Guide
How to find a reliable plumber, electrician, and handyman for your rentals
Updated
The bottleneck in most repairs is not the repair. It is the forty minutes spent finding someone who will come. A vendor list built in a calm month is worth more than any app, and it takes about an afternoon.
Which trades you need on file
- Plumber — the most-called trade. One who does drains and one who does water heaters may be different people.
- Electrician — licensed; anything past a bulb or an outlet cover.
- HVAC — furnace and AC. Ask if they service your fuel type (gas, oil, electric, heat pump).
- Handyman — doors, drywall, caulk, blinds, small fixtures. The most valuable name on the list, because they close the most requests.
- Locksmith — with after-hours pricing known in advance.
- Appliance repair — or a policy of replacing anything under a set value.
- Pest control, and a drain/sewer specialist with a camera, for when the plumber says "main line".
Two per trade: a primary and a backup. The backup exists for the week the primary is on vacation, which is the week the water heater goes.
Where to find them
- Ask other landlords in your area — a local investor meetup, a landlord Facebook group, the person you bought the building from. A referral from someone with ten units beats any star rating.
- Ask your best vendor who they use for the other trades. Good tradespeople know good tradespeople.
- Supply houses: the counter staff at the plumbing or electrical supply house know who pays their bills and who does volume.
- Review sites last, and read the one-star reviews for the pattern (no-shows, upsells), not the count.
Six questions before they go on the list
- Do you text? Will you reply to a text with a time window? (If the answer is "call the office," they are a backup at most.)
- Are you licensed and insured, and can you send the certificate? Keep it on file, with the expiry date.
- What is your service-call fee, hourly rate, and after-hours rate? Get it in a text so it is written down.
- Will you go to a unit with the tenant present and me not there? Will you go with a lockbox code?
- What is your usual lead time for non-urgent work, and can you do same-day for emergencies?
- Do you send an invoice that states what you found and what you did? (You need the cause on paper for charge-backs and for insurance.)
Be the landlord they answer first
Tradespeople triage their customers too. To be at the top of the list: send a clear text with the address, the problem, a photo, and the tenant's number every time; do not haggle on the service call; pay the day the invoice arrives; and say thanks. A vendor who is paid same-day by text will pick up your emergency over the customer who takes 45 days.
Name / company · trade · mobile (texts: yes/no) · service fee · hourly · after-hours · license # · insurance expiry · will go unaccompanied: yes/no · notes (what they're best at, what they won't do) · last used
Questions
Should I use a national handyman platform instead?
They are a fine backup and a bad primary: the person changes every time, the price is a marketplace price, and nobody remembers your building. Use them when your bench is empty, and use the visit to ask the tradesperson if they take direct work.
How do I handle a vendor who does extra work without asking?
Set the rule in the first text — "anything beyond the quote, text me before doing it" — and pay for the extra once with a reminder. The second time, they are off the list.