Pooling three site techs regionally, and the 118-unit is what scares me
We run 410 units across three properties for two owners, fee is 3.5% of collected revenue plus a turn coordination fee. Owner on the bigger asset has been on me about controllable expenses since the summer, and maintenance payroll is the largest line I actually control.
Right now each property has its own tech. Three techs, roughly $58k loaded each with the truck allowance and phone. Work orders last quarter came in at 618 across the book, average time to close 1.8 days. The two newer properties sit around 1.2 days. The 118-unit built in the early 70s is dragging the average to 2.9 on its own and eats about 44% of total work order volume with 29% of the units.
The plan I've costed: two techs plus one lead in a shared pool, dispatch software at about $2.10 per unit per month, tablets, one shared van. That's roughly $52k off payroll annually if I don't backfill, minus $10k of software and vehicle, so call it $40k. Split by property that's real money on a 6.1% cap.
What I can't get comfortable with is the old building. Its calls are mostly cast iron drain backups and boiler nonsense that the current tech knows by memory. A pooled tech shows up cold. If turn times slip and renewals drop two points on that asset, I've burned the savings and then some, and that's the owner who talks to other owners.
Options on the desk: pool all three, pool the two newer and leave the old one alone, or keep bodies where they are and just buy the dispatch software to fix routing. Leaning toward the middle one but that leaves the worst property with the worst economics untouched.