For independent rental owner (IRO) Rich Sommer, who operates six apartment buildings in three Wisconsin locations, totaling 42 units, employing a full-time human resources staff is not cost-effective and probably not necessary.
To avoid some of the headaches that might come from human resources-related issues pertaining to IROs like him, when work needs to be done at the community on a given day, Sommer simply does it himself.
There are, of course, alternatives, such as hiring a contractor or a part-time employee. Sommer admits he cannot and does not want to do all of the work. However, hiring contractors can be frustrating for IROs, particularly when the contractors are not completely familiar with the community’s nuances or mechanical and maintenance-related history.
“I also am worried about issues such as workers’ compensation and any other legal situations,” Sommer says. “Contractors hired for single jobs often bring a buddy or two with them to help out. You never know what could happen.”
Sommer, who manages the communities along with his wife, says he feels fortunate that during the past 40 years he has identified a steady supply of younger workers to assist at the property, and typically hires them part-time during the summer. Some of these hires have evolved into longer-term hires.
“After all, I am willing to pay them so I won’t have to do the work myself,” Sommer concedes.
He hires them as employees, including withholding tax and workers compensation insurance as part of their payroll processing. He avoids hiring contractors and paying them as such.
“In Wisconsin, there are 21 items to comply with to be considered a contractor,” Sommer says. “I know of hires who were denied contractor status by the state and federal government and eventually were assessed withholding and Social Security (taxes) for several years.”
Sommer, 67, says that these hard-working summer hires often have brothers and sisters who eventually became old enough (and reliable enough) to do the work, and they, too, had friends who had brothers and sisters, and so on and so forth.
Recently, Sommer says, one of his most reliable part-time helpers, who he had used off and on for the past seven years, moved out of town. Sommer—somewhat reluctantly—decided to post the position on a local university job board.
The listing was written simply and matter-of-factly: Must perform all the work that has to be done around rental property. Work safe, work clean, work hard.
What A Great Response
Sommer received more than 30 e-mail responses and most included resumes. Not wanting to be bothered with having to conduct a formal job interview, he instead divided the 16 seemingly most qualified candidates into groups of four and conducted tours of the property for each group.
“My message to them was clear: there is work to be done here and I cannot do it all myself,” Sommer says. At the tours’ conclusion, Sommer asked the applicants to respond by e-mail if they liked what they saw and still had interest.
It worked.
“Last week, I scheduled six eager people to work for about eight hours each,” Sommer says. “We cleaned and prepared an apartment, patched shingles on a roof, blew out the sprinklers, cleaned the hallway, washed the windows and caught up on a couple years of landscaping at our community. All six were good workers and were willing to learn. I am confident I will find the one or two who will go on to help me out for the next few years.”
– NAA’s Paul Bergeron