How Low Can They Go? $70 House Wash? 🤦‍♂️

Includes window cleaning and gutter whitening.

This isn’t a joke that I just found online. This is an actual post from a new competitor in my area. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry… :man_facepalming:

Here is my opinion on this -

You get a 23 year old kid with no direction in life. He hobbles together a machine. He is not a real business (insurance, taxes, etc). He says, I will clean a house for $70. He has $4 in gas, $10 in chem (buying locally) and $4 in gas for his truck to get there and back. That leaves him $52. He spends 2.5 hours doing the job. In his mind he is making $20.80 an hour which is probably better than anything else he can do.

Any now you have a $70 house washer to compete with.

This guy will not last long - his truck will break, his washer will break, his girlfriend will leave or some other event and that will be that.

These guys will never do commercial (or at least the type of commercial I do where every job requires COI, W-9, Auto Insurance, etc).

6 Likes

He’ll work himself to death in one summer and not make any money and then he’ll go back to his nice cushy job at McDonald’s as a fry guy. Lol… he can have all the $79 house washes those the customers I don’t want. …lol @CFH ya beat me to it

1 Like

You can’t even be remotely concerned about this.

4 Likes

I probably should have given the topic a better title. I know he won’t sink me. I am just astounded at how low priced the low ballers keep getting. I thought $99 was as low as I would ever see…

See the above post, I’m not. It was meant as a joke that didn’t translate to the written word very well. I actually hope he stays busier than a one armed wallpaper hanger. :smile:

I think this is the lowest I’ve seen.

It’s fun to watch how long they survive. Usually not very long lol.

Me too if you throw window cleaning, and gutter whitening in the package.

I was most everything you just described except I had insurance. I still have a few $85 housewashes that I still do 20 years later because they still live in my old neighborhood and are elderly now. When I’m busy I pay a local guy $200 to go wash them. @Steve, he will either go away or be gangbusters later on. Buy him breakfast and talk to him

6 Likes

I would have, but his wife/SO messaged me of Facebook the other day pretending to be an interested potential customer and asking prices for various services. One quick click on her FB profile brought up that she was co-owner of their PW business. So now, they’re just gonna have to figure out on their own.

9 Likes

You know he has to be new…he does gutter whitening

14 Likes

Haha, right!? :rofl:

1 Like

Maybe she was on my Facebook. Somehow I posted that pic of his ss# and sent the little movie clip gif things in messenger to a dozen people while the phone was in my pocket and I have cleaning gutters. I wouldn’t know how to do any of that if the phone was in my hands

1 Like

One sharp curve, and his business is over lol

1 Like

Here you go. You can laugh now

8 Likes

Needs a mustache

I was exactly that guy 7 years ago.
My business has grown every year.
I of course charge a little more now and i’m a lot faster now.
My truck never broke down, but I did buy a used van and fixed it up 2 years ago. A guy like this can make $80k a year and working 30 or less hours a week.

A guy like this can easily grow into a significant competitor. I will use myself as proof.

4 Likes

I’m not sure how to phrase this so that I don’t sound like a jerk or stuck up, but I have no worries about him as we are after different clients. For example, I just got this estimate accepted for a lake house. This is what I am after and mostly the kind of jobs I do.

15 Likes

I certainly understand your perspective, but if your client finds out about a guy with a good reputation, pictures, couple years experience, $1M general liability insurance, business license … and will do it in 2 days for $1500.

Might be a little concern.

1 Like