Git a call from a well known home construction company.
They wanted me to wash all their homes for low 200’s including driveways and some brick.
I turned them down.
Told them i wouldnt touch driveways but for 250 a home i could take care of the rest.
WTF are they thinking?
Thinking like a profitable company. I’m sure they will find someone. Not you or I but honestly if they were 1500sqft vinyl homes with 700sqft driveways I’d take it at 250 if the volume was right. Shouldn’t take an hour, and half of that with two machines running. 6-8 per day = 1500-2000 a day. That’s a good day. And easy money. The type of jobs you can count on employees not screwing up.
I wouldnt touch newly poured driveways with SC.
Their homes are 2700sqft
They dont have 7 homes a day to be washed.
Prob 2 a day,
A house that size, me alone would take 1.5 hours.
Doesnt take much on chem since they are just dirty.
Prob just 1gl of SH per home.
Besides i dont move my trailer for less than 250
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No deal no deal.
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How do they clean new driveways? A water hose and a pushbroom?
No idea.
Biggest problem with new drives here is red mud. The construction guys get it everywhere. Back when my dad had a pressure washing business 75% of his work was new construction. Drives had to be soft washed and acid to get the red mud out.
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Exactly the same here, Kentucky is half limestone and half red clay. Before coming here I’d never have thought twice about pressure washing a new build for cleanup… now that I’ve see the damage that can do I am looking for alternatives because I’m sure that will come up.
250 way too cheap
told them I don’t have a HD machine and that I am insured, no way to do it for that
I wouldn’t do any work for any construction company at any price. Unless you like dealing with the worst customers in our industry. I’d rather wash gas stations overnight than new construction anything.
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I agree, Your stuck dealing with other peoples problems
Just finished collecting a 40 day past due bill. After calling the number given and either being blocked or phone off, it stopped ringing. I looked up the company on SOS and found a few addresses and looked around on some other sites to find phone numbers. Spoke briefly and promised to pay. I enededup Whois’n the number to find out it was a cell phone. I was slightly pissed due to the principal and texted that I was filing a lien on the newly constructed property if not paid by eod. And surprisingly I did receive it. Long story short, I agree. Contractors suck. Especially construction GC
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Liens work if you haven’t been paid. And easy to do with proper documentation.
Dad got paid 2 years later because of a lein, homeowner had him pour a concrete pad for an outside “Room” covered grill, couches for pit the whole 9 yards, tried to get paid forever and finally filed a lein then forgot about it. 2 years later he gets a call from the homeowner who’s wanting to sell but cant because of the lein. Ended up paying dad in full and extra to “Expedite” the paperwork.
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True. Liens work only if they want to sell. If it’s their forever home it won’t matter until they die. At least that’s what I understand. I have a friend who is a realtor and one of his buyers deals just fell through because of a lien. And the sellers were still refusing to pay. It was a nightmare.
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That’s why an attorney on retainer is a good part of your team not only for business but for life. If a lien doesn’t work a $50 letter to the homeowner from an attorney usually does the trick.
I don’t usually mess with liens for homeowners. I usually go right to the collections letter from an attorney.
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I got a call from a company in Dallas called Super clean at least that’s what it said on my caller id. We talked about me cleaning some restaurants throughout my state and I gave my email address to the lady so she could send me the locations along with the scope of work and the infamous targeted budget amount. each Property had anywhere from 6 to 8 hours work and the targeted budget was around 400. She said they’re not a nsp and they’re more like a Property manager but either way I told them to triple their budget and I’ll be happy to look at it. I would like one more decent account and then no more new customers unless someone drops the replace them.
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Construction companies can legally only get a 10% deposit on their large jobs. They have to do whatever it takes to finish so they can get paid. Unfortunately for us this means that they expect us to work and they say yeah yeah net 30 but only pay on time if they can finish their entire job and get paid at the end before your net 30 is up. They also don’t really think about needing to pay for our types of services until they realize they can’t or don’t have time to fix the problem themselves and it’s an unanticipated expense. They know they can’t get paid with a big mess so call the experts to fix it. Pre-Lein notices work when filed against a business because the construction company can’t have the property owner breathing down their neck. Not sure how well it works for homeowners though. Request a 50% deposit and don’t ever accept their budget. Typically their budget is half of what they are charging as corporate businesses like to make 100% profit on any subcontracted job. They may find someone cheaper but it’s all just a game. Start high and go down but at the very least start at what you normally charge. I would add 10-20% for the net x terms since you have to be the bank for a month or two, maybe 3 if they real slow to pay. Too many local homeowners who will cut a check at the end of the day to mess around with waiting for a smaller check for a long time. I hate working for businesses I also own an electrical sign company and 90% of our work is for other large sign companies. We consistently have 10 to 20 grand past due on a regular basis. This is why I like this business so much is you can usually get paid immediately.
