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Roof Cleaning Severna Park MD · guest

Good idea or bad idea, giving estimates without physically viewing the job?

gutterdog · Feb 13, 2011

I tried that last year. Its a gamble when you get to the house.

One gutter clean in NW i quoted using the map thing, I looked at the house and kept driving! 40 ft on 3 sides, I had one but price to low quoted over the phone.

Another, was a roof wash, I went by the house, covered in moss. The map thing didnt show it. It's a gamble. I think looking at the map first and having your prices ready when you get there might be the best way to go? My 2 cents.

Roof Cleaning Missouri 417-230-8103 · Guest

The only time I do an estimate over the phone is if its 2hrs or more away and I have done a bunch like that cause we cover KC area, If I didn't have family there I would not even mess with it. Here's what i have noticed, out of 25 or 30 I have closed very few, I feel to close a deal you have to present it in person, 30-40 miles is nothing to travel for 600.00. Most my work is a min. of 35 miles away and i always do those in person..
do yourself a favor and do this in person... My 2 cents..

garyw · Feb 13, 2011

Most all of those satelite images are anywhere from 6-12 months old. A lot can change to a property in that time frame. Better off to go visit.
Gary

garyw · Feb 13, 2011

gutterdog wrote:

I tried that last year. Its a gamble when you get to the house.

One gutter clean in NW i quoted using the map thing, I looked at the house and kept driving! 40 ft on 3 sides, I had one but price to low quoted over the phone.

Another, was a roof wash, I went by the house, covered in moss. The map thing didnt show it. It's a gamble. I think looking at the map first and having your prices ready when you get there might be the best way to go? My 2 cents.

Hopefully you got back with the HO and explained your position. Not good for the reputation to leave people hanging with no explaination why you didn't show up.
Gary

Roof Cleaning Severna Park MD · guest

Well, I also meant to say that it takes a good bit of Homeowner honesty, too. I asked some questions about the roof and whether it was stains only or if it had moss/lichen growth as well. He said stains only on the front of the house and after calling him back with the estimate, he seemed okay with it. Maybe some sticker shock, but he said he will call back this week to let me know if we can add him to the schedule or not. We'll see, but from now on, I think I'll drive out unless I feel like it's a no-brainer and easy enough to do on the phone. If it's a bigger job, I just need to drive out because it was not possible to accurately judge his reaction and that could cause us to lose some business that we could have otherwise earned.

Thanks guy.

Roof Cleaning Bradenton FL 941-822-2454 · Guest

Randy has done some estimates and the homeowners never want to be bothered with being home, this is not how we have sold roof replacements in the past but it is different -$ 400 as opposed to 4-5 thousand, so what I am trying to do is get people to be home, but they treat it as "well just leave the estimate in the door" so how do you make a HO stay home for an estimate and not tick them off?
Any thoughts?

garyw · Feb 13, 2011

Offer an incentative, such as a $25.00 gift card if they schedule the job when you present the estimate in person. No exceptions.
Gary

Roof Cleaning Cleveland (216) 323-0552 · Feb 13, 2011

On bigger jobs I always go. I want the face time with the customer. If they don't meet you you're just a price. If they see you, you're a person and can bound better with them. With that said, if it's 45 minutes away or farther I would possibly bid over the phone. For pressure washing I've been charging a flat rate. I figure if it's a huge house the time saved from having to drive there twice makes up for it. Plus if it's a big house there is a better chance for extras. Or some work later on.

Chesapeake · Guest

We do 75% of our roof cleaning estimates over the phone using satellite images. Most of the time I don't make a special trip for an estimate. I try to catch anything local while traveling in between jobs. Time is money and the price of fuel is constantly going up. Time spent on the road, looking at jobs could be better spent completing jobs. Think about what you charge per hour. Add up the couple hours you use to drive 30+ miles to look at a job. Now you may not even get the job, but if you do, you're driving that again. That's another hour or 2 + the time and materials you have in the job. Now, are you really making what you need, to keep your businesses going. If its a large project, its definitely worth the time to visit in person, but a $600 job at 30+ miles, no.

Roof Cleaning Severna Park MD · guest

Good stuff guys! Chris, that is my thinking, too, I will try some things out this year, work on my sales pitch and see what I can get going!

Roof Cleaning Bradenton FL 941-822-2454 · Guest

Good topic for the radio show tonight!
Kim R

Guest

I gave out 2 estimates last week using google maps. One over the phone and the other through e-mail. My policy is if its within 15 minutes from me, I will drive to give an estimate. Anything over 15 minutes will be given over the phone or email.

Ugly Shingles LLC · Feb 13, 2011

99% of our sales are satellite images. Even if we "missed" the estimate by a few bucks how much time, gas and mileage does it take to drive around town and sit for an hour trying to sell each job? If it was a 100,000.00 addition I wouldn't mind it but it is a 500.00 roof cleaning job, your price cant be off that much, or you need to quit selling. biggrin

Once we look at the neighborhood to see what style of house it is and then ask the homeowner a few key questions...we give them a price. If we are not sure or if you cannot see the house because of the trees then we go look at it. wink

I would like to think that most of us can give an accurate estimate of how much we would charge a homeowner to clean the roof in the picture below from a satellite image? confuse

aaron61 · Guest

All sales & estimating time has been incorporated in our pricing wether I'm on a roof,in front of my computer or in front of the customer it has all been figured in to our overhead.Wether it by sqft or hourly.If your just giving them a number that's all they have to base their decision on.I would much rather be in front of them.That being said I have given many proposals by going to the property apraisers website & looking @ the sqft of the home.

Confident Roof Cleaning Houston TX · Guest

Maybe one out of a hundred gets done over the phone now. Only when its under $400 and over 50 miles each way. Other than that it gets quoted in person. I just closed 4 jobs on thursday. 2 of them are the nighbor of my original customer that I wouldnt have gotten if I hadnt been there in person. Plus we do our popcorn marketing in ever neighborhood.

Ugly Shingles LLC · Feb 13, 2011

aaron61 wrote:

All sales & estimating time has been incorporated in our pricing wether I'm on a roof,in front of my computer or in front of the customer it has all been figured in to our overhead.Wether it by sqft or hourly.If your just giving them a number that's all they have to base their decision on.I would much rather be in front of them.That being said I have given many proposals by going to the property apraisers website & looking @ the sqft of the home.

With a roof cleaning shop on every corner in Florida you could have a valid point about closing the sale face to face.

If your sales are Incorporated into every price "Cost of doing business" then every sale you make over the phone banks you some bucks and that could add up. The time you save not "giving everyone personal prices" allows you more time to be on the roofs producing...

Treasure Coast Roof Cleaning · Guest

Great image. Not a normal angle that I see on maps or earth. $750 for house on left and $700 for house on right.

Confident Roof Cleaning Houston TX · Guest

Ugly Shingles wrote:

aaron61 wrote:

All sales & estimating time has been incorporated in our pricing wether I'm on a roof,in front of my computer or in front of the customer it has all been figured in to our overhead.Wether it by sqft or hourly.If your just giving them a number that's all they have to base their decision on.I would much rather be in front of them.That being said I have given many proposals by going to the property apraisers website & looking @ the sqft of the home.

With a roof cleaning shop on every corner in Florida you could have a valid point about closing the sale face to face.

If your sales are Incorporated into every price "Cost of doing business" then every sale you make over the phone banks you some bucks and that could add up. The time you save not "giving everyone personal prices" allows you more time to be on the roofs producing...

Why not hire people to do the roof cleaning and you spend more time closing more sales at higher prices?

Chesapeake · Guest

Confident Roof Cleaning Houston TX wrote:

Maybe one out of a hundred gets done over the phone now. Only when its under $400 and over 50 miles each way. Other than that it gets quoted in person. I just closed 4 jobs on thursday. 2 of them are the nighbor of my original customer that I wouldnt have gotten if I hadnt been there in person. Plus we do our popcorn marketing in ever neighborhood.

Scott, you are more fortunate than most guys here, and I understand why you would visit with each potential customer. With you no longer being the guy out on the roof, you have the extra time to be out selling. Having that personal time with a customer, deffinately helps to close the deal. I just don't know that it's worth the difference for the guys still working in the field.

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum "Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum
"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"