Townhouses

offdutyfireman said:
Michael, I'll tell you the same thing I told Fenner.Come run the business end of my company and let me spray water. We'll both be happy and make money:) . The thing I hate most is dealing with the phone and talking to customers. Leave me in my shop welding and tinkering or washing and I am happy.
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Sounds like me William; Marketing, Customer Relations, Biz meetings, Forecasting, I ain't up on that.

Equipment knowledge, and moving faster than the norm on the job, thats me, that is also my weakness.
 
offdutyfireman said:
Michael, I'll tell you the same thing I told Fenner.Come run the business end of my company and let me spray water. We'll both be happy and make money:) . The thing I hate most is dealing with the phone and talking to customers. Leave me in my shop welding and tinkering or washing and I am happy.
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Problem is that there are other cats from my Same college classes that will do the job for half of what I'd want. LOL :D Damn Low-baller college grads... LOL

I'd need 6 figues to go. :D
 
I love the business side, and dont really care for the washing too much. Im in this to own a business not wash houses. I love talking to customers, selling, advertising, chatting with the CPA about ways we can improve our tax situation, etc...I could never wash anything again, and be happy. Thats what god made employees for!!
 
Scott D. said:
I love the business side, and dont really care for the washing too much. Im in this to own a business not wash houses. I love talking to customers, selling, advertising, chatting with the CPA about ways we can improve our tax situation, etc...I could never wash anything again, and be happy. Thats what god made employees for!!
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That is how you envision you Scott, just from reading your posts.
That is a sure way to make (not just good but)exceptional money in any business. Keep up the good work. I home some rub off on me :)
 
Scott D. said:
I love the business side, and dont really care for the washing too much. Im in this to own a business not wash houses. I love talking to customers, selling, advertising, chatting with the CPA about ways we can improve our tax situation, etc...I could never wash anything again, and be happy. Thats what god made employees for!!
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I hear that. My employees are money makers. Its funny I dont even like getting overspray on me when I check on the guys LOL. I get mad when a shirt gets spots on it. I really enjoy talking to the PM's and landing the jobs

I love the PW biz
 
810f250 said:
I would like to see your monster rigs to William

Here is a "mid-sized" one.

2 hot 8gpm, and 2 cold 8gpm, each machine dual gun capable.

GetAttachment.aspx
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Wondering if members could see the picture above?

Please let me know (I can see it, on my computer, but used another computer this morning on the same network and cant see it).
 
Great info guys, Thanks.

Almost every townhouse, condo and apartment building I have bid on I did not get. I will not work for free or minimum wage but there have been some jobs where I did not bid enough or the job took too long so I did not make the money I thought I would.

I believe it all comes down to knowing your numbers and what you have to make per hour because if you don't know your numbers You will be out of business. Some have different business models than others and some markets will not bear certain prices. You need to learn your market and know your prices so you can stay in business.

Good luck!

____________
Superior Power Washing<O:p</O:p
Chris Chappell<O:p</O:p
361-853-2513<O:p</O:p
prostaff@superiorpowerwashing.com<O:p</O:p
Exterior House Cleaning Corpus Christi Texas<O:p</O:p
 
It all comes down to knowing the townhome condo market in your region

I have been reading and not to pick on anyone that posted but let me tell you a few things on townhomes etc.

Upselling is very rarely done. A PM calls you and asks for a bid, no face time, just give me a bid. You give them the basic wash price, then you can give them a line item on any extras, gutter scrub, sidewalks roof cleaning etc. You do not bunch all of it in one price, you probably will NEVER get a job
Out of over 1000 buildings I did last year ONLY ONE, YES ONE building took me up on the gutter scrub. ( Hell I dont even want to do gutter scrub, its to time consuming of townhomes with gutters on all different levels and here and there. No wet wax is offered, but if it was it would be extra. I have picked up patios & sidewalks but like I said its listed seperate. Most HOA's just want the basic, they would like gutter scrub but wont pay and your competition will get the job. Often now on gutter scrub I explain it, I explain its not included in the basic wash and I tell them "Will qoute price upon request"

The thing you also have to figure many of the units are just the front and back and if was to only do a front and back of say one unit it will take 10 minutes

Now DJ say $200 a unit, you will never get that price in the southeast. Well i wont say never but its one in a thousand at best. Just take this townhome complex, these units are a little more complex, they look like a full two story. But its 54 buildings at 3 - 4 units so round it off and say its

200 units X $200.00 = $40,000 Thats 40K WOW, those are at most Northeast prices if they could even get that. My crew of 6 guys could do those in 3-4 days but say 5 days for the hell of it. At most my foreman makes $18 an hour and the other gus are between $11-$15 an hour, round it off to $200 per guy a day, thats $1200 in labor x 5 days, thats $6000 in labor ( plus remeber I would do these in less than 5 days probably

Add $1000 in chem & fuel, go ahead and add $1000 for everything else. So total thats $8000. Many say they wont work for $60 or $200 a day, well you arent. $32,000 DOLLARS for 5 days work after. Good luck at getting a job like that from an HOA in the south. Now some may say, well JL can get them done in 5 days because he has experienced crews. Well an HOA isnt or doesnt want to pay more because your inexperienced:confused:

Guys you have to know what you are talking about when it comes to cleaning HOA PM properties in the south or anywhere. facts are upselling are rare, full residential pricing never happens and inexperience isnt a reason to charge more

My profit on many many jobs isnt 10-20% its more like 40-60% Really. I have some 10% days, and they suck

The point of this post is just to say be reasonable and you will be surprised how profitable it can be instead of wasting your time doing estimates you will never get and the more you do it the more you will make

Best of luck
 
Thanks for chiming in Jeff.

I think were most get caught up is; because the project takes you longer (and is harder on your body) with 1 or 2 machines that you should be compensated more.
However I do agree individual homes would yield more per wash if each home owner was responsible for their own wash.

But when a company rolls in volume (both # of houses, crew and equipment) it hard to compete, like MC Hammer said "can't touch this"
 
If one believes that then I should get rid of all of my stuff and go get a small 2 GPM machine and go power wash a roof and take 3 days to do it.
I mean hey it took me 3 days I should get atleast $3000. ........... never mind the fact that when I use my PRO stuff its 45 minutes.
 
810f250 said:
Thanks for chiming in Jeff.

I think were most get caught up is; because the project takes you longer (and is harder on your body) with 1 or 2 machines that you should be compensated more.
However I do agree individual homes would yield more per wash if each home owner was responsible for their own wash.

But when a company rolls in volume (both # of houses, crew and equipment) it hard to compete, like MC Hammer said "can't touch this"
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There's many factors for pricing less than single homes, most should be obvious.

It really isnt hard to compete really. two guys and two machines can do large projects and still make good money, just not insane money.

You cant think like a residentail single house wash guy if you want to deal in the professional world of HOA's and Property Managers...This is not insulting a resi house wash company. I know many very successful ones..........but this is big biz!
These are some facts I presented in my power point at the Bama RT. These facts and numbers are a little dated, but you are talking about a multi billion dollar industry not a single homeowner

Since 1970, approximately one in every three new residential units built in the United States was built in a development with a community association

Each year, 6000 to 8000 new community associations are formed. Ranging in size from 3-unit condominiums or cooperatives to large-scale planned communities with more than 10,000 units,

The total annual operating revenue for all community associations in the United States is more than $41 billion with most of this spent in the associations’ local economies for goods and services
 
Hey Jeff, thanks for all the great info. Stuff like this really gets us newer guys excited. I am targeting larger properties this year and trying to move away from residential. Im targeting apartment complexes, hotels and condo associations for the roofs. But the exterior cleaning of them would be a great addition.

My comments about not working for $60 was in reference to a single home. If I could clean 1000 4 unti buildings for $60/unit, I would take those deals all day long.

Jeff, Have you thought of starting a training seminar/book program called "Call, Write Fax, How the King on Condos can teach you to make millions. " lol.
 
jlpressure said:
Now DJ say $200 a unit, you will never get that price in the southeast. Well i wont say never but its one in a thousand at best.
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You wouldn't get that here either, and this is the most expensive place to do biz anywhere in the US. So I think it's safe to say you can throw that pricing out the window if you actually want to get these jobs.
 
Scott D. said:
Hey Jeff, thanks for all the great info. Stuff like this really gets us newer guys excited. I am targeting larger properties this year and trying to move away from residential. Im targeting apartment complexes, hotels and condo associations for the roofs. But the exterior cleaning of them would be a great addition.

My comments about not working for $60 was in reference to a single home. If I could clean 1000 4 unti buildings for $60/unit, I would take those deals all day long.

Jeff, Have you thought of starting a training seminar/book program called "Call, Write Fax, How the King on Condos can teach you to make millions. " lol.
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Scott thanks. Book thats funny if you knew me. I wouldnt even read it LOL

Good luck with going after the different markets:cool:
 
I think that was the wrong Smily! Haha :)
 
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