Pricing by the sqft. - Measuring houses

[TreyWinslow]

Great points made in this thread…

I would have a hard time doing in-person estimates with my 1hr radius service area…and the amount of traffic we have.

[GuyB]

@Pressure_Wash

I price over the phone as well. If you price high margins, kinda hard to get burned. Even if customer tells me house is 2000 sqft and two stories, and we get there and it is two stories on a walk out basement making it 2.5 - 3 stories, we are still Okay if I priced the job at $387. Extra 10-15 minutes on the job won’t break me.
Where I see folks trying to price in person or by exact measures, is usually because they are low margin priced and an error in size could eat the profit. Just increase value proposition, sell at higher rates and have margin to spare. Make out huge on little ranch house and eat a little on huge house due to a misquote on size.

Exactly how I do it Michael and couldn’t agree more! Plus by pricing over the phone you save even more in fuel & Time costs so if you do misquote one here or there you actually loose very little looking at the “Big Picture”.

[apsurfacesolutions]

On of my competitors asked me at the Albany seminar why my prices were so low I said I don’t know what you are talking about every time people tell me your quote we are within $25.00 of each other. He said today he looked at a job and there was $100 difference in the quote. I explained to him that I do my estimates over the phone and that every once in awhile I miss on pricing. Sometimes high sometimes low. But in the end it averaged out. He told me he had no interest in doing phone estimates and he will continue to do face to face estimates. I am happy he wants to continue wasting his time.

[GuyB]

@apsurfacesolutions

On of my competitors asked me at the Albany seminar why my prices were so low I said I don’t know what you are talking about every time people tell me your quote we are within $25.00 of each other. He said today he looked at a job and there was $100 difference in the quote. I explained to him that I do my estimates over the phone and that every once in awhile I miss on pricing. Sometimes high sometimes low. But in the end it averaged out. He told me he had no interest in doing phone estimates and he will continue to do face to face estimates. I am happy he wants to continue wasting his time.

I guess it’s a “Ford-Chevy” thing Clark. Our prices aren’t the lowest or highest. They’re reasonable, affordable, and we make a profit so everyone wins. Some folks don’t feel comfortable selling over the phone, I get that. But I try to make it as easy as possible for the customer to say “Yes”. Remember F2F takes time from “Their” schedule, most customers don’t really like that, some don’t mind.

Every time I make a phone call sale saves at least $50.00 per job. Over the course of a year that adds up to thousands of dollars.

[apsurfacesolutions]

@GuyB

I guess it’s a “Ford-Chevy” thing Clark. Our prices aren’t the lowest or highest. They’re reasonable, affordable, and we make a profit so everyone wins. Some folks don’t feel comfortable selling over the phone, I get that. But I try to make it as easy as possible for the customer to say “Yes”. Remember F2F takes time from “Their” schedule, most customers don’t really like that, some don’t mind.

Every time I make a phone call sale saves at least $50.00 per job. Over the course of a year that adds up to thousands of dollars.

The savings by doing phone estimates are big. Probably over $10,000 for me last year. Not only the money piece it allows me more time to do jobs And spend with my family. Many of my customers are glad we do phone estimates as you said Guy they don’t want to waste time meeting F2F. I had several customers last year that I never meet. And once you get the phone estimate down you can upsell as well on the phone as you can F2F

[BrianHSauls]

We had to switch to over the phone 2 years back. On top of the time and fuel, in Hilton Head all houses we work on are inside plantations. They charge $10 just to go in and give an estimate. When we are talking about hundreds of estimates a year it really starts to eat a whole in your pocket. I am with you guys, never been burned, and we always let them know that we will verify info to make sure the price is accurate when we arrive just in case something crazy pops up. People can call,get an estimate and schedule with us in 5 minutes.Why give them time to think about it?

[ONPOINT]

IMO and experience you are better off going and meeting in person. Sure there is a potential that you won’t get the job and waste the gas but, who’s going to stand out more… The guy who sent a quote via e-mail/phone or in-person. Not to mention, if you’ve got a good personality, people will like you and its harder to reject someone in person than it is through e-mail…

Plus, you can give them a walk-thru and explain what it is you do and possibly up-sell them on other services…

Best of luck…

[SureShot]

Back to the original question, what is the most common measurement to quote a job, base it off of the liveable square footage that the homeowner would most likely know or based off of cleanable square feet? Do they both end up being about the same?

[Clean_Blue]

When I started I used cleanable square footage on houses. Now I just go by how long it will take and how much I want per hour. Works out to about the same.

[Infinity]

Details I ask for over the phone:

Type of siding
Living sq ft
Any garage or other non-living space? How large? (1,2,3 car garage?)
How many stories?
Walkout basement?
Porch or other structures?

If the customer is ok with it, and especially if they’re looking for a quote for other work like window cleaning, I’ll suggest they email or text me pics of each side of the home. I have a well established presence in the community and online, so most customers are comfortable with this option.

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Side thought:

I think it’s kind of funny that some business owners are still so set on the “must meet every customer in person”. Many of the older comments in this thread advocating over the phone estimates are from industry giants who created incredibly profitable businesses. I have no intention of ever getting that big, but I know I can learn a lot from the way they operate(d).

[Skooks]

I do it by the job. Flatwork, price by the sqft.

Softwash and walkways around the house, I price by how long I think it will take and how much chems I will need to use. I shoot for around $75 an hour, before expenses.