Foreclosure Contracts

[sunsetlandscaping]

So I got a call from this company that wanted me to look at these, I think foreclosures, and give them a seasonal price on these 3 houses. Two are 45 min away and the other I think, an hour away. As long as I include drive time in my hourly rate, should it really matter? What do you guys think?

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Will you be able to include a drive time in your rate and still be competitive with others that don't have such a drive time? Is it possible others are bidding on the job too? If so, would it be better to bid on jobs that are in your service area?

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[sunsetlandscaping]

Originally Posted by Steve

Will you be able to include a drive time in your rate and still be competitive with others that don't have such a drive time?

Is it possible others are bidding on the job too?

If so, would it be better to bid on jobs that are in your service area?

Well, I had told them that I moved about 30-45 min south of where they were talking about, and said they would be able to compensate for gas. So I don't know if they have anyone else doing that or not.

Where I lived, it is so spread out, the closest town is 10 min away, but the there are really not many high income areas. I have to travel about 30 min each way to even come close to get anything like that, and even then I could have some trouble. I bid a leaf clean up job today at $210 and the guy about crapped his pants when he heard my bid. Then, I had one more that I bid at $125, and he has to think about, which pretty much means politely, "No thank you." Any advice?

[CS-LawnService]

AS long as you can do all three on the same day and they are in the same direction you possibly can make out all right.I am in the same boat as you are as far as location nearest store is a mom and pops store 7 miles away nearest town is 32 miles away ,I just fill up my schedule one day at a time and make sure that i have more then one job to do in the area.

I doubt they are foreclosures if they wanted a seasonal / yearly contract on them as the ones I have done are all week to week as the broker has no idea when they will sell some sell in a short time others are on the market for months and months

[sunsetlandscaping]

Originally Posted by CS-LawnService

AS long as you can do all three on the same day and they are in the same direction you possibly can make out all right.I am in the same boat as you are as far as location nearest store is a mom and pops store 7 miles away nearest town is 32 miles away ,I just fill up my schedule one day at a time and make sure that i have more then one job to do in the area.

I doubt they are foreclosures if they wanted a seasonal / yearly contract on them as the ones I have done are all week to week as the broker has no idea when they will sell some sell in a short time others are on the market for months and months

So I guess my question is, do you price them as if they are local, as long as you have more in one area to cover...or...do you calculate your hourly rate as in a round trip, almost to where it would be uncompetitve at the point? I don't want to stiff people, but I am a business, not little billy next to door that works for pennys.

Another thing I have thought of is to just charge .50 per mile and calculate my actual time on the job site, kind of comes out cheaper however.

[CS-LawnService]

I do not count my drive time to town if so i would be higher priced then any one else bidding,I choose to live in the middle of no where so I do not have neighbors to contend with .

For me its the price I pay for my piece of mind it cost me a few bucks in the long run but I stay competitive in my pricing and get about 50 percent of what I bid ,where if i was adding in my drive time that percentage would drop .

You have to think of it long term ,you may not make but pennies on the first job in an area for the day but once your in that area then your back on tract to make good hourly wage, my farthest job that I started in an area was 45 minutes away but it is also a 90 a week job so Its still profit then any thing else came along was priced right and profit was right.

[Steve]

So I guess my question is, do you price them as if they are local, as long as you have more in one area to cover...or...do you calculate your hourly rate as in a round trip, almost to where it would be uncompetitve at the point? I don't want to stiff people, but I am a business, not little billy next to door that works for pennys.

If you can get them to pay you for travel time, do it. Why not!

The down side to that is, if someone is local to that customer, they won't have that added expense and can perform the job for cheaper.

I am thinking you will have to experiment with the pricing and see what the market will bear. It may allow you to include such expenses or it may not. If not, you will have to figure a way to be more competitive with the pricing.

[sunsetlandscaping]

Well, I guess the real question is, how bad do you want the job? My wife thinks I am crazy for considering work 1 hour away, because I am not at all set up with commercial equipment at this point (mostly because of the drive). I got another call from a commercial company that is 1 hour away, but they want a bid for the mowing, mulch, maintenance, and all that stuff. I just hope they don't want snow plowing because at this point, I would have to turn it down.

[Steve]

Well, experiment with it and see what kind of results you get from it. It might be worthwhile to take on these jobs or it might not depending on what they are willing to pay.

Keep us posted on it.

[sunsetlandscaping]

Originally Posted by Steve

Well, experiment with it and see what kind of results you get from it. It might be worthwhile to take on these jobs or it might not depending on what they are willing to pay.

Keep us posted on it.

Well I decided not to take these jobs, after talking to the head honcho for this company. Pretty much they wanted to pay me pennies to maintain the lawn, and also, he wanted me to take pictures of the lawn and inside the house, to make it look "staged clean" for the bank. This guy was kind of a sleaze ball so I went with my gut, and told him no thanks.