Whats everyone do for a living?!?

[Kenneth in Texas]

It's actually working out too well. I'm booked up for the next six months and I have five bids on my desk to get out and two meetings scheduled for next week to look at jobs. I work alone and I'm already at the higher end of what the bigger companies are charging. They hire me because I do one job at a time, I do all the work, and they trust me. I don't advertise, I just post pics on Facebook and friend everyone that I can on there. Word of mouth is huge, and Facebook does a lot of that for me!!!

The reason I say it's doing too well is that I'm turning down jobs and losing out on a few because some people wont, or just can't wait six months for me to get to them. While some of those people who want you right away are not who I want to work for, there have been a few projects that I would have liked to have done. If I hired employees, I think I could get the jobs done faster, and cut down on the backlog. Unfortunately every time I've done this, it turns into more work for me and I find myself baby sitting instead of enjoying myself. Working alone on a job, from start to finish, is what I like.

Eddie

Good deal Eddie, glad you are busy. Im with you, I wouldnt want to have to outsource anything, if we cant do it we just wont take it on. Back when I was doing this sort of thing for others, any time I hired someone to do something it always turned into a hassle and in the end it just wasnt worth it for me. Brother and I are probably a lot like you, we have experience (40+ years combined) in just about all phases of construction due to having a lot of rental homes and doing the upkeep and repairs ourselves. We have always had others ask us to fix this or repair that over the years but have turned them down because we just wasnt into that. Now that I have sold most of the rental units, believe it or not I really miss doing that kind of work and am thinking very hard into going back into this type work.

 

[hmtech]

Been in IT for over 16 yrs, but I love metal working and fabrication, somehow I must of been related to Henry Ford or Thomas Edison.... I like building stuff....

 

[EddieWalker]

I grew up helping to fix rental properties. I would never want to be a landlord, but I get calls from them all the time to fix what's been ruined. Usually those are the jobs I can't get to in a timely matter, but every now and then I do one, and it always reminds me not to own rentals!!!!

I get quite a few jobs from people who have hired a contractor, they started the job then either disappeared, or where told not to come back again. I listen very closely to what clients don't like. One of the biggest complaints in the contractor not showing up. The other is not doing what they wanted them to do. Crazy how often the contractor does what he wants and not what the client wants. Usually it's the easy way to do it. I figure if you want it there, or to look a certain way and it's going to be hard to do, I bid it accordingly and do it like they want it.

There is good money out there and a lot of work with some very pathetic competition. Go for it. I'm sure glad that I did.

Eddie

 

[TnAndy]

I grew up helping to fix rental properties. I would never want to be a landlord, but I get calls from them all the time to fix what's been ruined. Usually those are the jobs I can't get to in a timely matter, but every now and then I do one, and it always reminds me not to own rentals!!!!

Eddie

Yeah....tried the landlord thing. Built 3 new, single family houses for rental. Sold all 3 after a few years, deciding rental income wasn't going to help me much if I was in prison for killing a freaking sorry renter.

I'd heard the tales from my neighbor over the years, but he was in the Section 8 market, and I figured by building nice houses, I'd get nice renters without money problems. Nope....renters are renters. They pretty much ALL suck.

Only GOOD thing that came out of it was I made real good money on the houses. Built them for cash, rolling the rent into the next one, so when I sold, it all came to me....and Uncle Sam....but even that was better at 15% capital gains after renting them a year, rather than 28% income tax + 15.3% SS if I sold them new. AND I sold out just before the housing crash in 2007-08.

 

[Ken]

Well since some are posting "prior" vs just "current" employment.
I started delivering TV guides until my best bud moved and I took over his paper route. But that was when I was 10 to 12.

DFB - I must skew those averages, from my first full time job in 1975 till I retired in 2011 I worked at/out of the same little Army Lab, basically one job doing a multitude of things, from field biology to delivering and running mapping systems in Serbia before and after they split up Bosnia.

But I prefer jibber-jabber on TBN!!

How many were the "A/V guy" in High School?

This is a easy answer there wasn't any TV's while I was in high school. Early 50's Also every body was broke so no need to find out what one was. Went to Army for a promised education in Diesel engineering. Which meant repairing Stand by Generators and anything with engines . Learned to fix most any engine and enjoyed the experience. out of the service studied and received the 1st.Class Radiotelephone License where the teacher was telling of the Bell Labs were building a transistor that would most likely be used on toys. Worked on Micro wave equipment carrying signal to cable tv systems. experience led to Natural gas company working on communication systems and Scada of main line pipeline valves and pumping stations. Also getting a Electrical license worked up to Master . Good old President Carter in his midnight summer dream of running out of natural gas by having the pipelines shut down.
Went to work for Power and Light co. same equipment just now overhead instead in the ground.
Saved money and when company was forced to hire not by education but by Equal rights and when those in our dept. would go dancing down the hall singing Waltzing Matillda to rest room
Retired.
So now 20 years later never regretted the decision.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Yeah....tried the landlord thing. Built 3 new, single family houses for rental. Sold all 3 after a few years, deciding rental income wasn't going to help me much if I was in prison for killing a freaking sorry renter.

I'd heard the tales from my neighbor over the years, but he was in the Section 8 market, and I figured by building nice houses, I'd get nice renters without money problems. Nope....renters are renters. They pretty much ALL suck.

Only GOOD thing that came out of it was I made real good money on the houses. Built them for cash, rolling the rent into the next one, so when I sold, it all came to me....and Uncle Sam....but even that was better at 15% capital gains after renting them a year, rather than 28% income tax + 15.3% SS if I sold them new. AND I sold out just before the housing crash in 2007-08.

That's why I buy real estate investment trusts and get rental income by proxy. Downside: no depreciation, and this Congress officially hates dividend income in the year 2015.

 

[Country Geek]

I sling bits in the nearby cube farm so that I can afford my 20 acres of heaven that's 30 miles south.

 

[grnspot110]

Grew up farming, couple years at a retail lumber yard, one winter at a radiator plant, couple years setting up & hauling farm equipment, 3 months at a grain elevator & 29 years as a paid firefighter, retired for the last 9 years!

 

[jack707]

Union Boilermaker

 

[Kenneth in Texas]

I grew up helping to fix rental properties. I would never want to be a landlord, but I get calls from them all the time to fix what's been ruined. Usually those are the jobs I can't get to in a timely matter, but every now and then I do one, and it always reminds me not to own rentals!!!!

I get quite a few jobs from people who have hired a contractor, they started the job then either disappeared, or where told not to come back again. I listen very closely to what clients don't like. One of the biggest complaints in the contractor not showing up. The other is not doing what they wanted them to do. Crazy how often the contractor does what he wants and not what the client wants. Usually it's the easy way to do it. I figure if you want it there, or to look a certain way and it's going to be hard to do, I bid it accordingly and do it like they want it.

There is good money out there and a lot of work with some very pathetic competition. Go for it. I'm sure glad that I did.

Eddie

For sure having rental property is a tough life, almost like tote the note cars or loan companies, nevertheless I made it in for about 20 years but recently sold all but one couple months ago.

Just seems like there are more and more people now days that can't, or don't want to do work around their property. Long as I carry a large liability policy I believe I will make the plunge.