Happy Harvard graduation day for those who celebrate.
As part of unloading the Harvard Square condo that I bought in 1996, I hired the realtor’s favorite handyman to fix some recessed lights, shim an old Lightolier track so that the heads could be removed (an aluminum frame installed around them was interfering), replace some ancient smoke detectors in common areas, and secure a front door jamb into the rotted frame (over 100 years old?). He charged $1800 for his labor and worked from 9a-3p, including a trip in the middle to Home Depot. When I asked if that was really the going rate, he said that he makes this much every day. If he works 250 days per year, that’s $450,000 per year for the immigrant from Brazil with no college degree.
Gemini: “Harvard graduates earn a median salary of approximately $85,000 to $95,000 ten years after enrolling.”
I previously hired a different handyman whose rates were, I think, a little lower (but that was before Bidenflation). He eventually just started saying “no” to all jobs, however, because he was too booked out. Update: I searched Gmail and found that he was charging $90/hr in 2020.
If you’re going to criticize me for financial irrationality, the situation is even worse than overpaying a noble migrant. The buyer already accepted the condition of the property and I wasn’t obligated to fix anything, do anything, or pay anything. The buyer hired a professional inspector whose job it was to uncover anything substandard. Why did I hire and pay various tradespeople, invest some of my own time in doing stuff such as changing electronic lock batteries with new 9V lithiums, etc.? I just didn’t like the idea of handing over known-broken stuff.
(The $1800 doesn’t include the $20 sandwich that I got for him at the bakery around the corner.)
Aww, cute…Phil had a crush on a buyer. The rates you paid seem to be the going rate all over (I know, I know, Florida is much cheaper). We got our seller to pay for a bunch of concessions, the only way I’d pay a former French literature major (from a small private college back East, not even Harvard or Columbia) $600 to caulk a kitchen sink. He didn’t even remove the mildewed old caulk, which shows through the translucent new caulk. I had to soak my back for an hour the last time I caulked the shower, so I’d prefer someone else to do it now that I’m in my 7th decade.
OAG: I have never met this buyer and have never seen a photo of the buyer so the crush would definitely be a truly Platonic one. I did more or less the same things for the buyer of the house that we sold in the Boston suburbs during coronapanic, just before our Florida move. She was over 70, childless, and I worried that she wouldn’t be able to maintain the place, which had sapped a huge amount of my energy over the years that we owned it. In fact, I begged her not to buy it and instead stay in her full-service modern-building rental in West Concord, MA. There were no realtors involved in that sale (found the buyer through a post on a town mailing list where I was asking about realtors) so this kind of direct communication was possible. I think the new owner is happy (she sends email from time to time with various questions). She’s put up various progressive political signs that the house previously lacked so it is now consistent with other houses in the town (e.g., “No Private Jets at Hanscom”; see https://concordindivisible.org/stop-super-emitter-private-jet-expansion/ for more on this subject).
Aww…I’m beginning to think you *do* have a goodwill account. Seriously though, it was nice of you to do those things. Realtors still have an important role in arm’s-length dealing with the other side. I have to admit, despite my gruff exterior, I also want a buyer to be happy with their purchase (I’m personally off the market, but one has to take love where one finds it).
Our handymen are usually 60 y/o or so, and retire on us. I wonder how GenZ is going to fare, when no one knows how to run a bead of caulk even at $1000/hr. Even the caulk is getting worse. A lot of my professional thinking has been on addressing repairability — the problem is outpacing my lame ideas.
I doubt this handyman is consistently billing out 6 hours a day 250 days a year. The life of an independent worker alternates between feast and famine. But, yes, the economic value of a Harvard degree is very questionable. Doing simple math makes it clear that if you are paying list price for a college degree, almost everyone would be better off attending two years at almost any trade school and then going to work in that trade.
Yes, indeed. If he was really making $450k/year (and likely not declaring much if any of it for taxes) he would be living in the Brattle Street neighborhood of Cambridge (or similar) where homes sell for $3m and up…very doubtful.
Gemini: “To comfortably afford a $3 million home, an American household generally needs an annual income ranging from $750,000 to over $1.2 million, depending on their down payment and current debt”. Maybe $450,000 after tax (since no taxes need be paid) would do it, though!
> two years at almost any trade school and then going to work in that trade
And in apprenticeships, the trainee gets paid, rather than vice versa. I really feel like Columbia U. should have paid me, for all the work I did on socializing their delinquents and bullies.
It’s circular financing, in these days of corporate landlords as the only buyers. Maybe they’ll return the favor by buying the FL compound, when the time comes to move back to Boston.
I feel grossly underpaid knowing that a dummy from Brazil can work as “handyman” and make half of my $900k/year without earning a dual PhD in Plagiarism and Black Studies.
Hi Doc!
I’ve had a bit of a windfall with weed sales from my micro-grow due to Trump Derangement Syndrome and THC Derangement Syndrome, and I’m flush with Benjamins that smell like air freshener. I’d pay you $450 for 1 hour just to watch you do something useful (You’d have to make change for $100, I don’t tip, unlike Phil.)
Best, bestie.
Not sure if any of these are part of your doctoral training but I currently need:
1) Toilet plunged
2) Gutters cleaned
3) Fence post replaced
4) Sink cartridge replaced
Your thesis “Taking charge: Black electoral success and the redefinition of American politics”, would be relevant, you would “take charge” of the whole job while I sip espresso and scroll Phil’s blog as I keep an eye on you. And by the way you earned your $900K/yr, I’m sure you did a lot of overtime both studying blacks and plagarizing.
I’m incredulous that he’s able to get $300/hr any time he wants to work. Is the broker making the usual 6% commission or closer to 50% for steering work to him?
Sorry to break it to you, Philip, but at $1,800 for one day of work, you got ripped off.
Based on what you described, none of that work is specialized or requires advanced trade skills or tools — this is plain an simple a DIY-level handyman work.
Maybe you were short on time or just didn’t want the hassle of finding someone else, but even then, that still way too expensive for the work that was done.
George A: I’ve no doubt that low-skill immigrants are vastly smarter than the native-born population, including myself. I was pressed for time. I assumed that if the realtor recommended the guy and specifically noted that he was “cheap” that his prices would be within the realm of reason. I wouldn’t hire him again, but I didn’t have time to get into a big argument with him about the $1000 overcharge. I have a feeling that he has plenty of other customers who also don’t have time to argue and, therefore, that his representation about making $1800/day is likely true.
I was whining to my scheduler about how is it we have to pay more to Santo the handy hombre than to Ernie the Electrician and Paul the Plumber? Because if Santo can do it we don’t have to bring in Pete the Plaster/Paint guy. Assuming Santo doesn’t reverse the polarity or leave a slow leak at the wastepipe tie-in.
Gmail offered to rewrite this so I sound like the class Valedictorian, but I passed.
I was cooling my heels in the Yucatan this winter and Santo was everywhere. Santo works hard but he’s only got one tool. and it’s worn, so everything looks kinda…hacked.
LOL! Who’s the nobel immigrant here, the Brazilian or former owner of the condo! I believe handymanship would provide enough opportunities to transact in cash as well.
I offered complete flexibility on payment method and the noble migrant chose Zelle rather than cash. So he may actually be paying tax on most of what he earns!