PropertyManagementMaven: February 2010

To keep home improvement costs at a reasonable level, you have decisions to make.

Electrical work: A licensed electrician can handle anything related to electricity. They cost about $75 to $100 an hour. You should hire one for any basic electrical work or anything that involves new wiring in the walls.

A good independent handyman has less experience but costs only $25 to $50 an hour. He probably has many capabilities. For example, he could not only install a new ceiling fan, he could also paint the ceiling.

Franchises, such as HouseDoctors, charge more but are more likely to insure and bond their crews.

Plumbing: Similarly, the independent handyman could not only replace the faucet or install the toilet, but he could replace most bathroom floors as well.

His work will cost less than that of a union plumber. But for projects that require new pipes or rearranging pipes under the floor, a professional plumber is your best bet.

Heating and cooling: Depending on the handyman's experience, he could replace the thermostat or a thermocouple, but for actual furnace or air conditioning repairs, call a pro.

General contractor or tradesman? Experts reporting in Money magazine say a general contractor will handle everything related to a home improvement project. It's a big help if the project includes several subcontractors. He will mark up their fees by 10 percent or 20 percent to cover his own expenses.

If your project requires only one or two subcontractors, you might be able to manage it and save money.

 

 

 

Gabe Sanders and Susan Maxwell

Stuart Florida Real Estate 

Residential Homes, Condos and Land
Waterfront and Golf Course Communities in Martin and Saint Lucie Counties

Search the Martin County MLS

Sign up for a personal customized Market Snapshot

 

Call 772-323-6996 or 1-866-899-7977 for information

 

A Certified Property Manager, CPR, is a certification earned by real estate professionals who wish to fine tune their property management skills. CPR's are proficient in managing from single family homes, duplexes and condos to retail, commercial, and industrial real estate.

The Certified Property Manager, presented by the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM), is the foremost property management certification associated with the National Association of Realtors. For more info call (800)837-0706 or visit www.irem.org.

William C. True, Broker
ABR, ABRM, AHWD, BS, CIPS, CRB, CRS, e-PRO, GREEN, GRI, RSPS, SRES, TRC
Licensed Real Estate Broker
Licensed Mortgage Broker
Notary Public
True Real Estate
"Sarasota's Exclusive Buyer Agents"
Tel (941) 918-1956
Fax (941) 918-0416
william@truesarasota.com
www.TrueSarasota.com
Check out www.SeeSarasotaLive.com - Live streaming webcam of Sarasota Bay and downtown Sarasota from Siesta Key

 

About a year or so ago, my husband and I use to place our listings on Craigslist and it was the best lead generator ever.  We managed an office and every day the phones would ring like crazy.  No matter how much our company would spend on newspaper advertising the only calls we got were "Craigslist".  Not to mention the numerous email inquiries. 

But like everything in life, society started abusing and misusing it.  Now, all we get every morning are dozens of solicitations for other websites and scams.  WOW, it's really sad how "people" just can't utilize a good thing without ruining it. As the site became more and more popular for Realtors to post, it slowly went down hill. 

It's actually dangerous to have a new agent post on Craigslist because they must be trained now on how to spot a virus or scam, and delete without opening.  Every morning we'd wake up to 30 or more emails, and you can see that they were all done at the same time but with different names (stolen of coarse to make it look like a legitimate inquiry).

What also hurt the effectiveness of Craigslist was something my old Broker started to do.  He found out that it was working so well for us, so he made it mandatory for every secretary in every office to post dozens of ads every morning.  Well, if you know how craigslist works, the more posts put on, the lower your post goes on the visible list. 

Needless to say, legitamate buyers and sellers must have gotten so disgusted by the scams also, and started going elsewhere to find home ads.  it's very dissappointing that another GOOD thing has gone down the drain.

So I would love any suggestions anyone might have for a site (or sites) where we could get the phones to ring again.  We've searched high and low, and we use most of the well known RE sites, but none work the way Craigslist did.

Thanks in Advance for any ideas!