need frequent maintenance. But you can also see how many hours per month you are billed for a 3rd party maintenance person. If they're billing you for full time hours consistently every month, then it could be worth exploring how much it would cost to bring that in house.

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

I wouldn't get an in-house guy. There are plenty of days where they will have nothing to do. And the cost and liability of doing it yourself just doesn't make sense. Sub contract this out...

Austin Johnson · Answer

I believe the rule of thumb is 100 units. once you hit 100 units, you hire a full time PM and a part time Maintenance guy. obviously if you're the PM, don't hire a PM,lol. but 100 units is when i would begin looking. that's enough in theory to keep them busy.