Hi Guys!! about 80% of the work we do is rewiring older homes in the area. Residential work is also the hardest sector for me to try and get flat rate pricing for. It seems EVERY home I look at has some kind of factor that influences pricing one way or another. It's usually not as simple as looking at a Bed room and saying it has 5 drops and a light on a switch. Clients typically do not want damage to drywall/plaster walls and we make our drops from attic. I was thinking about Doing a flat rate per Room for this type of work, but still have seen homes where the prices increase due to circumstance. A floored attic usually raises costs due to all the cutting of floors and putting in back down when we are done. I am trying to get more in line with flat rate pricing so I am not wasting 3-4 Hours on an estimate when I can do mostly all of our commercial and new construction from a set of prints in my office. Any one here have any insight to this? I am starting to think that doing a walk through and pricing the job as I see it is the ONLY sure fire way to not lose my shirt on a job.
First of all you need to figure out what it will cost you to do a walk thru. Add up all the costs including labor (make believe you are sending an employee so you pay yourself), vehicle expenses, and materials (booties, forms). That will help you determine on which jobs it's worth doing. I avoid doing site visits unless the job sounds like it's at least a $1500 sale. I figure it costs me $100-200 to do a site visit where I will be there for about 30 minutes and is an average 45 minute drive one way.
Secondly, you can always give a flat rate price based on a contingency. Whenever I do a phone quote I always say "Based on what you have told me, the price will $xxx." If I get there and the conditions are significantly different, I discuss with the HO what the new and improved price has to be. They are much less likely to say they will find someone else if you are already there; ready, willing, and able to do the job. Even if you do a walk through you can say "Based on what I see right now the price is going to be $X,XXX. If I discover some significant hidden problems while I'm doing the work, I'll have to charge you extra."
Also, don't make the job harder on you that you have to. It's easier to cut channels in walls and have them patched than to fish wires through walls. Line up a good drywall guy and bid him along with your work. Drywaller labor and materials is cheaper than electrician labor. You can make the bids cheaper and spend less time in attics and crawl spaces.