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Apple Roof Cleaning Tampa wrote:

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creativeimages wrote:

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I have 2 jobs lined up for the end of March. Priced both at 19 cents a sq ft. Both are rental properties owned by the same guy. Both are single story, except one has a second story just over the garage. All of the pitches are low with easy access. Should be able get everything from ground. I I scheduled for March so that I was certain all the snow would be gone and the Spring rain would not have started yet. The customer seemed very knowledgeable about what was on his shingles. It was a pretty easy sell, which was nice for a change.

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Mike Sullivan and I are investigating a catalyst for the roof cleaning chemical.
IF all goes well, it will GREATLY accelerate the roof cleaning chemical.
Hopefully, this will make cold weather roof cleaning a reality ?
Stay Tuned !

Please hurry with that Chris. LOL.... This cold weather is not good for biz right now!

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Dirt E.Gator wrote:

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Brick city power washing wrote:

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I gave a customer a bid of $250.00 on his roof which the house is 2500sf and it is a shingle roof, Is this to much? The customer said I am way over priced. He said if I come down on my price I will get the job, so I told him 200.00, STILL to high. I have some pics of the house and will post them later when I figure out how. I want to see what the averages are before I agree to anything. I am a newbee on roof cleaning and pricing them. Thanks for the help.........Jeff

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Jeff our area seems to really fickle  on pricing, especially here in gainesville, there are sooooo many fly by night guys willing to undercut anyone sometimes it gets really frustrating, I did a house in McIntosh last month About 3700 sg ft and priced it at 400.00, well they recomended me to a friend here in gainesville in a big money neighborhood, you know 400,000 dollar homes, 4200+sq ft roof and qouted 500.00, they guy got pissed and said he could get it done for 150.00, i went by the house the next few days and finally a guy showed up and was downstreaming out of a 5 gallon bucket, was there two days and the roof still has streaks on it,  It seems like getting 10 to 12 cents so far has been all i can get, maybe as my work gets better known i'll be able to push the price up but as it is     well     i get what i can and let my work speak for itself, 

jeff since our areas are close i wouldnt mind sharing info anytime  just call
Jerry 258-9890

Customers will never learn that they get what they pay for! I'm doing 1 Roof Cleaning tomorrow and just picked up another Roof Cleaning for Monday where they both got way cheaper prices than what I charge but the guy never showed up!!!

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Dirt E.Gator wrote:

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Brick city power washing wrote:

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I gave a customer a bid of $250.00 on his roof which the house is 2500sf and it is a shingle roof, Is this to much? The customer said I am way over priced. He said if I come down on my price I will get the job, so I told him 200.00, STILL to high. I have some pics of the house and will post them later when I figure out how. I want to see what the averages are before I agree to anything. I am a newbee on roof cleaning and pricing them. Thanks for the help.........Jeff

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Jeff our area seems to really fickle  on pricing, especially here in gainesville, there are sooooo many fly by night guys willing to undercut anyone sometimes it gets really frustrating, I did a house in McIntosh last month About 3700 sg ft and priced it at 400.00, well they recomended me to a friend here in gainesville in a big money neighborhood, you know 400,000 dollar homes, 4200+sq ft roof and qouted 500.00, they guy got pissed and said he could get it done for 150.00, i went by the house the next few days and finally a guy showed up and was downstreaming out of a 5 gallon bucket, was there two days and the roof still has streaks on it,  It seems like getting 10 to 12 cents so far has been all i can get, maybe as my work gets better known i'll be able to push the price up but as it is     well     i get what i can and let my work speak for itself, 

jeff since our areas are close i wouldnt mind sharing info anytime  just call
Jerry 258-9890

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Honestly, can you stay in business at those prices? If you are starving and about to lose the house then maybe otherwise you are lowballing and hurting the industry. Time to step up to the plate and look for better customers or get into another line of work.

I am not trying to be an ass here but come on, with prices that low, you will not be able to bring them up.

Customers will always lie to you to get the cheaper deal, you can go broke sitting at home instead of wearing out your equipment and burning gas.

Those customers got what they wanted and maybe realized that they were lied to so maybe next time they will pay more for a better job, if not then you don't want those kind of customers anyway.

Think like this: When you hire an electrician or plumber do you try to haggle with them? Not too many times because they are union and are bound to charge so much or more but not less or they will get into trouble for lowballing either on the record or off the record. Try to run your business the same way, you have more expenses than what you probably think about.

Do this, write out all your expenses like Truck, yellow pages, internet, phone, cell phone, truck insurance, business insurance, chems, maintenance on the truck, office supplies, office equipment, etc..... so when they try to tell you what it should cost you know how much you need to make to stay in business or you will be selling your stuff on craigslist.

Not trying to be harsh here but you need to get some self-respect and don't lowball the other guys or everyone will suffer. When they tell you that someone else will do it cheaper, you will lower your price and then they tell the next guy your price and so on and so on. The guys that fall for it or who don't stick to their prices are the ones that will not last and go out of business.

Either the customer wants the job done by you or not, if not then that is ok because there are a lot more better customers out there that want a quality job at a reasonable price. Don't let one customer dictate if you will be in business next year or not by making you do a job that is below profit levels and hurt your confidence, to them it is like a game to see if they can get you to lower your price then they will think it over and they really are calling someone else to get them to go lower and will mention your name.

If you are doing a good job of educating them, explaining your methods or procedures and instilling confidence in them that you can do the job, then get paid for it, don't lower your price to go out of business.

This spring will be my second year cleaning roofs. I do not know as much as most of you guys,but I learned early on last year after getting stuck on homes how to price them. I quickly learned that I do not get out of the truck for under $380.00. I gave a price of $525 on a house, months later some one else had done the job. The black streaks came back very quickly and seem to be getting worse. One of my first estimates was $275, I thought it was a little high but I was risking it.I lost it to another cleaner who got $450,sometimes the low price makes them think you don't know what your doing. I could never do any job for $200 or $ 250.

I really like ready all your guys post
I learn more and more
Thanks guys!

Very good sales suggestions here. Looking forward to doing more.

Roof Cleaning Long Island N.Y 516-763-4108 wrote:

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This whole topic is proof enough why this forum should be closed to outsiders!

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 I one hundred percent agree that this site should be closed to the public. If you advertise that you are certified by the RCIA they might want to see what thats about then they come here and see the part about posting a 100 times and laugh, that then discredits the certification, cause most certified anyones go to courses and tests. Know I am not discrediting the site I love posting here and talking but I do not think it should be for public viewing and as for being a member you really don't need to be cause you can basically get everyones info secrets and advice by just browsing and not even posting or joining. Before I start sending money to fund this project I would like to see a few changes, first and fore most privacy from customers and outsiders , second a seperate site for rcia certified lists and info validating the cause. That is just my opinion and nothing more so I hope that I have not ruffled anyones feathers. There are over three hundred registered members, I think its time to step it up anotch. If everyone sent a one time fee of 20 per year that would be over 6 thousand dollars, I can guarantee that would cover every single cost of maintaing this and making it a proper and established schooling and testing ground for all current and upcoming roof restoration professionals. The info on this site alone whether you want to get certified or not is well worth 20 bucs. And those fees would more than cover a profeesionaly done web site for the rcia, and just keep this as the forum it is . I promise you it can be done and I am more than willing to help in or make it happen. Hopefully all agree with me.

Don't sell yourself short. If the customer gets a estimate for replacing it they will soon realize that your price is more than reasonable, considering how many more years that will get out of their roof. It is not that easy or safe of a job, raise your price a little and everyone still should be happy, except that guy.

Remember if they balk at your price compare your price to that of a new roof!

I am a builder and i will always offer to tear off and replace their roof for 1.40sf if    
.20 sf for a cleaning is unreasonable. If they wont pay my price there is nothing i can do but look for the next job.