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Oregon Business Magazine
Originally published in the January 2006 issue of Oregon Business magazine, www.oregonbusiness.com By Kim Cooper Findling
It didn't take many visits to their new Bend getaway home before Seattlites Shannon and David Bassett realized that their vacations were shaping up to be more work than relaxation. "We'd arrive to a freezing cold house," explains Shannon Bassett. "The gutters would be full of pine needles, the lawn would be a mess — sometimes the cleaners wouldn't even have shown up." The couple might get in a day of skiing, wedged between the chores of opening and closing up their house.
A year ago, the Bassetts transformed their frustration into inspiration. They ditched their corporate jobs, moved to Bend permanently and launched Home Fridays, a venture that has them doing home maintenance every single day — for clients.
From experience, they knew that hiring individual services meant spending a lot of time interviewing and coordinating vendors. Home Fridays brokers the universe of needs for Deschutes County's legions of second homeowners. Clients hire both the Bassetts and their team of subcontractors, who handle jobs the couple don't take care of themselves: carpentry, appliance repair, snow removal, cleaning and yard maintenance. Home Fridays has been able to draw contractors for small spot jobs because of the growing scale of the business. "They know we will have a lot of work for them," she says.
For $100 per month, Bassett checks homes weekly; for an additional $25 an hour average, the Bassetts or those they hire will do just about anything — light the fireplace, heat the hot tub or fill the fridge.
Bassett hasn't yet turned down a request, but she has found herself dis-patched on some curious errands. "I bought one man's anniversary gift to his wife and stocked their house with flowers and champagne," she says. At Thanksgiving, Bassett visited the meat counter at a local grocery store 14 times to buy turkeys and her Christmas shopping included the purchase of a few snowboards for clients' children.
Though feedback from their steady clients has been positive, the Bassetts still struggle to overcome one challenge: finding reliable help to tend to their new second home in the San Juan Islands.
About Home Fridays
Home Fridays, based in Bend, Oregon, was founded in 2005 by Shannon and David Bassett. They originally bought their current residence in Bend as a vacation home, which provided its share of challenges to manage from afar. After several years of big-city life with Bend 2nd-home management challenges sprinkled in, they decided to move to Bend where they started Home Fridays to erase the hassle factor for other absentee homeowners.
The company offers specialty property management services to Central Oregon second homeowners. From personalized household shopping trips to vendor management for yard maintenance and cleaning, Home Fridays completes all the tasks that absentee homeowners need done the most. The services are specifically meant to create stress-free trips to Central Oregon by those who own vacation homes in the area. Find out more by visiting homefridays.com.
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