Need a Good Handyman? Give Us Your Feedback on Our Handyperson Proposal

By Eric Weld, MassLandlords, Inc.

What if you could readily access a vetted, quality handyman every time you need one, just for being a MassLandlords member? Would you consider that a valuable benefit?

Interior and touch-up painting is one of the most common jobs for a handyperson. Other common jobs include furniture assembly, gutter cleaning, drywall repair and door replacements and repairs. What’s on your handyperson list today? Image: Licensed 123rf.

In this proposal, as a member in need of a handyperson, you would simply reach out to our vetted, on-staff handyman, summarize your job or jobs and schedule an appointment. No time wasted scouring online ads that you’re not sure if you can believe. No trial and error hiring a handyman only to find out they’re not up to the task. We will have done that work for you.

We use the terms handyman and handyperson interchangeably here. A handyman or handyperson is a skilled professional man or woman who can perform a wide variety of tasks – typically small jobs – related to building and home maintenance, upkeep and improvement.

The position described above is not in place yet. We are checking first to see if a handyman resource would be useful to enough of our members to warrant hiring one.

Let us know your thoughts at hello@masslandlords.net. Are you frequently on the lookout for a good handyperson? Would you regularly use a handyman service if we made one available?

If your gutters look like this, you could use a good handyman. Cleaning overfilled gutters is one of the many odd jobs suited for handyperson professionals around homes and rentals. Image: CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons-User:Randall 1022

Wanted: Good Handyperson

We think it’s not easy finding and keeping a good, reliable handyperson, based on our collective experience as property owners and landlords among MassLandlords staff. There is no shortage of ads online for handyman pros. But too many of us have gone through the frustrating process of contacting, scheduling, meeting and supervising ad hoc generalists in our homes and rentals only to find out they don’t know what they’re doing. Or they don’t return calls, or don’t show up. Or they promise way more than they can deliver.

And if you do find a good handyman with broad skills, who can do whatever you ask at your home or rentals, it’s not long before they’re booked solid with a growing client list and longer wait times. Before long, they’re only taking big, well-paying jobs and can’t squeeze in your drywall repair.

It’s become a notorious trope among property owners: A good handyperson is hard to find. We’re talking about a skilled professional with a range of know-how, who can take on a punch list of small-but-necessary projects and knock them out in a reasonable time frame.

Jobs might include replacing a storm or screen door, caulking holes in the eaves, removing carpet, cleaning or repairing gutters, adjusting dragging or squeaking doors and windows, repairing drywall after a careless tenant, spot and interior painting, replacing or installing fixed furniture like bathroom shelves, television wall mounts or affixed mirrors.

Handyperson jobs often fall between the cracks of tasks simple enough to do yourself and technical enough to require a licensed specialist, like a plumber or electrician. Handypeople can also prepare job sites for the licensed trades and clean up after to minimize your licensed billable hours.

Part of what makes a good handyman so valuable is that they’re more than just laborers. They have deep knowledge of home and building systems, can complete a disparate range of tasks, but usually don’t charge three figures an hour as a plumber or electrician might. And ideally, they can schedule you in this month.

A MassLandlords Handyperson

We think we are in position at MassLandlords to make it easier for our members to hire a good handyman professional.

Depending on feedback to this proposal, we would leverage our large association with property owners and service providers to make a full-time W-2 hire of a handyperson who could be scheduled by members at an hourly rate close to cost. We would screen our hire per our processes. Hiring full-time will give the handyperson stability and predictability, with benefits like paid time off. This stability means you would only have to pay close to our cost, without the significant markup that comes from contractors who ordinarily have to spend substantial uncompensated time farming leads and bidding jobs.

When you need a handyperson, you would simply upload pictures of the job to be done and schedule them on our site.

Handyman Pros Needed More Than Ever

The job of handyman or handyperson is one of the world’s oldest continuous professions. The word “handyman” dates back more than 300 years. But the history of the odd-job, jack-of-all-trades who can fix and maintain all the corners of the home (or castle or hut) is ancient.

The need for handyperson professionals has not waned over time. In fact, their versatility and broad-based trade skills, along with the 20th-century rise in homeownership, have made handyperson pros more in demand now than ever. That demand is multiplied in Massachusetts due to its weather and high percentage of aging homes and structures that require constant tweaks and updates.

Artificial intelligence may be replacing an increasing range of jobs, but the handyperson isn’t one of them any time soon. A go-to human handyperson who is trustworthy, reliable and validated for quality is a valuable commodity.

And, seemingly, in short supply.

Tell Us About Your Handyperson Experience

Do you have one or more good handyman professionals on your contact list? If so, you’re lucky, and we’d like to know about it. How did you find them? What qualifications keep them on your go-to list? Are they taking on new clients?

Also, let us know if a MassLandlords handyperson service that you could rely on would be something you would use.

Write us at hello@masslandlords.net with the subject line “Handyperson.”