Home Repair: The Career Right For You

If you or a loved one is out of a job or you are simply looking to make a career change, home repair may be the career for you. Home repair has an ever-expanding job market and those who are good with their hands benefit immensely from this career path. Home repair careers are just as they sound: careers involving the maintenance and repairing of homes. There are many reasons people go into home repair careers. Here are a few commonplace reasons: flexible schedules, interesting job locations, new challenges every day, in-demand/needed service, helps people, and you are doing what you are good at.

Flexible Schedules

As a home repair worker, often referred to as handyman, you have a very flexible schedule. This is because you are the owner of your own business. For most, it does not take too much overhead to start up your own home repair business. Even handymen who are contracted through companies or are a part of a larger organization have control somewhat on their schedules. This flexibility allows you to choose the jobs you want to take on. This allows you to be able to have time to relax and spend time with loved ones or to take vacation days as needed.

Interesting Job Locations

With the home repair career path, you are not tied to a desk day -in and day-out. Instead, you are out in the town or city at a new location every job. One day you may be called out to repair a wall for a family in the suburbs, the next day you could be working beachside putting up the final touches of a roofing project for a high-end client. The day after you may be off to the inner city to fix a leaky skylight in a modest apartment.  This aspect of the career is very appealing to many people as the stagnation of a desk job can be mind-numbing as well as depressing. Conversely, the promise of new job sites daily is an exciting option, providing a variety of locations, interactions and projects. If you are someone who thrives on change and new situations, then this is the ideal career for you.

New Challenges Everyday

Along with the ever-changing locations are the challenges that come with them. Every day has new and exciting home repair challenges to work around or overcome. These challenges range from weird weather while outside installing a window, odd installations/ repairs, or even the client’s pet dog that follows you around all day while you work. Adapting to and overcoming new daily challenges appeal to many people who have become home repair handymen. In comparison office jobs tend to become monotonous after a few years of working at the same place every day.

In-demand/ Needed

People in the home repair industry are always in demand. Many people have jobs that leave little to no time for repairing their own houses, which is where you come in and save the day. Home repair handymen are especially needed after natural disasters and weather-related disasters, as homes will need to be made livable again in the wake of destruction. This includes window repair and installation, side paneling repair, and roofing repair.  As houses will always need repairs, the need for those qualified to repair them are also always going to be needed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average income for someone in the repair industry is $39,080 a year or $18.79 per hour.

Helping Others

This may not be your specific driving force as to why you have chosen to go down the home repair career path but, for a lot, the satisfaction of helping someone who needs help is its own reward.  Helping out others is definitely a huge part of this career as you are the saving grace in most home repair cases. It often runs the gamut between a caved-in roof, or to fix a broken window in the dead of winter. Whatever the case, you are the one that helps them during a stressful time, and that feeling for many is what causes them to continue repairing homes for many years.  Additionally, by helping others when they really need it, many handymen gain life-long clients.

Doing What you are good at

If you are seriously considering becoming a home repair person then it is likely that you would have an interest or love of working with your hands, using power tools, and completing home repair projects. This career gives you the ability to do what you like to do or turn that home repair hobby into a lucrative business. Many home repair specialists begin their businesses by doing small odd jobs on the side. After a while of successful projects, you may find that you are able to make a living doing what you are good at.

Legalities of Starting Your Own Home Repair Business