My wife and I recently moved to a 3200 home community built back in the 70's and 80's. It is in Northeast PA, not too far from the North Jersey/NYC area so was mostly built as vacation homes for people from those areas. Approximately 50% of the residents live here all year. Another 25% (older crowd) bail out to Florida or elsewhere for the winter. The rest of the homes are second homes for people who live near NYC and just come here sporadically.

I recently learned there is a major shortage of handyman type guys who will shut down a house for the winter, open it up in the spring, check on it occasionally when it is empty, etc. Not necessarily doing major work in the house, but mostly 'checking in' on the house say, weekly. And if anything is wrong, notify and/or coordinating the fix. I know what I am doing around homes as a career cabinetmaker.

My question is fees. Was thinking of starting a small business where I do that type of property mgmt with a bit of handyman tasks if needed. I am curious to know from people who work in real estate or property mgmt or have someone who does this for them, what kind of pricing is fair? Whether it is a flat monthly fee, an hourly rate, or a task-based fee? What do you think works best for me or for the homeowner?

Thank you in advance for any guidance.

I would say it would depend on your level of expertise. Being a carpenter, you probably can do most things around the house besides electrical/plumbing/hvac.

Google says $65-125/hr for a handyman in PA, but you could also offer winterization and weekly checks based on the SF of the home. Winterizing a 1500 sf 3/2 is going to be a lot cheaper than a 5/4 4k sf home, and checks will also be different.

As a small business owner, I imagine you already grasp that you have to charge more than just what your time is worth to make it worthwhile (tools, insurance, travel, fuel, vehicle, etc.). If you can market yourself as a highly skilled professional in the area who can be counted on as reliable, then you can probably be on the higher end.

Personally, for one off repairs on pools, I charge $150 to show up and poke around/fix stuff for an hour then $75/hr after that. The $150 covers my time getting there and figuring out what i need to do the job. Then my hourly rate includes going to get any needed supplies if the homeowner left out vital information. I usually have what I need on the truck though as i typically as for photos of the issue before scheduling the appointment.