Switching From Freelancers to Full-Time VA's. Any Experiences?

I've been heavily thinking of making the switch from piece-work freelancers to full-time VA's for a while now. Had some pretty bad experiences in the past but I've been outsourcing a lot more since then so I've learned a lot and I'm working with a better budget these days.

Just curious if anyone else has tried making this switch or gone in the other direction. Keen to hear about your experience.

I'd still outsource some specific tasks like a writer for a topic cluster that requires specific knowledge but for more general topics and tasks I like the idea of being able to get to the point where I'm not chasing freelancers around.

I've hired programmers to fix minor problems on my sites. This went for several months as problems began and one day I just came to the conclusion that I needed to find one programmer and work with him permanent. I had to run my old projects so programmer wouldn't sit idle. I would say that this had positive effect. I gained rather than lost funds. But everything is different for each individual.