Anyone else getting quoted insane prices for work around your place?

[dragoneggs]

Coming from another licensed and insured contractor here, people are way underestimating how much it cost us to work vs joe and bubba. We’ve got taxes, workers comp, unemployment ( which I don’t pay ) insurance cost, license cost, significant equipment cost, a lot of un billable hours worked and apparently people think we’re supposed to work for $20 an hour.

Oh I understand and appreciate all of the expenses, the irregularities, etc. And I will begrudgingly pay it if I need certain things done. However as others have mentioned, in the last few years, it is getting harder to find competent contractors that will bid a job and commit to a date and then hold to it or close. Seems the supply isn't keeping up with the demand.

 

[MossRoad]

I am getting bids on having my house reroofed. The first estimate was 8900, the second 22000. Quite a difference

YIKES!

 

[Cat_Driver]

Coming from another licensed and insured contractor here, people are way underestimating how much it cost us to work vs joe and bubba. We致e got taxes, workers comp, unemployment ( which I don稚 pay ) insurance cost, license cost, significant equipment cost, a lot of un billable hours worked and apparently people think weæ±*e supposed to work for $20 an hour.

I think most understand this, but we're talking prices that are far, far out of line even calculating legitimate expenses.

Last week I was quoted 3K for a water heater installed. Not a fancy water heater just a typical 40 gal. water heater.

I was quoted $1,600 to install a reverse osmosis water filter under my sink.

I can do both these jobs by getting a hot water tank from Home Depot for $499.00, I can turn the water off at the street. I can cut and either solder or use sharkbite connectors and reconnect the gas line. On the outside, with me taking breaks, eating lunch having some coffee it's a two-hour job. No one on the planet thinks 2 hours of work and a water tank that they pay WHOLESALE $300.00 for is worth $3,000.00


Premium Quality 5-Stage Under-Sink Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Filter System is $199.99 at Home depot and again can't take 2 hours to install as I've done it before.

I was just getting quotes thinking local plumbers "NEEDED" the work - obviously, they don't need the work.

I can understand the unbillable. They must go out for free for 40 hours making insane quotes and then get one job out of 40 bids.


I ran my business for 0 years and my goal was NEVER to lose a piece of business because of price. I think my percentage was 90% plus on closing quotes in my favor.

I figured they had money they wanted to give me I just needed to find a way for them to hand the money over to me and not my competition. HAd I just sat back quoting insane price I wouldn't have lasted in business two years.

 

[Dadnatron]

As a professional, but not a building trade, I think the thing in my field which bothers me the most is when I perform a procedure on a patient, it goes flawlessly, patient doesn’t feel a thing, takes 5 minutes, then they get upset at the bill. I had one guy griping about the ‘thousands of $ an hour’ I was making. I told him, “You didn’t just pay for 5 min of my time. You paid for 16 years of education after Highschool, no sleep nights, 20yrs of real world experience, a building, nurses, and office staff. Would you rather have remained in extreme pain and had another doctor take an hour, fumbling his way through it for a cheaper price?”

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Coming from another licensed and insured contractor here, people are way underestimating how much it cost us to work vs joe and bubba. We致e got taxes, workers comp, unemployment ( which I don稚 pay ) insurance cost, license cost, significant equipment cost, a lot of un billable hours worked and apparently people think weæ±*e supposed to work for $20 an hour.

I think most would be shocked at what it "costs" to be in a legitimate business.

 

[MossRoad]

Try looking at it from our view:

Paying thousands of dollars for a 5 minutes medical procedure would leave a bad taste in most average peoples' mouths.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

As a professional, but not a building trade, I think the thing in my field which bothers me the most is when I perform a procedure on a patient, it goes flawlessly, patient doesn’t feel a thing, takes 5 minutes, then they get upset at the bill. I had one guy griping about the ‘thousands of $ an hour’ I was making. I told him, “You didn’t just pay for 5 min of my time. You paid for 16 years of education after Highschool, no sleep nights, 20yrs of real world experience, a building, nurses, and office staff. Would you rather have remained in extreme pain and had another doctor take an hour, fumbling his way through it for a cheaper price?”

:drink: This is no lie; I work for 10 cents on the dollar, profit.

 

[drssg]

Try looking at it from our view:

Paying thousands of dollars for a 5 minutes medical procedure would leave a bad taste in most average peoples' mouths.

To my reading, the patient extrapolated the cost for 5 minutes up to an hourly rate, which would assume the doctor could perform 12 procedures per hour. His cost for 5 minutes would be hundreds. I could be wrong.

When I've had significant medical bills, I always thought the surgeon's bill was the more reasonable part.

I have a harder time accepting well over $1000/hour for a 36 hour hospital stay, where the level of care was rather crappy. Once again, there is a ton of overhead and people that don't pay their bills etc.. It never occurred to me to complain about the bill. I just grumble to myself.

 

[dragoneggs]

When I've had significant medical bills, I always thought the surgeon's bill was the more reasonable part.

I have a harder time accepting well over $1000/hour for a 36 hour hospital stay, where the level of care was rather crappy. Once again, there is a ton of overhead and people that don't pay their bills etc.. It never occurred to me to complain about the bill. I just grumble to myself.

Me too... the hospital stay doesn't even include all of the supplies, etc. like a hotel stay! :confused3:

 

[Jstpssng]

I think most would be shocked at what it "costs" to be in a legitimate business.

Coming from another licensed and insured contractor here, people are way underestimating how much it cost us to work vs joe and bubba. We致e got taxes, workers comp, unemployment ( which I don稚 pay ) insurance cost, license cost, significant equipment cost, a lot of un billable hours worked and apparently people think weæ±*e supposed to work for $20 an hour.

I spent 10 years working as a forestry consultant and always figured that about 1/3 of what I made was mine compared to working a "regular" job. I was just selling a service and didn't have the equipment that some of you have. My biggest expenses were time, travel costs and insurance. I also didn't work "under the table"... if somebody couldn't afford to pay the real costs they could find somebody else.