Low ballers

How does anyone deal with other guys wrecking your market …I have a soon to be neghibor that does pressure washing also and he is killing the business by offering 50 to 65 % off a house wash in a 100 to maybe 200 market …ive talked to a few other neghibors that pressure wash aswell and they are losing alot of money to this guy just because this area cheapest always wins

You need to find a way to compete, or serve different customers. A lot of people in this industry think it’s bad to have cheap prices, but if a company is doing good work, has proper insurance, and can still turn a profit, then they are hard to compete with! Businesses exist because they serve consumers. If a consumer can find the same service you’re selling for cheaper, why wouldn’t they? You can market more and try to sell a different experience to them kind of like a luxury car versus a Toyota, but I think at the end of the day there will be more Toyota customers than Lexus. You can include window cleaning, gutter clean outs, or things like that in your standard house wash to justify a premium price, but I really think this industry is heading towards lower prices. You already see it in places like Florida, where there is lots of competition. I think it’s great honestly. I just need to adapt my business to be able to compete, or find another industry. When I consume, I love the benefits of market competition making things more affordable for me.

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Lower your prices, don’t worry about him because one person cannot ruin a market, worry about you and not someone else. You got options.

Talk to him and tell him what you and the other guys are charging. Tell him there is plenty of work to go around and he can make more money doing the same number of houses. If that doesn’t work differentiate your self from him. Tell your customers how long you’ve been in business and tell them to ask the other companies the same. There are other little things you can do.

So wait, he is doing a house wash for $40-$50?

Well he is charging less then 100.00 on a house i bid on up the street for me so yes he is severely under cutting people and hurting everyone

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Sell yourself not the price.

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Find out what the chin(k) in his armor is and exploit it.

Cheap prices in a cheap area. Ide buy the guy a beer. He’s studied the free market and executed. If you could buy SH at 45-65% off what you normally pay would you throw a tantrum or grab the deal with both hands? This is how the logic works in cheap markets, it’s not his fault.

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I don’t see how he can scale at that price and do it legally. At some point he will only be able to service so many people and customers will get tired of waiting for him. He will also likely burn out or raise his prices at some point because he is working for less than he could make at a normal job if he is doing everything legit and has to buy health insurance. How long has he been going?

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A ranch should take :40-1:00, a 2-story 1-1:30 (For me anyways). If he’s charging close to $100, that’s a heck of a lot better than flipping burgers. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s better than most jobs still. Around me, the cheapest I’ve seen advertised is $149 starting. I’m guessing they do a lot of add-ons on top of that.

If he’s doing a good job and people are happy, he’ll get too busy and won’t be able to get to customers or get burned out. If he’s not doing a good job, it will catch up to him and won’t get much work. Stick to the prices you feel you’re worth and do better than him, it will all work itself out in the end.

Cheap, Fast, or Good - Choose one. What kind of service do you offer? Charge accordingly

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We live in a area with cheap cookie cutter production built houses …ie 1 -2 story cheapest vinyl u can find…from what I have heard he is just googling the address and giving them a price based on how many stories they have regardless of how dirty it is …a buddy sent him a message just asking to keep the prices competitive …and he got back a big f.u so I think its gona turn into a how low can you go

Sounds like he has a good grasp on the market and understands how to give estimates effeciently. If someone called me and told me how to run my business I’d probably lower my prices for a couple of months in spite. Call him, be nice, he might hire you.

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Sounds like everybody in the neighborhood in the PW business. What’d you expect? Go sell somewhere out of your neighborhood.
PS: You could go into the landscape business. Not competitive at all there. :grin:

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You won’t like my answer but here it is. He is charging less because he can. It can be used as a business tool. How you ask? Let me introduce you to Sam Walton. Yes Wal-mart. In a nutshell, his idea was to lower prices, do volume, put everyone out of business, then raise prices. If that doesn’t work for you, let me introduce you to a guy named Jeff Bezos - yes Amazon. Quicker and cheaper it is a business model. Don’t be fooled, amazon/walmart are not always the cheapest it is just a psychological ploy that makes you check them first (unless your frugal like me).

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I don’t really consider myself in competition with the $99 house guys.

And I lose quite a few bids to penny pinchers.
The customer can always find someone to do the job cheaper. Always. And as most of us have learned, you usually get what you pay for.

Like others have noted, you have to distinguish yourself from those guys. That can be done with your appearance, communication, equipment, insurance, range of services, etc.

But if they see no difference between you and him, they’ll always go the cheaper route.

And branching out to a larger/different area is always an option. Some guys drive 45 minutes to get to the area they service.

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You’re always gonna have those people . Ignore work smarter not harder. Do not lower your price. They never make it…

They’ll probably outlast most on this forum