Running the Business · Part 2
Property managers, home-warranty companies, and realtors: volume vs. margin, and the paperwork each one lives on
Three sources send a plumber steady work at a price the plumber does not set. A property manager sends the same building's calls for years, at a negotiated rate, and needs them handled before a tenant's habitability complaint becomes a legal problem for the landlord. A home-warranty company sends dispatches at a flat trip fee with the repair pre-authorized to a cap, and pays on its own terms. A realtor sends inspection-repair jobs on a two-week escrow clock. This lesson explains what each relationship is actually buying, what it pays and does not pay, the paperwork each one requires, and how to decide how much of each a new business should take.
What the full lesson covers
- A property manager's plumbing call is a legal clock: Civil Code 1941.1 makes a rental untenantable without working plumbing and hot and cold water, so the manager needs a plumber who answers, shows up, invoices the same day, and documents. That reliability is worth more than a low rate; negotiate the rate, not the response.
- Home-warranty dispatches pay a fixed trip fee plus repairs authorized to a cap set by the company; the customer is the company, not the homeowner, and the profit is in volume, speed, and the upsell of what the contract does not cover, done honestly.
- Realtors send small, urgent, well-paying jobs on an escrow deadline, and expect a written report the inspector's lender will accept. Never pay a referral fee to a real estate licensee without checking with your CPA and their broker; keep referrals clean.
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More lessons in Getting Work
- 1Where the first ten jobs actually come from
- 2Supply-house relationships and credit: the account, the terms, the personal guarantee, and the notice your supplier sends your customer
- 3Subbing to general contractors: how to get on the list, what they check, and the four clauses in the subcontract that matter
- 4Property managers, home-warranty companies, and realtors: volume vs. margin, and the paperwork each one lives onYou are here
- 5Google Business Profile, reviews, and referrals: the only marketing that matters in year one, and the two laws that govern reviews