ballpark figure.

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Early in business I had a $750 job with extras-no Change Order. The guy is looking at my invoice & asking why it's higher than our contract. I mentioned all the extras he asked for. He keeps asking questions with the checkbook out, but not writing the check. I finally caved & said I'd give him 10% off. He agreed & wrote the check quick. This was at a time when I was probably working at a loss anyway & my price was more than fair.

I drove straight from that job to the Public Library & got some books on negotiating. Do yourself a favor & learn how to negotiate. It's easier to run a business at a profit than a loss.

Dave
 
satcom said:
GC's in my area mark-up our pricing 50% to 100% they are in busines to make money, and if they get you to drop, they have a longer fishing trip.

Years back my neighbor contractor builder, invited me to a builders dinner meeting on bidding state contracts, the GC's at the table din't know i was an EC, and they were discussing how hard it is to deal with some subs, when some of the GC's said, they only guys you can play with are the electricians, they cave easy, I always kept that in back of my mind when dealing with GC's.
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I subscribe to some Audio/Video trade magazines. The Audio/Video guys are complaining about how home builders and GCs are now having their electricians do the Audio/Video instead of using the Audio/Video guys.

Why do you think this is?

It's because electricians have been wiring their homes for nothing for years and now they've figured out they can get them to do the Audio/Video for nothing as well.

I'm sure the electricians do these by the square foot. :)
 
satcom said:
GC's in my area mark-up our pricing 50% to 100% they are in busines to make money, and if they get you to drop, they have a longer fishing trip.

Years back my neighbor contractor builder, invited me to a builders dinner meeting on bidding state contracts, the GC's at the table din't know i was an EC, and they were discussing how hard it is to deal with some subs, when some of the GC's said, they only guys you can play with are the electricians, they cave easy, I always kept that in back of my mind when dealing with GC's.
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Last year I was putting in some 6" remod cans for a customer. I was charging $110 per can at the time. The house was about a year old. He told me what a great price I was giving him. He said the builder would have charged him $200 a can. That's when I decided to raise my price to $125 per can. And that's for service work. I wonder what the original EC charged the builder per can.
 
tmbrk said:
Last year I was putting in some 6" remod cans for a customer. I was charging $110 per can at the time. The house was about a year old. He told me what a great price I was giving him. He said the builder would have charged him $200 a can. That's when I decided to raise my price to $125 per can. And that's for service work. I wonder what the original EC charged the builder per can.
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Why didn't you go to $200.00 a can??? :-?
 
electricmanscott said:
Why didn't you go to $200.00 a can??? :-?
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Or at least $199 a can. :)

$200 a can is the going rate for GCs not for electricians.
We have to charge the going rate for electricians.
 
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emahler said:
don't be silly....$125 will get him all the work...then he'll be rich....
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Some just don't get it, you low ball all the jobs so you get a lot of work from the GC, that way, you can make up the losses, up with volume.
 
satcom said:
Some just don't get it, you low ball all the jobs so you get a lot of work from the GC, that way, you can make up the losses, up with volume.
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I used to kill myself trying to keep everyone happy and doing as much work as I could possibly do.

It sucked.

I charged more and worked less and still make more money.
 
GC's bill.

GC's bill.

tmbrk said:
I was wondering if anyone could give me an idea of what the following would cost if you did the work. Please PM me if you don't feel like publicly displaying your price. We had to make two trips to complete the work and the jobsite was an hour+ drive one direction. It was in addition to a kitchen and bath remodel that we were already working on. It was all remodel work so no open walls. Everything had to be fished in.

8 standard Halo 6" remodel cans. Four in one bedroom, the other four in seperate bedroom. Supply MC cable,cans, standard baffles, and 65w bulbs
Fish into existing switch boxes and install 2 Lutron Maestro dimmers. Make previously switched outlets constant hot.
Replace two GFCI recepts w/trim plates.
Replace 10 single pole switches w/ Decora type and trim plates.
Replace 2 three ways w/ Decora type and trim plates.
Replace 22 duplex receptacles w/ Decora type and trim plates.
Replace 1 single port phone jack.
Replace 2 double port phone jacks.
Install 2 Juno 4" low voltage remodel cans.
Come off existing receptacle locations and install 2 new switch locations.
Install 2 Lutron Maestro low voltage dimmers.
Townhouse from early eighties. We did have alot of trouble with the one bedroom. Even though we had attic access there is a different roof line above it and we had a heck of a time fishing from one hole to the next. The 4" LVs and Maestro dimmers aren't cheap and I had to drive two hours round trip to get them because they wanted the job done right away so the painters could start. We had a heck of a time fishing in for the 4" cans (no attic access on those). We were also put on hold for two hours while the GC confirmed with the dictator, I mean decorator as to the can locations. Then of course everything was in the way and the cans had to be moved anyway.The entire job took two guys about 14 hours not counting going to get the materials.
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GC'S BILL- Labor and Material - $3,485.00
Thanks for your business
Have a nice day:smile:
 
emahler said:
don't be silly....$125 will get him all the work...then he'll be rich....
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Sorry. I started my company from scratch and still have alot to learn. I get the same thing from a buddy of mine. Of course his Daddy handed him his company.
 
tmbrk said:
I was wondering if anyone could give me an idea of what the following would cost if you did the work. Please PM me if you don't feel like publicly displaying your price. We had to make two trips to complete the work and the jobsite was an hour+ drive one direction. It was in addition to a kitchen and bath remodel that we were already working on. It was all remodel work so no open walls. Everything had to be fished in.


  • 8 standard Halo 6" remodel cans. Four in one bedroom, the other four in seperate bedroom. Supply MC cable,cans, standard baffles, and 65w bulbs
    Fish into existing switch boxes and install 2 Lutron Maestro dimmers. Make previously switched outlets constant hot.
    Replace two GFCI recepts w/trim plates.
    Replace 10 single pole switches w/ Decora type and trim plates.
    Replace 2 three ways w/ Decora type and trim plates.
    Replace 22 duplex receptacles w/ Decora type and trim plates.
    Replace 1 single port phone jack.
    Replace 2 double port phone jacks.
    Install 2 Juno 4" low voltage remodel cans.
    Come off existing receptacle locations and install 2 new switch locations.
    Install 2 Lutron Maestro low voltage dimmers.

Please feel free to PM me with what you think would be the round about price.
I understand nobody can give an accurate price sight unseen, but I just wanted to see if you guys were in the same ballpark. The GC was like "Wow!" when I handed him the extras sheet. Thanks.:smile:
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2785 I should be in the ballpark with this price.
 
electricmanscott said:
I used to kill myself trying to keep everyone happy and doing as much work as I could possibly do.

It sucked.

I charged more and worked less and still make more money.
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I think when we started out, we all killed ourself trying to keep everyone happy, and doing as much work as we could do, and we watched the other guys, not thinking they might be loosing money.
 
aline said:
I subscribe to some Audio/Video trade magazines. The Audio/Video guys are complaining about how home builders and GCs are now having their electricians do the Audio/Video instead of using the Audio/Video guys.

Why do you think this is?

It's because electricians have been wiring their homes for nothing for years and now they've figured out they can get them to do the Audio/Video for nothing as well.

I'm sure the electricians do these by the square foot. :)
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Hey whats your number?
 
electricmanscott said:
Why didn't you go to $200.00 a can??? :-?
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So you find out what the GCs and builders that you work for bill the final customers and then you match it? Tell us. How has this worked out for you?

Or do you just tell the customer to go to the class at HomeDepot and do it themselves?:grin:
 
tmbrk said:
So you find out what the GCs and builders that you work for bill the final customers and then you match it? Tell us. How has this worked out for you?

Or do you just tell the customer to go to the class at HomeDepot and do it themselves?:grin:
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I have been pretty fortunate to work directly with the homewner as much as I can which is actually quite often.

I charge around $200.00 a remodel can depending on conditions, what can how much I like (or not) the customer etc.
 
electricmanscott said:
I have been pretty fortunate to work directly with the homewner as much as I can which is actually quite often.

I charge around $200.00 a remodel can depending on conditions, what can how much I like (or not) the customer etc.
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If it was three or under that's probably what I would charge. I could not get away in my area with 200 per can more than that. Unless it was no attic access.

If I charged 200 a can with attic access and it took me four hours to install six cans plus the cost to pull to switch location it would be $1325.00.

I figure in $50 a can with mark up. Another $50.00 in wiring, fittings and misc.

That's $350.00 in material.

$975.00 in labor for 4 hours. $243.75 per hour.

I guess I'm just not there yet.

If I could get away with it at my low overhead that would be great.

My question is why aren't the guys with twice my overhead charging at $487.50 per hour? Or $400.00 a can?
 
tmbrk said:
Sorry. I started my company from scratch and still have alot to learn. I get the same thing from a buddy of mine. Of course his Daddy handed him his company.
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there is something to be said for that...don't worry, i'm just busting chops...but the reality is, there is a lot to learn, the learning curve is steep, and too many guys think that they only need training on the technical side of this business...
 
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