If you’ve got a job that’ll take a week, contractors will basically fight for it - but if it’s just something that takes a few hours, it’s apparently a real struggle to get anyone to show up.
I just installed a new kitchen sink and hooked up the faucet and dishwasher for a client. He said they had called eight plumbing companies, and all of them either refused outright or said they’d get back to it but never did. One company agreed to come install it but wouldn’t do the hole in the countertop for the sink, so they would’ve needed to hire a carpenter separately - and you can imagine how thrilled a carpenter would be about a job that takes less than an hour.
This is an incredibly common story among my customers. I’m a plumber by training, but when I went self-employed, I expanded my services to cover all kinds of handyman work. Clearly, I’m filling a niche, considering the amount of gratitude I’m getting from customers. I literally received a gift basket from one just last week. I should’ve made the jump a decade ago.
The handyman is more or less gone at this point, all the contractors near me expect big massive jobs, and I’ve had the same experience. While I can do a sink and other things, there are other tasks that I’ll contact multiple people that then just never respond.
It’s funny, I’ve found the most frustrating thing about owning a house is that surprisingly few people want my money
Yes!! It’s a nightmare. You’d think loads of people would want cash in hand work given times are hard right now. But that’s not the case.
You call local general “handyman” for those jobs. Not contractors. Contractors and companies need economies of scale. There are better bigger jobs more worth their time.
For the small jobs, get a local solo person who just fixes random stuff.
Or watch tons of YouTube videos and do it yourself. Especially with the internet, it has become incredibly easy to do a lot yourself if you are decent at problem solving.
It’s an economics thing. Like what would you say is a fair price for something that would take a contractor an hour? $200 plus materials? Does that seem high maybe? If you’re a contractor, that probably seems low. $500? Maybe that gets you out of bed.
If they take a big job that will require a week of work, they might charge $2,000. Now, you think, 5 days, 40 hours, that’s $50 an hour and you were willing to pay ten times that. The difference is that $2,000 job is more likely to result in more work, more hours, with higher budgets. The $500 handyman project is an entire day, between travel and planning and tool maintenance and procuring materials. It’s a day you’re not prospecting. It’s a day where you can’t pay any employees.
And that’s before you consider that most customers didn’t even want to pay the $200. They’re going to grumble and complain that you’re robbing them, that they don’t make that much an hour at their desk job. They are going to demand a level of perfection that isn’t in the budget, and changes and scope creep because they want to get their money’s worth. They will bad-mouth you to their friends and family and internet and anyone that will listen.
It’s the 80/20 rule. 80% of anything comes from 20% of sources, whether you’re talking about profits or headaches. So you put effort into finding the good 20 and avoiding the bad 20, which means focusing on large projects and avoiding small projects.
Any contractor with a few years of experience has had nightmare projects. There’s also some psychological gymnastics on that side of the coin, because contractors who have bad experiences on a larger project are likely to justify or forget the annoyances because the experience was “worth it,” while the small job that caused any trouble at all is going to be extra frustrating because of the perceived lack of value.
I charge 50€/h including VAT. It’s true that small jobs like this don’t really pay much - but it’s also true that they sometimes lead to bigger jobs. One of the customers I’ve charged the most over time originally just had me come over to install a washing machine.
If my schedule is full, then obviously jobs like this get put on the back burner, and bigger jobs always take priority. Still, there are days when I’ve got nothing else to do, so I might as well go hang a shelf and chat with some granny.
I am a homeowner and I wish there were more out there like you. It is very hard to find people who will do small jobs at any price.
Am self-employed electrician, I see the same thing. Everyone’s so covered up that they don’t want/need the little old lady jobs - they don’t pay well, typically. I can waste a whole afternoon for them fixing ceiling fans for a couple hundred bucks, maybe, or I can do a job that’ll make 4x that in the same amount of time.
I still take those gigs, I got into this to help people, and old folks and first-time homeowners need all the help they can get. But I’m not gonna lie to you, those gigs are the first ones to get rescheduled. I’d call em beer money jobs but I don’t drink lol.
I’m trying to keep an eye out for any other stuff I can help with, too. I’m not above working outside my trade a little if it means someone’s life improves.
