There are many of us that have to deal with evictions, cleanouts, and clean up of newly purchased properties.

To be realistic, some of us are not capable of doing the labor or are too busy with more profitable work.

HOWEVER

I've noticed that junk hauling and cleanouts are pretty expensive.

Depending on our location, setup and a few other things, I think there's a good possible source of extra income for us.

I recently paid $375 for a bum with a pickup to haul off 2 pickup loads from a place. (I was too far away to do it plus code enforcement was pressing me). I could have done this myself in a couple hours, easy. It was all outside behind the place. Now to me $175 an hour is pretty good money.

So I conceived a challenge to myself--- find a way to turn this into a source of profit rather than an expense and also to reduce my costs when I need it for my places. Same could be said about mowing and yardwork.

I know that if I make this a side business I'll need the things that go with a separate business (insurance, license, etc). Not a problem.

Thing is, I don't want this to occupy all my time so I'm thinking of just setting it up and hiring a manager to run it. I think it can be expanded in several ways.(Ideas appreciated).

When I look at my rentals, some net me maybe $200-250 A MONTH if there are no problems. One bad tenant can cost 6 months or more in losses. I keep thinking of that bum and his old truck making 2 months of my profits in his pocket in a couple hours. I've got thousands tied up in a unit to get $200-250 a month. I could buy an old pickup or just rent one from Uhaul for a few bucks and make a comparable amount in an afternoon, even after paying a helper to load and empty the truck.

So, to meet my challange, I am going to try this instead of buying the next unit. Especially as prices have gone up a lot here for places.

My thoughts to other landlords are to challenge yourselves to create other streams of income. (Possibly this way or others you might think of or have developed).

What extra sources of income could you recommend to increase your cash flow?

Find a cheaper bum.

Around here, the parking lot of Home Depot is filled with gentlemen with trucks and signs offering hauling and other services. They get about $15 per hour for the worker and an additional $10-$15 for the truck.

As a contractor i had pick up trucks, flat bead trucks, vans and trailers. I also sometimes rent bins from 3 yard to 5 ton.

I found when working at one of my rentals, I park my trailer in the back yard and load up stuff over time. Then when filled, I make a trip to the dump. When I rent a bin, I only have 1 week of use and get charged for extra weight. This can be expensive.

If you do the work yourself you would do okay.

Once you bring in a "manager" they will learn your best methods, talk to their friend and set up their own business if they see it is a lucrative opportunity with little up front expense.

Melinda, One of the challenges of this I'm working on is that I don't have enough units or turnover to keep a truck and helper busy full time. So, I must consider alternatives.

1) Haul junk for others when not doing my own. This leads to a conflict in that if I'm making a profit doing it for others, it would be better, imho, to do the ones that make profit before I do my own. To start, that wouldn't be a problem but as more work came in it would be a conflict (unless I bought a second truck). But that's for later.

2) If I concentrated on the junk hauling, it would distract from rentals. I like the passive income of rentals. Junk hauling would be an active business, where the minute I stop the cash flow stops.

David, I'm not really thinking at this time to be a master of junk hauling. Just looking to get my work done at cost, and maybe make some extra money. Often, the amount left is more than the security, especially with dump fees of I hire a big company. Dumpsters are running $350 plus labor to put trash in them.If I can separate recyclables from trash, I can cut costs.

We do our own clean-outs. A 10 yard dump trailer was one of the best purchases we ever made.

Junk still has to be handled to get it into the trailer, but once at the dump, just press the hydraulic lever and the trailer unloads itself.

My son bought a house where the seller didn't remove anything. I got him to sign a contract that said anything left in the house was mine to do with as I wished.

I put an ad in the paper that said "Free Moving Sale. Everything is free."

I couldn't believe the worthless crap that people would haul away. Broken furniture, a moldy nasty shower curtain, a broken mirror, rusty pots and pans, moldy carpet.....

I felt a little bad because I suspected it was all ending up in some tenant's backyard and it seemed a bit of a dirty trick to play on local landlords.

Richard,

No thanks.

Way cheaper haulers out there and no employees.

If I buy a truck and hire people, I have not saved a penny.

BRAD

My good friend with a painting business says his COST is $30 per hour per man = $15 labor + $15 overhead of workman's comp, truck, etc.

PS

Keep thinking Richard! Whether you do a trash biz or not it's the THINKING that helps your business grow!

Money is made in your MIND, with ideas.

Think and grow rich (hmmm...would make a great book title!)

Brad, I think you're friend is right about that $30 an hour. If my operation was larger and my time fully occupied by hunting new places I agree that I would just hire it out. Right now though, I spend too much time working on the details rather than planning overall strategy and making moves that create thousands. I'm at a point where a few hundred on a deal makes a difference because it adds up. When I build a better pipeline to get more deals, I likely won't have to concentrate so much on these things.

Hauling other people's junk and trash is a feast or famine line of work.

Hiring helpers is like leaving the back door open for a burglar.

Do it all yourself will get you to a chiropractor someday.

NE, I'm not sure of your advice here. 2guys is, I think, a franchise which mostly does moving.

Do you mean get a franchise and use it to do junk hauling and more?

Or just duplicate their business model?

NE, Yes, I'm considering this as a side business. When I get a place or if A bad tenant moves out, it's almost always a big cleanup. I figured that instead of paying retail prices that I could get mine done at cost plus offer the service to other landlords and people who needed cleanouts and junk hauling. As an added bonus, I could use the truck and workers to deliver materials to jobs, move materials from one job to another, etc, do lawns and tree / brush cleanup and more. Doing it for other clients would, hopefully, keep the truck and helpers busy between doing my own jobs and free me to concentrate on getting more places.

The county I'm in has over 3000 vacant places. Next county adjacent has over 3500 vacent. At my current rate In lucky to add 4 places a year. I could do that in a week or two if I had a money supply and larger crews.I

You'd probably be better off starting a small construction/handyman company. You can do the junk hauling with the app or some magnet signs on the side of the truck. A small handyman company and you have your labor built in.

i bought a 14 foot dump trailer and i wish i'd done it 20 years sooner. it's as handy as a cell phone.

it would be easy work to make the thing a profit center if i wanted. get the word out and just drag it to the client and leave it until you have a little time to hit the dump. THEY load it. just be sure they give you a big deposit for the dump fees UP FRONT.

i also make it available for my real estate clients...it never ceases to thrill them and i get their crappy old debris out of the house in no time. every one wins

oregon woodsmoke makes two good points...

people will take the most incredibly useless junk for free

and the dump feature is always a treat when at the dump...

hop out of the truck,

open the back doors and

tease the guys unloading by hand as you hit the dump button and drive off 60 seconds later.

i just calculated my capacity and the 14 footer is about 14 yards. i've never gone over 3.5 tons.

anyone with more than a unit or two knows that 30-40 yard roll-offs are convenient but the trash haulers have limits on the number of days they include before they start charging per diems.

At least in my neck of the woods, the cost of the dumping fee has gone up significantly. It is about $65 for a pick up truck of junk to simply drop it off.

I would think the $300+ price is right on target with our area.

Can you do it? - sure