I have been struggling with this for years. I am having no luck finding/keeping anyone worth a ****. Where can I look to find good help? We have 70 mobile homes as rentals. I need someone who can do it all: plumbing, electric, roofing, flooring. I need someone with a drivers license (more of a problem than you imagine here in west central FL) and reliable transportation. I pay what is an obscene amount of money by the standards of this area. What have y'all found to work? Zip recruiter? Craigslist? Is there a handyman forum? At my wits end. I am retired and don't want to go do all this **** myself. I would rather sell all the rentals as a package to an investment group before I go back to work. HELP!!!!!
In my area, a lot of the rental people contract with a maintence company. They take a cut of the rent, and do all the upkeep. Might be easier than hiring someone yourself.
anyone with any motivation always goes on to better things. Had a great little roller man, he went on the be a school teacher. We have a great young fella looking after signs on the job sites. Setting up, tearing down. Managing work zones. He was done Friday, wants to be a Doctor. Had a little fella from Nigeria. On time every day, would do anything you ask, going back to Nigeria to be a prince or something. Had a white hat that slept in his truck for 2 years, and they finally canned his butt.
I get that, but with 70 properties, we ARE the maintenance company.
More reason to hire a maintenance company and let them handle it for a fee IMO.
So you need to have a gal in the office to handle as much as you can hand off, and take on the managers job, which is trying to run a business with the labor you have available or attract better labor. No shortcut, either hire different folks who specialize in different areas, do it yourself, or keep hoping for a unicorn who wants to do it all and do it reliably.
Around here anything to do with trailers would require hazard pay. There are 4 things here that can go wrong. Your selection process, the new workers boss, the work environment, and the pay. Obscene or not to the local crowd, pay peanuts, get monkeys. The older I get, the more I believe in hire the best people you can find and pay them well. If the wage won't fit the budget, find a more profitable line of work.
You already know your solutions. Its going to be really hard to find people who know how to do all of those things. We are a more specialized work force than in the past. That's why the maintence company. Or sell the trailers. I wouldn't want to work on trailers all the time. You don't either. I don't know what makes you think anyone else will. Trailers are built super cheap, and you're probably renting to retirees (guessing with the florida location) who don't have anything else to do but complain. If you have plumbing issues, call a plumber. If you have roofing issues, call a roofer. etc. Quit sticking all the rent money in your pocket and pay to get the stuff fixed.
Ya, who wouldnt jump on the chance to work on 70 Florida rental trailers?
To my way of thinking to keep up with even normal maintenance on 70 trailers it would require several people. The older the trailers the more people it would take. To be 100% honest I have had little to do with trailers but the ones I have been in or seen were built to the absolute minimum standards if any. So after a few years I can't imagine the problems one would be seeing!
For the right money, I would have and could have done it for five, maybe ten years? probably more like three though... I didn't know ianjoub at the time though, and wages were a lot less and work ethic was a lot higher at that time. I know that at my age, which is about average for this site, I can't do it all anymore and would fail if I tried. Lots of us had/have the skills to do the actual work, but not the motivation/tolerance/perseverance to do it reliably. That's why we specialize. It's easier not to have to have all the possible tools and supplies on your truck. Plumbing OR roofing OR flooring is plenty.
Like other have said you need more than one guy. Then you need to pay them double what you think their worth.
I'm to the point at 71 years of age I have come to the realization that I have to hire people to do most of the things that I would have been doing while putting in 50-60 work weeks and still had time to take rides on the motorcycles.
We have a full time girl running the office. When I said obscene amount of money, I meant far above what one would expect in this county. There isn't a huge amount of maintenance on these places. We did pretty thorough remodels on them when we purchased. Most weeks we only get 3-5 service requests. Some are very easy like replacing a door lock. Others are more complicated and are likely to take most of a day. We have some places that are truly distressed that we have not had tenants in yet, purchased by us in that condition. These places are filler work when all the regular maintenance is up to date. I have an electrician the office girl calls right now as needed. We tried 2 plumbing companies. They were both useless.
Boy, that's tough not to be able to find somebody that can handle that. Maybe you need to advertise the job differently, or recruit differently? I sure don't have the answer.
Maybe you can contact the local trade school and see if they have any graduates who need jobs?
You have to be able to pay top dollar in your area. Your looking for someone who could easily get a good job with benifits. If it paid 95k including housing insurance 401k 4 weeks vaca you might find someone that could fulfill your needs. I can do everything you need but you need to be able to pull me away from the good job I already have. That's the key if your not paying enough to get someone to leave there 75-80k job just hire a service. sure for 18 an hour you'll find all kinds of people claiming they can fulfill your needs but you will never be happy. Of course you might stumble across a unicorn but they wont stay
If these supply chain issues get any worse....I may be interested. LOL
You are not familiar with the pay scale in my area. You have to be a Dr. or Atty. to make 100k/yr here. A lead carpenter on a framing crew would be happy with $20/hr. and no benefits. Example: "The Citrus County Sheriff's Office offers a liberal salary & compensation program: Deputy Starting Salary : $33,716. " Yes, you too can earn $34k per year to be shot at.....
32min from you I can get a job at Stanley steamer for 20 an hour plus benifits. I dont know your area but you wont find anyone for 20 an hour. I'm sure I can find a job in your area as a mechanic for 75k a year.
A foreman in your area can easily make 25 an hour your area being withing 30 min of you where foreman's make 25 and laborers can make 20 this is the upper payscale but that's the guy you need. This is the guy you need but here's the problem he knows how to do everything but he just tells people to do it hes the foreman. You need to pull this guy from his job where hes likely making alot of overtime so his yearly salary isn't 50k it's probably closer to 65. How much are you paying these people that are not working out?
There's a Taco Cabana (fast food) in our small town that's had a help wanted sign on their billboard for $12 an hour - been there for 3 or 4 months. If you are breathing, you are qualified for most jobs around here.
What may be advertised and what actually happens are 2 different things as far as Stanley Steamer goes. That is something one doesn't understand if they aren't from around here. This is not a dig at you. Places like that advertise such things, and will follow through. Then one finds that they get 15-20 hrs. per week at that pay rate and one is responsible for selling all the jobs they get paid for, at no further commission.... If you are a master tech and work for a dealership, you can make $100k+ per year. Unfortunately, there is only 1 position in each dealership that pays that. I had a 2 bay independent auto repair shop for 10 years here and barely made that $75k figure as the owner. Yes, I was honest (downfall to make really good $$$ in that business) but had a GREAT reputation and a loyal customer base.
I am not sure where you are getting your info from, please share that with me. There are places like The Villages where the pay scale is higher, but that is close to an hour from here, not 30 minutes. That makes a huge difference.
I knew the owner of Eagle Buick personally, he died a few years ago. As I said, the ONE master mechanic can make over $100k per year. Every other tech in that shop will struggle to make the $45 figure. That is REAL WORLD around here.
What are you paying for this position and how many hours per year?
Jobs posted on indeed 30 miles from you lots of 20 per hour posted in the last 4 days. Fence installers painters plumbers carpenters.
There are towns here where nothing gets done, because they won't pay for it, and therefore nobody will do the work because they can go elsewhere for more money. The idea that you can get a reliable jack of all trades for less than $20/hour is laughable in the last ten to twenty years around here. Doesn't matter one bit what they hire deputies at, whole different job, whole different class of applicants. Trades or foremen are somewhat related, but you're not hiring a foremen, and a foremen would have better support, and narrower scope of work in most cases. You're not hiring an entry or mid level mechanic either, you're looking for someone who can do it all, travel, and work on rental trailers, that's like finding a diesel injection guy, that also does passable bodywork and does repo's.
We pay $25/hr or $1k/wk on salary. If you are a go getter, do hourly and work 50+ if you want. If you want to not work so hard, take the salary. We still expect 40/wk but the expectation on production is less. I am not willing to pay someone $25/hr times 4 hours to replace a kitchen faucet when they are an employee on payroll. I went out with a helper today. We fixed 5 roof leaks and replaced a fridge in 6 hrs.
To add to Delmer point of the towns not paying 4 or 5 years ago a family freind was telling me all about this job opening at the one local township. He got though telling all about the benefits and the work load etc then I say what's the pay his face drained and said you'll be taking a cut then said 13.75 a hour. Me and dad laughed for about 10 minutes.........
Sounds like you have the answer then.
Yes, unfortunately I do. Leave these poor folks behind who rent from us. Sell out to big corps. Let them jack rents and run out the working class folks who rent from us. Let them get the Section 8 money from the govt. for the people who refuse to work. I just don't want to go do the work myself any more. Time marches on. I feel like a family farm must feel.
It's crazy how much wages vary, friend of mine is foreman at heavy truck dealership and makes $110k a year working 40 hours a week. I haven't worked for 20/hr since I was 20 years old. I've gotten spoiled because I now say a $400 job isn't even worth getting out of bed for. Cost of living must be really low if wages are that low. Here in construction to get a green laborer you got to start them at $20/hr minimum, and even then it's still really hard to find anyone, if you find a good one you got to get them up to $25/hr to try and keep them. My brother is in concrete and pays a few guys around $40/hr, funny how a few make $100k a year and still live paycheck to paycheck..... I don't have anywhere close to as many rentals as you, I only have 3 but what i've found is my time is more valuable then doing a lot of things. I've found a good small appliance place that charges me $90 for a service call, not that i've needed but a plumber and electrician who do side work for $40/hr. For many things, you're better off paying a bit more to get a professional they will be faster and it will be better in the long run. I think one of the reasons you may struggle to find someone good is lack of advancement, you're competing against home builders for example and most people would likely rather work on new homes and in most of those companies they can move up. I think there is plenty of people who are capable of doing minor roof repairs, paint, flooring, etc etc but the pay has to be there, and if no advancement you got to appeal somehow likely better pay. I'd imagine someone maybe near retirement who just wants to put in 40 hours a week and doesn't want to hustle might be a good fit. You also will need to give on some repairs, the chance of finding someone who is good on such a broad range of items is extremely unlikely. Maybe they take forever to change a faucet, but they are a really good taper painter or what not. Here's the way I look at as a business owner, and I don't want to look down on anyone who chooses to be an employee. But many people are just not ambitious or quick learners, I am dumbfounded on nearly a daily basis how people don't know such basic things. There is a reason many people are employees instead of running their own company. Since I was mid 20's I could do any task involved in building a house, yet there is plenty of grown adults who can barely change a light bulb. Good help is really hard to find and it's getting worse all the time. It's why I gave up trying to hire employees, easier and more profitable to do it myself.
50hr a week at 25$ is 68750 a year with 2 weeks unpaid. Look outside the box to find a different pool of applicants. Throw in one of those trailers your fixing up as housing. Right now we cant find a mechanic for 75k a year they all have jobs. With so many available jobs it's hard to find good help. On the flip side you wont find someone great at everything lower your expectations no one will ever work as hard as you will.
You are looking for almost the impossible. Its very similar to a construction company here that is trying to find journeyman mechanics for their equipment but don't want to pay the rate they need. They keep hiring less experienced people for $20-26 an hour and wonder why they still have to use the dealers at times. A year and a half ago they wanted to buy me out and me work for them fulltime. The problem was money of course........they wanted to pay out 75K a year to basically do everything from repairs to equipment management. When I told him I make 3 times that in a BAD year the conversation was over. Now days heavily experienced trades people are worth their weight in gold.......and they are just going to continue to increase in value. No one is really training in these kinds of fields due to the fact that its difficult and physical work. If you really want a good tech to take care of everything you need then you are going to pay heavily for it. The old saying "You get what you pay for" is truer now than ever before. I would advise that you shouldn't look at the money going out in pay (which is what alot of company executives look at) and concentrate more on the value of your own time, and what gets accomplished. I believe you will find the right person for the job if the compensation is there, and you will see the value for the money you spend.
Does the new hire get a helper?
$1 Canadian dollar is worth $.79 US dollars so $20 CD per hour is $15.80 US. We currently have ads running for green construction laborers starting at $16 USD and have a hard time finding people who want to work. I would say our cost of living in Alabama is lower than most of Canada.
No. This seems to be a problem as well. The people who know how don't want to actually do the work, just point and give instructions. Incidentally, that is what I am doing now until I can find someone.
I'm in Alberta so it's not as bad as other parts, but to live decently I think you got to make at least $75k. But I would say even since I started working wages compared to cost of living has got quite a bit worse, 15 years ago laborer's started at $15 an hr, things have went up way more then that.
Your wanting someone that doesn't exist in the first place, anyone who could do all that could make far more being on their own than you could ever pay. Anybody who had the qualifications to do a fraction of what you listed, doesn't need to work for you ever, he or she would have standing offers working for any plumber, electrician or whoever else there is out to needing someone talented enough do it all. Not sure this has been mentioned, but maybe instead of looking for a jack of all trades so to speak, look at retiree's who've done those jobs and would be willing to work part time. Your wanting someone young who's willing to work, I doubt their out there at all, but someone who's semi retired or retired, who's used to working and now has nothing to do, might be interested in part time [work when they want] kind of work to do, just for something to do type of deal. But those you can't push or demand unreal expectations from or they'll just flat out quit due to not really needing the money. Around here retired farmers still want to do odd jobs, drive tractors, trucks, combines or planters, but they don't want to work 20 hours a day 7 days a week anymore, they want a slower pace and if you can't offer that, they'll go work for someone who will allow them 5-10 hour days and only 5 days a week in season, the rest of year, its far less hours still and when they want time off, they either get it or quit type of thing. They can and will do anything, but at a slower pace than a lot of younger guys want to run. So as one younger farmer put it, either I accommodate them or I do it all alone, which isn't an option with the size of operation he's running. So his solution was, hire three times as many guys, run larger equipment and spend less overall hours getting it done, with a much happier workforce and quit working at night altogether since nobody wanted to work in the dark anyhow. I think you need to look for a half dozen retired or semi retired guys for each job description and go from there. I also think you need a more laid back approach to getting the work done and set your expectations much lower as well, instead of directing traffic and putting out fires, you need a crew of people who have jobs they can choose from to go do as they want to, with enough people I think you'll find there's a job for everyone. Then figure out what or how they want to be reimbursed, its not always about the dollars per hour or paying top dollar, its about working conditions, times they can work or are willing to work and not really having to do something they don't want to do or hate doing to put it more bluntly. Your in a high turnover job criteria, nobody younger will last very long before being offered far more money or benefits somewhere else if they are any good. If they are basically worthless, you'll have them forever or until you fire them. If you change your workers to an older generation, the turnover might be as high or higher, but with far more to choose from, you can sort or sift them out and around more. Now maybe an older generation isn't available in your area, I don't know, but thinking Florida and retirement capital of the US and warmer winters, I'd think there might be some that would be looking for 15 or 20 hours a week to do what they've done their whole lives. Remember, most have to give up everything once they retire and move to somewhere new, but after a while, even retirement gets old and boring and many would love to do what they've done their whole lives but just at a pace they can now handle. Just a thought, do as you wish.
Randy always did a good job maintaining the trailers in Sunnyvale for Mr. Layhe. RIP John Dunsworth. Hope you are driving your Chrysler New Yorker around the great trailer park in the sky.
Back the to the original question - What benefits are you offering? Here is what we offer - PTO - paid time off, 5 days a year Vacation - 1 week at Christmas, Labor, Memorial, 4th and 2 day at Thanksgiving Health insurance - 70% of Gold single payer plan paid by the company (wife and I have same insurance plan, it's the best) Truck - for supervisors Tools - whatever is needed to compete the task safely and efficiently Training - OSHA, CDL and whatever else construction wise they want to take is paid straight time. 30 hour OSHA certs are paid at 30 hours of regular pay for example. Retirement - IRA Retirement account with company match Bonus - Job specific bonuses that can be 10-15% of annual pay depending on performance We are small company and offer all of that on top of offering the high end of the pay scale for our area. I think at a minimum you need to offer the similar benefits or the equivalent in money to hire someone who can do what you need since you will more than likely have to hire them away from a company that at a minimum is offering the same benefits and pay.
I could do it all... But I'm retired and don't want / can't work 40/50 hours a week in Florida heat. I used to volunteer at a hospital doing work the staff hated. I didn't mind the work because I worked at my pace, worked when I felt like it, and was free to do it how I decided. So it wasn't drudgery to me. I'm posting here to reinforce Randy88's thoughts. So on that vein... A cadre of (retired) workers you trust. And a list of jobs you need posted (maybe with a price). Let them decide to take or leave. I think you'll find some likes plumbing, someone else likes door & lock repair, Others like electrical, wood working, etc... After a time, if no one takes it, then hire it out.
A lot of the retirees don't care about the benefits as much or even at all, [they've already got them]. Many are not into huge pay either, it actually affects their SS checks. So yes CM is right, for those seeking a full time job, you've got to be as competitive or more to attract and keep help, but if your considering retirees, you have to think outside the box and figure out what they want for reimbursement for the work done. Two completely different worker groups wanting and needing far different ways of compensation. Again just something different to think about and ways many in my area have found and kept good help as a few guys told me, those doing the hiring need to be flexible in how and who they hire and mix around compensation packages to fit the workers needs.
Ian : One other thing about old retirees ... (I am one) Roof work ... I and many of my contemporaries are less steady at heights, than we once were. You might be well served to contract all roof repairs to a roofing company instead of unsteady old guys. (like me) Roofer would like constant stream of work and you'll have a trusted and reliable contractor. vs hiring any or first available. As a story, years ago, I was painting my house. A painting contractor I knew offered to use his discount on my behalf. The paint store was more than happy to apply his discount to my 30 gallon purchase... Store manager said this was a trifle for an account that bought six figures worth of paint annually.