Bidding and Working for a Realty Agency-CONFLICT!

[Blue Bird Lawn Care]

I have worked for a relator for a little under 5 years as kind of a handy-man/yard care guy. I currently earn $12 an hour working for him. This is as a side thing to my business and day job (and school too!). I recently started my business and asked the relator if he could possibly help me with getting some jobs doing yard care and whatnot for properties that are for sale. He talked to the property management side of the realty office he works for (the parts that rents houses and apartments) and told them a rate that I did not establish with them. I have and was planning on doing bids on properties, not hourly rates due to the nature of the beast. It doesn't take long to mow and he quoted my work at $15 an hour. Currently, that is what the realty office thinks I will work for. How do I go about setting it straight that I operate on a bidding scale rather than an hourly scale? When I met with the rental lady, she said, "You're definitely the cheapest we have on the books!". >Groan< I would like to work for this group, but it leaves me in a bind as someone has obligated my work and time at a certain rate. Would it be better to work at the $15/hour for the first few jobs and if they are satisfied, talk about doing lawns on a bidding scale? Or, should I flat out tell them that the relator doesn't speak for my rates, and I would prefer to do bidding straight away? Thanks for your help.

[picframer]

Lawn care business tips

First speak to the fellow that you deal with and ask where he came up with that figure as you have equipment that costs money to rent whereas the handyman jobs did not require this equipment. If you want to go per hour, state a min per lawn you do and a per hour charge, or suggest you can quote per lawn. There are far higher costs mowing multiple properties vs an odd man job where you may be at the same location for a day or more.

__________________
Andy
Halifax, Nova Scotia

[bruces]

you need to speak with whoever is in charge and straighten it out before you do any work .Its often next to impossible to raise your rates much at a time and not p1ss off the customer ,just explain the guy didnt know what your rates are and leave it like that .I would also like to add,that when I do handyman type work ,I typically charge $40.00 plus per hour ,but I work hard ,fast and do a great job ,$12.00 isnt worth your time unless your in highschool .

[nickeckes]

Originally Posted by bruces

Its often next to impossible to raise your rates much at a time and not p1ss off the customer.

YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN, I have this lady who i have been cutting her lawn for 2 years now, shes 2 miles from my house and her lawn takes me 20min all said and done for mowing, trimming, and blowing, shes only 2miles from my house and 2 blocks away from a big account i got, so i charged her $10.00bucks, which is wayyyyy cheap and to be honest i prob make $2.00 off the house which i dont care because i have other big money making houses around her neighborhood, so at the start of this year before i even started mowing, i told her i was going to raise her yard to $15.00 becasue of other cost and i explained to her what those were in a nice letter, and man o man did she flip out and left me a voicemail haha, shes said thats to much and shes going to talk to her daughter. . well i dk what her daughter said, but i have been cutting it so far this year for $15.00 bucks, she prob. couldnt find anyone cheaper. . .and she didnt believe me my business insurance went up this year, cuz i said that was a factor i raised my prices. . WOMEN I TELL YOU

[Fisher]

I would be sure to let them know of the misinformation before doing any work. Let them know if you like to still be the cheapest and ask for an insight to what they are currently paying and ask for the chance to just look at 2-3 properties to bid on at once so they get a better idea of your rates with them. Don't bid only one as you may be more on one and less on the other two this will give them a better scope.


In all my work that I do with any of our machines whether it's mowers or skid steers I budget $15-$20 per working hour for their fuel and maintenance. Not to mention all the other cost of doing business $15 would barely support my mower.

[Steve]

Keep us posted on what you do and how it turns out.

[Blue Bird Lawn Care]

Well hopefully I will have it worked out tomorrow morning. I will tell the realty lady that I will do work by the bid and not by the hour. It is just me (one man operation) and I have a variety of good tools (commercial weed whacker, an edger, blower, pressure washer and walk behind Honda mower).

I would like to price myself below the normal guys, but higher than $15 an hour. Any advice on how to do that? Should I offer to do a few bids so they can see how I stack up price wise?
Thanks!

[Fisher]

I try to "stack up to the other guys" not so much by price but by value of work performed and exceeding their expectations. Often times it's easy to find something that the previous guys overlooked or just disregarded. And those few things alone can often get you the work at even a higher price when they know you'll give their property the attention they feel it should be getting for the money they paid.

That is far better than being the cheap guy that finally realizes they bid to cheap and take on the attitude that you get what you pay for and starts skipping on things that they believe will go unnoticed.

It's easy to find someone cheaper than the other guys and if price alone is the issue then you may just be replaced by some guy that is just looking to replace his $15 per hour job. Go for being priced the same and competitively while offering a little something extra. We've been invited back to do work that was as much as 35% more than the guy that won the initial bid.