AAARRRRGGGGGGHHHH - lowballers

sweetwater

sweetwater

New member
Just got off the phone with a PM. Turns out my bid was weel more than double the accepted quote on this project. Condominium has four identical buildings, each apartment is a studio, one door per unit. Each building you see has identical number of doors/apartments on the back side.

Quote was for washing all four buildings, maintenance/laundry building and pool deck.

ANyone want to guess what the winning bid was????????

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$10.00 per door/ unit? You never said how many units are there.
 
We got called a couple of weeks ago to bid a small town house community. We were double of the next lowest bid. They asked if we would drop just a little( $145.00) and I said yes. We also ended up cleaning their gutters out and the front entrance of the community which bumped the bid up another $400.00 . We did the job this week and when we finished she already had a check in my hand before we left. Gotta Love those. Much Better than waiting 20-30 days.
 
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Never worry about what someone else charges. You can't change it. If he can make a profit at a lower price then he is more effecient than you or won't make as much money. Either way, it should not bother you as he has the bid and you don't. If he does a good job then the management compnay saved a lot of money. If he does a bad job then you have a shot at it next time.
 
I know it should not bother me, however seems like on these student properties we have a glut of part time lowballers trashing prices. I also must disagree about the "next time " aspect. Even though this guy may be out of business, the HOA now has a record of the last washing costing only x dollars. When they don't get bids in at a comparable rate in two years, they tend to open up the bidding again with more companies and will eventually find someone who meets this lowball price...and the cycle repeats itself.I just wish more people ran their business like a business!And to answer Larrys question, there are 96 doors.
 
If it makes you feel any better I went out to bid a gas station (large) but they wanted full water reclamation. I said "no problem, I can do it for $1700". The guy tells me the last company did it for $600. My response was "you better go get the guy that did it for $600 because I can't do it for that price". The owner's response was "I can't find him, he must be out of business and that's why I called you" lol

Then he tells me the guy was out there for 3 days at 8 hours per day cleaning it. $200 per day at 8 hours a day doesn't cover even expenses.
 
Sometimes you have to bid a little lower then you want to get the job and it works out better for you. Last week i got a call to clean a 20x20 concrete pad (and reclaim) I bid the job for $200.00 and got it. I was there 2 1/2 hrs. setup and job done in 1 1/2 hrs and 1 hr talking to the guy. He was happy and paid me $600.00 and gave me a smaller job 2 days later for $500.00.... $1100.00 for 2 1/2 hrs of work and 1 hr of B.S.ING.
Sometimes it`s good and sometimes it`s not... This is a Big Trucking Co. and now my feet is in the door.
 
offdutyfireman said:
Never worry about what someone else charges. You can't change it. If he can make a profit at a lower price then he is more effecient than you or won't make as much money. Either way, it should not bother you as he has the bid and you don't. If he does a good job then the management compnay saved a lot of money. If he does a bad job then you have a shot at it next time.
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Got to agree with William here.

We lose more bids than we win, but the ones we win are more profitable. I don't bother bidding if the PM is looking for the lowest price period, this isn't my type of customer and one I don't want. Low price is not our business model and neither is high price, quality service at reasonable rates is what we sell. Most (Not All) of these low price companies can only sell "Low Price" because they can't sell anything else.

All of that being said, you're in Fla. Buddy...You can't sling a dead cat without hitting a pressure washing company (Or so they say) in Fla., It's called "Market Saturation"
 
@ Guy... Is this why I keep finding dead cats in the back of my truck when I get to every job site? Hahaha!
Seriously though, it pi$$es me off when I put a bid together and lose it to someone who obviously doesn't know or care how he runs his business. Happens all the time. It normally takes a day or 5 for me to get over it.
 
offdutyfireman said:
I am so happy when someone doesn't take my quote. That means one more property I don't have to figure out where to schedule on a schedule that has no openings.
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If your that busy then graciously decline and don't quote it at all. Schedule problem solved! Lol...
 
offdutyfireman said:
I am so happy when someone doesn't take my quote. That means one more property I don't have to figure out where to schedule on a schedule that has no openings.
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When I get like that I may bid higher.. Because right now where at that point and I'm catching some hell because we have some jobs we pushed out way to far because of a condo complex job we did a couple of weeks back that when we won the bid it had to be started within 2 weeks and it was just about impossible to get in there.... We have another one coming up in two weeks and from April to the July 3 our residential end is swamped.

Here's one for ya and I think some of you guys won't believe this... But we took on a $4000 graffiti store front job the other night.. It had to be done ASAP because of the graffiti so I gave them a little hi on the price and boom we got it..
So this Thursday the guys left at 9am when they usually leave between 6-6:30am. We always start from the furthest job away and work ourselves back do they deal with less traffic.

Because of this graffiti job there day went from 9am(residential) and they finished up at 6:30am when they arrived at there house with the truck and trailer instead of my shop. Then they left again @9am again to do some more residential and they got back @ 7pm. So they worked from 31.5 hrs in a 34 hr Span. Every now and then this happens and I offer a nice bonus and they make the call if they can do it. They did it and it cost me $1550 in wages for them in those 2 days(2 guys but should of been 3 but my other guy works part time with us and another company somI couldn't get him). I grossed a hair over $7000 for the two days... But when this happens a couple of times a year I sweetened the pot.. And this time of the year I also am sometimes happy I sometimes don't win a bid-- sounds crazy.
 
Larry Millette said:
If your that busy then graciously decline and don't quote it at all. Schedule problem solved! Lol...
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Larry, people keep my quotes on file for years. I may get a call to do a property that I bidded on last year. Apartment bids usually have to be in by June for budget approval for the following year.
 
I agree with William.

It happens in my section of the industry too. I lost a big resort job to somebody who underbid me by half going in and cleaning coils with pumpup sprayers. Would have taken us 12 hrs. Took them 6 days. If they have so much free time that they can dedicate 6 days at 30 bucks an hour I say let them have the bid. They are obviously in a more dire financial situation than we are.

It's survival of the fittest, not the cheapest. We all need to make sure we are the fittest by not getting fat and sitting on our past work and always looking at ways to be more efficient. If we aren't doing that, then we aren't any better than the lowballers. (no offense Larry, just a figure of speech. lol)
 
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