Does anyone have a good painter and carpenter in Budapest ?

Ebowens111 wrote:

All we need is carpenter , electrician, Plummer and we could take over the market.

The wall fell almost three decades ago. Do you not think it is a little naive to believe nobody thought of that already? And tried it?

Do consider, this is not the USA. Things work very different here. For one thing, if you are buying, renovating and flipping, you have a business in Hungary. Which has all the tax liabilities of having a business (again, it does not work like the USA), and if you are doing any sort of construction business the reporting requirements are jaw dropping with recent changes in the law. My general contractor now says he spends more time filling out paperwork than ever before and spends more time doing that than checking on his crew on a project. And I have not even gotten into the cultural issues of having any sort of business in Hungary (another can of worms).

Ebowens111 wrote:

I have found good people in Budapest  it's just you have to stand and babysit them to do the job which is my issue as I have to get back to US.

The issue is again cultural.

Hungary is a relationship based society, where the group is more important than the individual. So by hiring individual painters, plumbers, etc you are extracting them from the group which means you have to individually handle them. Which is why, in Hungary, you should hire a general contractor, who brings in his group. I never had a problem leaving workers brought in by my general contractor, who was not only the top dog who keep the group in line and working, but had a long term relationship with his crew -- call it loyalty (something you will never have with short term workers).

Also, this relationship and group mentality makes is way into everything and every transaction here, in even small ways. For example, you said you would supply the paint. A cultural faux pas. Again, because of social groups and relationships here. That is, the painter who takes a job then buys the paint from his relative who works in a paint store. Thus, spreading the benefit. If he takes a job and does not buy paint from his relative, the painter gets social and relationship blame and feedback. Thus, even if it is the painter's personal interest to take a job, they won't take that job if it damages their social relationships. Unless, of course, you pay an extraordinary amount of money. Then the group approves for "doing one over" on the foreigner.

And of course, that is why hiring "foreign" workers (e.g. a painter from Ukraine) is easier for other foreigners (e.g. Americans), because neither have any local relationships to damage.

Ebowens111 wrote:

My wife is from Ukraine so we are bringing in a person to work

Just be sure you get all the proper work visas for this person. Ukraine now has visa free travel to the EU, but is still not in the Schengen zone, and so does not automatically allow for work in a Schengen country like Hungary without a work visa.

Ebowens111 wrote:

As for the person that said I need to learn the language I would say this, how long did it take for you to learn a second language.?  We are trying but it's a hard language to lean and we have only been coming to Budapest for one year, not living here yet. So give us a little break.

If you want to do business or even just renovate your home you do not have to learn the language. Just hire a professional translator and interpreter to help you with language and cultural issues. Not difficult.

Tamás wrote:

This has changed in recent years.

Depends on the industry. In something like IT relationships matter less. In construction, they still matters quite a bit.

HandymanJ wrote:

I would be happy with just doing grunt work and clean up.

In case you did not know:

Government passed a law some time ago: most construction work, even which may simply include handyman work needs to be daily accounted for and recorded in a government database for regulation compliance, income and VAT tax purposes.

Even grunt work requires a business license and tax booklet to record your work and give customers receipts.

Anything else is considered "black work" and can get heavy fines if "caught".

And I of course assuming your visa includes a work permit.

Welcome to Hungary......