Real Estate Community Forum

Are you one of those people who hire someone to fix and do repairs on your rental property or do you prefer to spend your days off doing the repairs your self?

I have one rental property and I try to do all the repair work myself, but if it's difficult such as remodeling the kitchen, I'll seek the help of a professional.

What about everyone else?

My rental is a two story home. At the present time I have a tenant living upstairs, but the down stairs apartment needs work. Luckily I can do most of the stuff myself such as paint the walls, and polish up the hardwood floors. The only thing that needs to be done is installing a new front window. The current window is old and out dated. Most of the time, I try to do all the maintenance myself. So far, I've been lucky, but I have a list of people to call if the problem is to big for me to handle.

If you have a single property to maintain, then you have the time to do most of the repairs yourself, but I have several properties that I rent out. I have no time to run around fixing things and doing the work myself. I simply call Chuck, my property manager tell him about the apartment that is complaining about a leaky faucet for example. Sometimes he might go in and fix the problem or call a repair man and send me the bill.

I know several landlords that follow this procedure. It's easier than doing the work yourself. I for one am not a handy man. I just buy property and rent it out. It's the best way to make money, especially since many home owners gave up their home to foreclosure. Many are going back into renting and that's good news for me.