The cheapest handyman turned out to be the most expensive decision I made across 17 d

We manage 17 rentals. For the first few years I optimized maintenance the obvious way: find whoever would show up for the lowest hourly rate.

Last year I actually tracked it. Every call, every invoice, every return visit. The numbers weren't what I expected.

We spent about $31,000 on maintenance across the portfolio, roughly $1,825 per door. Around 28% of that, call it $8,700, wasn't the original job. It was the second trip. The faucet that leaked again three weeks later. The drywall patch that got redone. The "I'll come Tuesday" that turned into the following Monday, with a tenant emailing me every day in between.

Here's the part that changed how I think about it. My $45/hr guy averaged 1.6 trips and 6.5 total hours per completed repair. That's about $293 a job. The $85/hr guy averaged 1.05 trips and 2.8 hours. That's $238 a job.

The expensive one was 19% cheaper per finished repair, and I'd been choosing against him for two years.

Separately, late turnover work cost me 31 vacant days last year. At an average daily rent of $95 that's $2,945 straight off the top, which is more than I spend on repairs for an entire unit annually.

Three things I changed:

1) I track cost per completed job now, not hourly rate.

2) Any callback within 30 days gets logged against the original vendor. Two callbacks and they're out.

3) Turnover work gets scheduled before the tenant moves out, not after the keys come back.

Curious whether this holds up for anyone else or whether I just had a bad run of vendors.

Two questions:

What's your actual maintenance cost per door per year? Mine came in at $1,825 and I have no idea if that's high.

Does anyone else track callbacks separately, or is that just me being obsessive about a spreadsheet?