Beat out on quote by "legit" contractor

[e57]

[FONT=&quot]Just quoted a rewire on an @ 1930's home. House has all K&T wiring, so it's a total rewire in lathe & plaster.[/FONT]

Just a question here: But is that what THEY asked for - or by YOUR suggestion. There are many people who want a handfull of things, and don't want the house gutted to do it. Is it possible the EC who got the job is not ripping it all out to start over? Just because the building has K&T - does not mean it's a total rewire...

 

[satcom]

Just a question here: But is that what THEY asked for - or by YOUR suggestion. There are many people who want a handfull of things, and don't want the house gutted to do it. Is it possible the EC who got the job is not ripping it all out to start over? Just because the building has K&T - does not mean it's a total rewire...

In the last few years we get a lot of complete rewire requests, it seems people with homes that have K&T wiring have a hard time finding a buyer willing to buy, and recently some insurance companies are requiring it to obtain coverages.

 

[e57]

In the last few years we get a lot of complete rewire requests, it seems people with homes that have K&T wiring have a hard time finding a buyer willing to buy, and recently some insurance companies are requiring it to obtain coverages.

Yes - I have heard that before, but K&T is still allowed for extensions to existing circuits, and modifications or repair have not been banned. I see it as fear mongering.

 

[growler]

I see it as fear mongering.

Known in the sales industry as a persuasive sales tactic ( perfectly legitimate and used by everyone from politicians to priest).

Sure there is nothing to fear but fear it's self but fear can be very frightening.

 

[rodneee]

$7,900. mindset

$7,900. mindset

the guy who bid the $7900. is thinking a certain way....he is thinking the job will take him and his helper 12 working days....(96 hours each)...his home depot bill will be $1900.00 on his charge card for material....he will pay his helper $17.00 per hour, which will cost him $22.00 per hour with labor burden for a total of $2112.00.....now he subtracts $4012.00 (material cost and helper labor) from $7900.00 which leaves him with $3888.00.....he then divides this number by the 96 hours he will work on the job...he now feels he is better off working now for himself for $40.50 per hour instead of the $25.00 per hour he was being paid by his former employer....SCARY THOUGHT;.... AND HE IS NOT ALONE IN HIS MINDSET....

 

[electricguy61]

Just a question here: But is that what THEY asked for - or by YOUR suggestion. There are many people who want a handfull of things, and don't want the house gutted to do it. Is it possible the EC who got the job is not ripping it all out to start over? Just because the building has K&T - does not mean it's a total rewire...

Actually, I was very clear w/ the customer that K&T is not inherently unsafe, but she'd had a home inspection and it stated the house should be re-wired.

 

[electricguy61]

the guy who bid the $7900. is thinking a certain way....he is thinking the job will take him and his helper 12 working days....(96 hours each)...his home depot bill will be $1900.00 on his charge card for material....he will pay his helper $17.00 per hour, which will cost him $22.00 per hour with labor burden for a total of $2112.00.....now he subtracts $4012.00 (material cost and helper labor) from $7900.00 which leaves him with $3888.00.....he then divides this number by the 96 hours he will work on the job...he now feels he is better off working now for himself for $40.50 per hour instead of the $25.00 per hour he was being paid by his former employer....SCARY THOUGHT;.... AND HE IS NOT ALONE IN HIS MINDSET....

I think you're correct, though I doubt the $17 per hour helper, and the labor burden. My guess: $15 cash under the table.

I couldn't do it for $7900, but somebody says they will. I wished the customer well and said good bye.

 

[satcom]

We see many times where the home owner gets a price for a job then calls other EC's and tells them they had a price of XXX usually they half the other guys price to see if you will bite, this sounds like one of those customers, and he will find a non insured, non tax paying part time rip off artist to do the job for 7K About half of the 14K or more it should run

 

[jaylectricity]

Doing a quick estimate I could probably do it for $10000, but $16000 would be a lot nicer. I rewired a split-level for about $6500 but I made the GC buy all the boxes, fixtures, recessed cans and trims, smoke/CO alarms, and he even mounted the recessed lighting and the outside receptacle boxes. Also, it was completely gutted.

 

[Chamuit]

Doing a quick estimate I could probably do it for $10000, but $16000 would be a lot nicer. I rewired a split-level for about $6500 but I made the GC buy all the boxes, fixtures, recessed cans and trims, smoke/CO alarms, and he even mounted the recessed lighting and the outside receptacle boxes. Also, it was completely gutted.

So basically you did it for the 10K. Just reworked how the material was paid for and let the GC take the parts profit? Not saying that is wrong, just that you are also in the same ballpark . . ish.

 

[petersonra]

Doing a quick estimate I could probably do it for $10000, but $16000 would be a lot nicer. I rewired a split-level for about $6500 but I made the GC buy all the boxes, fixtures, recessed cans and trims, smoke/CO alarms, and he even mounted the recessed lighting and the outside receptacle boxes. Also, it was completely gutted.

I like the idea of having the GC acquire and pay directly for the parts. Its a simple way to make your part of the job look a lot cheaper to him. He thinks he is getting some kind of bargain, but probably never figured in the time and resources spent getting and paying for the parts that he won't recoup for a long while.

I also like how you got him to do all the grunt work like gutting the walls and mounting the fixtures.

You will probably make more real profit on the job handling it this way, and the GC thinks he got a steal.

Just don't smile too much while you are there. Complain a little so he won't realize what a deal you got out of this arrangement.

 

[jaylectricity]

So basically you did it for the 10K. Just reworked how the material was paid for and let the GC take the parts profit? Not saying that is wrong, just that you are also in the same ballpark . . ish.

Yeah, I think that's about right. It was what I was implying in my post. The thing is, he wanted to strong-arm the price out of me. I could have turned down the job or demanded more money. If he knew then what he knows now, he probably would have paid me more money to take care of all that other stuff. But we finished the job and both of us were happy. Happy enough that he called me to do another job with him recently. And once again, we worked together to do the best job we could and both came out happy at the end of that job as well.

I like the idea of having the GC acquire and pay directly for the parts. Its a simple way to make your part of the job look a lot cheaper to him. He thinks he is getting some kind of bargain, but probably never figured in the time and resources spent getting and paying for the parts that he won't recoup for a long while.

I also like how you got him to do all the grunt work like gutting the walls and mounting the fixtures.

You will probably make more real profit on the job handling it this way, and the GC thinks he got a steal.

Just don't smile too much while you are there. Complain a little so he won't realize what a deal you got out of this arrangement.

Yeah, I mean with the recessed lights he was really particular. So he spent time running strings from point to point, cris-crossing string at each location to make sure all the cans lined up exactly where he wanted them, then mounted the cans. It was a little bit more work for me to actually get the wires into the boxes and make up the splices, but well worth not having the responsibility of making sure the cans were in the right place and physically hanging them.

He probably DID make a little more money for himself by billing the customer for his work, but I did less work at a higher profit margin with less risk.

Very rare to find somebody that's easy to work and I've found a few of those types of customers.