I've had exactly one tenant, in 14 years, clear out under the kitchen sink for me to resolve a leak. I thanked them for it. People suck most of the time
One thing I've noticed in my 28 years of working for myself doing electrical and handyman work is customers don't understand how much money we have to invest to keep our business going I believe if they took that into consideration they wouldn't be bitching as much as they do about prices that they're given to complete a job that they want done
The way you make more money on labor and material is specialize in something and get your license, Example if you got your plumbing license you can open a account at supply houses and save money there. Also customers expect to pay more for Specialty Services compared to Handymen.
I have my electrical license, it doesn't get me more money on jobs. Unless I open up a electrical business. Alot of people are cheap and in this economy just makes it worse.
I tell people 100 dollars an hour and I may be 25 to 40 of it. We ain't getting rich no matter what people think. I think mostly staying hourly with a hard cap of 600 to 1k with trusted management companies is the way to go if you can. Keep the fast work a set price to keep profits up and pay them bills 🤑
i get my gloves from harbor freight. I don't upcharge materials because then I would have to charge sales taxes. To keep it simple, I charge customers what I pay. But I will charge them $100 flat fee for a hd trip if job requires specific unforeseen stuff. Sundays are sacred to me, I don't work on sundays.
Yea I used to buy harbor frieght gloves until I started finding deals. How are you able to charge them 100 for a trip to the hardware store? Do u quote it and realized u don't have the right parts and let them know 🤔
@@thehandymanexperience226 I normally know before hand what the job will be so I just buy my stuff on the way. If I'm at their house and they come up with something not specified prior and requires me to leave their house to buy stuff to finish the job, extra $100. If I mess up, don't have right parts, etc then that's on me no charge. Usually I only have this charge for customers who have be do random stuff at their house. Bigger projects, trips to the store is accounted in the bid.
For some reason, nobody puts any respect on any kind of professional or labor. It’s ridiculous. They’ll spend $1500 on phones and spend money on Jordans and everything else, but won’t spend money on a professional.
Don’t forget to time is money if you spend an hour having to go pick up a vanity and spend $100 on it and only mark up 10% that’s 10 bucks you made that didn’t cover the cost of your fuel wear and tear on your vehicle, etc. etc.
Yea this I'd so true. I pack my truck stupid with materials cus I know it kills me to pick up stuff. I try to prepare as much as a can so I could prevent trips to the hardware store.
When doing a job for a property manager do the job keeping your eyes open for other work especially life safety items that could come back to bite the property manager. Tripping hazards like cracks or upheaval in concrete, loose railings, loose steps especially decks. Non working locks to exterior areas. Lighting such as stairways, exterior hallways, driveways are big security risks. Report anything back to property manager in writing if you can. It exonerates you and puts them on the hook. You will definitely get more work this way. O ya, fire detectors, fire extinguishers. Bad electrical like outside outlets not in a proper waterproof housing, broken covers, no gfci
Take pictures and if possible use a secured email that shows sent received. When the lawyers come calling from insurance companies you have conformation. Also when you point stuff like that out half the time you get more easy work as long as it's not handrails that's a permit.
The money is in commercial. You can charge whatever you want pretty much. 100% markup on material and they dont even question it as long as the job gets done and they can resume operations
Menards sadly dosent exists in the west I miss it dearly from growing up in Michigan. I even have a care package from friends every so often if I want something. The home depot signature this is most likely due to high volume of returns and activity on thoes cards. Our business card towards the end of the year gets picky like that for signature.
How to get more money out of a job, don't itemize, don't work for property managers unless they are ok with respecting your finical needs. I was pretty much in your shoes back in 2020 and before I mainly worked for landlords, then I raised my hourly and from there pretty much only bided jobs. I rarely work for the hour now. This is how I break it down: 1. landlords/property managers====== lots of work and bare minimum pricing. So you work more. 2. Working for middle class and high end clients. A little less work but making $$$$$ twice as much a lot of the time so you are working half as much for the same amount of money. I would rather charge more and make the same than working all the time and having lower prices to do it. Im in a rural area so we really don't have any property managers that hire handymen by me they all have in house maintenance most of which are worthless. I do the same thing I only go to home depot to look at the clearence tools. Had no Idea that that they quit the 11% off
Yea totally know what your saying! Yea property managers are cheap I make it work. I still have customers that appreciate me and get referrals. Plus new calls its all over the place. Just matters on the jobs.
I like menards better then home depot, like you mentioned, yea they dont have milwaukee or makita or dewalt tools there but, other wise menards ima huge fan of.
By the way my Lowe’s has a variety of shark bite fittings at 75% off. There pushing out the brass fittings for the cheaper plastic push to fit. I think a 1/2” elbow shark bite brass is like $3
Usually on t and m. You mark up the material 15 percent let the customer pay for it. But I do the same stock up on clearance items I’ll use later. Just sucks come tax time keeping track.
15%-20% markup is old school way and doesn't pay the bills unfortunately and doesn't CYA when there is an issue with the material down the line which the customer says you need to cover out of your pocket. with the insane cost of everything these days, in many cases you need a 50%-100% markup or more. he used the example of getting PVC P-traps for $0.88 when normally they are $4.94. if he gets a service call to replace a PVC trap under a sink and he's getting forced to accept pre-determined labor pricing from these large scale property managers, he should be charging $40 for material at least, maybe $50 in the case of a p-trap replacement ($20 for P-Trap kit + $20 for coupler/fernco + misc for gaskets or thread sealant). his actual list material cost is maybe only $10, but there is also the cost to procure the material and the cost of guaranteeing the material if something goes wrong. if a property management company slaps him with a $115 service call rate for fixed labor that leaves zero margin and he's essentially working for time and not profit, and that's a big issue. that's where the material mark up comes into play
Here I am working Sunday who knew. The only thing I dislike on weekends is the big box stores are super busy and it's hard to leave the plumbing ir electrical isle in a timely manner since YOU WILL GET QUESTIONS. I agree alot with materials the other day we bought a mess if bathroom sinks since we burn though them fast. They were 20ish instead of 80 or 100 so easy baked in profit. I'm a Home Depot roamer myself I catch 1 cent tools often and resell them easy $100 there! The other day I got 5 or more metabo triple hammer kits for 20ish each sold them to a framing crew 80each worth my time. That's my rule on this stuff can I offload it quickly or use it on a job this month? And is it at least 50% or more in realistic profit from what I can sell on the open market. None of us have enough storage but materials are a big winner assuming you don't spend too much time trying to save a buck. For all these purchases I do have a credit card for expressly Making money off stuff and never dips into everyday funds. My best one was 20 m12 2x 6ah battery kits at a penny each sold for 100 that day! Another source of income for me is used tools of az. I often find occidental leather diamondback 300 400 dollar tool belts listed as acceptable for around 100$. 90% of the time there clean and perfect enough and that's 100 easy each. These things fund my tool purchases and is kinda a little fun in the meantime. As we know the specialty tools make you the money so it all feeds each other. Sometimes people see my pb swiss and neopos tools and think that must cost a fortune but not really I don't buy things unless I have to have it or it's at a price om ok with. Sometimes it takes years to get it cheap enough not a problem for me I will get what i want how I want to get it. Keep the videos rolling this is a pleasant surprise so close to each other. And if you can try and keep your engagement up by commenting more when you can you'd be surprised what happens when people see you care.
Yea last year I average some good money to support that tool budget. I hope I didn't come across naggy or mean I only mean the best for you and would like to see you prosper. And gasp 😳 maybe make some money off all that hard work! I have a deep respect for what you do video wise and it's exactly why I don't do my own "ain't no one got time for that!" LOL
@@thehandymanexperience226 Ohhhh I missed that part. If a client treated me like that, then they're fired. I didn't realize the tenant was turning you away. Bill them the turn-away fee, which could be high. You didn't just miss that job, you missed something that could have paid you in that time period scheduled. If you had a guy on payroll, you would still owe him. In this case, you are the scheduler AND the labor.
@@thehandymanexperience226 Labor costs $250/day, (skilled labor maybe $350) plus admin and payroll, so like $350/day- $400. How much did that last minute cancellation cost you of that? Your videos help me, so I'm just sharing my thoughts. 1 time is shame on me, 2nd time is....cant get fooled again.
