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homeownership with the ease of renting
  [vote for,

As a relatively new homeowner, I miss the days when a problem just meant calling the landlord or apartment super to fix a broken stove or fuse or leaky tub. Now, we have to actually find repair people and get estimates and make decisions. I bet a lot of busy people would be willing to pay for a Property Managament Company to "manage" their homes in the sense that one phone call and they dispatch "their" plumber or fixit guy to you.

If they got enough customers, economy of scale means they could have a staff of such people and keep costs relatively low for their subscribers. I'm envisioning a subscription model so you would maybe pay for parts but not housecalls or labor.

The main thing is, the homeowning customer has to trust that this service employs good trustworthy people, so it feels safe not to have to do any research or planning or scheduling, because the Property Management Company takes care of it all for you.

mimz, Jun 05 2007

http://www.allpropertymanagement.com/ A directory of property management companies. [jutta, Jun 05 2007]

National Association of Residential Property Managers (USA) http://narpm.org/
Also has a directory. [jutta, Jun 05 2007]

Hire-A-Hubby (Australia) http://www.hireahubby.com.au/
As mentioned by neutrinos_shadow. [jutta, Jun 05 2007]

GreySkills (New Zealand) http://www.greyskills.co.nz/
Looking for new franchisees. [jutta, Jun 05 2007]

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       My gut says this probably already exists.
awesomest, Jun 05 2007

       Over here, there are two companies that I know of (there's probably others) that do this sort of thing - not so much management, but they can do all of your required home fixit-type stuff. There's Hire-A-Hubby, and GreySkills (which is retired tradesmen keeping their hand in, so to speak).
neutrinos_shadow, Jun 05 2007

       Property Management companies are for rental properties. And I know there are fix-it services. But I'm envisioning one central office like you would call your landlord if you were a renter. All these other solutions still require you to be more of a decision-maker, I think.
mimz, Jun 05 2007

       My usurper?
normzone, Jun 05 2007

       // Property Management companies are for rental properties.   

       Usually, yes. But why can't they manage a house its owner lives in? Seems like it's just less work for them, and a borderline case of the existing condominium management case, for a owner's group of size 1.
jutta, Jun 06 2007

       // But why can't they manage a house its owner lives in?   

       Well, for one thing, the way most of those companies charge you is 10 percent of the rental income, so they'd need a totally different pricing model for owner-occupied.
mimz, Jun 06 2007


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