Ok rotate the image so it faces the back of the house IE East should be at the top of the compass. 2nd home in to the right with pool and no boat, with all the glass on the back. I counted roughly 71 windows. Customer called from a direct mail. Wanted a phone quote, so I hit up my msn map rotate and get a rough count. My quote with my prices roughly $1000.00. Customer says “my window cleaner from last year chared me $400.00.” I almost fell off my seat. I asked him why he did not call his window cleaner. “I can’t find him, his phone is disconnected”. So I explain that some low ball and then realize later they can’t make a living working like that and either shut down and re-open with higher prices, or just get out of the business. The guy says “Well I dont know what to do cause I need to have the windows cleaned.” LOL WELL PAY YOU DUMB ASS. I tell him, “Well I can work with you on the price but I can’t go below 10%”. Now heres the best part. He says “Ok I’ll book you, but the last guy was here for 3 days and I can’t take off work that long. Do you think you can finish this job in 1 or 2 days?” LOL Oh man that must have been some pro he hired. :eek:
We had a similar situation yesterday… We quoted $1700, there last window cleaner charged $500 and of course he is no where to be found.
Looks like casements you should be able to crank that out in a day.
I got one yesterday too. I gave a price…they say “Our guy did it for X last year.” I say call him…they say: “we did…phone has been disconnected.” I say…keep trying.
Once you hit me with the “our guy did it for X” game over.
do not use that on me. Go find another cheapo.
I often wonder if this is the homeowner scam. IE I want to try and get them to lower the price. You know people who are rich did not get that way without being slick. I am going to try a new approach to people like this. Show me the receipt or estimate from your last cleaner and we can work something out. Not sure how that will go over, as I’m sure many don’t have the receipt anymore but who knows… Just another interesting day. Today was a good one. Customer wanted the windows cleaned regardless of rain lol. Me likly those customers. But the afternoon rescheduled. Ah well at least it’s morning money 
BTW Chris, you are 100% correct. I know I can knock this job out in 1 day. I’ll have to bring a friend with me, but that’s cool with me and him. I know he needs money and he is the only guy I have had work with me (Parttime on an off) who I can trust to do the job right an actully work lol.
looking to see some replies on this from the Cali guys. Any guys out here in Cali, how much would you bid this job for. I personally have never done a house this big. So id like to know what the guys in my neck of the woods would be charging. Starbrite, Craig, LegendofDoug etc… what do you guys think?
I don’t do to many houses that size either, most of mine are in the $300 range. I will look at it again when I get home (I’m on my phone) but from what I recall looking at it briefly last night probably around $900 or so.
Also. I see no reason either why this should take more than 1 day with myself and my helper.
JUGG- I’ve had the same thoughts as you. I think some people just say that the last guy did it cheaper in hopes of getting a deal.
THAT is why I ask them to stick with that cheep guy.
It A-L-W-A-Y-S flushes em out.
I had one of these a while back, fairly new house, 3 story on the beach, roughly a $400 job at my prices, the guy tells me he had them done 1 month ago for $125 and the lady was there for 2 days. So anyway, I start looking at the house and come to the sliders and what do I see? fab debris, worst I have ever seen. turns out that when she did it, it was ccu and the painter told me that when she scraped the windows, she did it dry, even the painter knew it was wrong. Long story short, I educated the home owner on fab debris and got in the truck and never looked back.
a 71 window job would take me roughly 6-7 hours and i would charge him between 600-650.
i had a lady literally put me on a guilt trip on how i was charging her so much and that it wasnt fair and that the last guy did a better job for less, so i asked her well why didnt you call him and guess what she says " for some reason his line is disconnected" i just told her theres probably a reason for that.
If it was 71 Windows with 2 panes of glass per window. I would charge around $600.00 for inside/outside,screens,sills and tracks.
This job would take me about 7 hours(all by myself with no helpers.
I sure wished i lived on the eastcoast, you guys are spoiled out there.
If i made 1 grand per day i would be a millionaire.
Not if Miller Lite was still around.
you know what i mean Larry… gawdddddddddd!!!
LOL I wish. Cost of living across the country varies so that is why prices are different. Look around. NJ has the highest taxes bro. Not easy to make a living here. It’s really not easy. 50 grand a year is just getting by and you will be getting by in a low income area is most cases. Even though the home market has died down here, the homes are still costly. My yearly taxes are $3700. That means I need to make $310 per month just for my taxes for my home. I bought my home for $295,000.00 k, I put down 15 grand (thats all i could save up in 3 years working for the government) it’s 1400 sq ft with a full basement unfinished on a 90x100 lot and it needs a little work. I could have gone some other place in this country and got a HUGE home for the price I paid for this and still had change. Where Chris and Alex live. Forget it. They live in what we in Jersey would classify as a mountainous region, I live in a beach region. But it doesn’t matter anymore, after 911 many people from downtown NYC (Trade Center) area moved into Jersey and paid full price for these homes. They never even bargained the price. The prices they were paying for lofts, appartments and brownstone homes in downtown NYC was dollor to pennies to the cost of owning a home. This caused many of the properties cost to rise like wildfire. I went away for 1 month and a home I was looking at went up 15 grand, from 110,000.00 to125k. It was then I got off my ass and bought the next decent place I could find. In two years it was worth 215k. If not for that house I dont know how I would have bought another one. My wife and I looked around for 6 months, just at the end of the boom. But we had no idea the boom was going to end, it was still going strong. Every home we bid on, we lost. We were comming in at 10k off the price, 5k off the price and still losing the home. The homes we were bidding on needed at least 20k to 40k worth of work. This home needed very little, paint mostly and the floors needed to be refinished, it was maintained very well. As soon as I saw how well it was maintained, I offered full price and got the house in 2 weeks. The kids today here are screwed. I dont see how they can get a house in this state unless dad buys it for them or they get lucky. In Chris’s area homes over the last 6 years are going for MILLIONS. Yet 6 years ago you could have gotten a home where he lives for a 100 grand easy, with property. In the early to late 80’s you could have bought a home were he lives for 50 to 80 k, no problem. I dont think you could touch a shead where he lives now for 100 grand. But this is why people need to make money here or learn to make money. You pay to be close to so much here. Over 50 miles of beach, one of the largest citys on the planet not to mention Philly and AC. All within a 2 hour drive. Where I live everything is about 1 hour 10 minutes. Washington is only 3 1/2 hours away, etc. I have been in locations in this country where you need to drive 45 minutes to get milk. No thanks…
was that TX? 
Well take a look at this article my friend.
This is where i live, and i can afford it, but my prices for cleaning windows are much less than yours…
a 295k house is the norm around the united states.
A single family home out in my area starts at the high 600’s
Which article?
Well Cali prices are crazy. Even more so when the place falls out into the ocean. lol. Cali is 2nd in the nations foreclosure. Reason being many could not afford a traditional 30 years fixed mortgage. What good is it to live in a state where you are forced to charge low prices due to competition and when you purchase a home you are almost forced to go with an ARM interest only? Those mortgages are only good for flipping. Don’t get me wrong, you have a nice state there. A little to liberal for me but still a nice place non the less. There are two types of people over there. The rich and the not rich. Problem is the rich hire illegals while everyone else lives paycheck to paycheck. One really bad month in that state with work and it would take years to recover. No thanks. From what I have seen, the people in the state have gotten so used to illegals working there and accept it. Not trying to curve the topic here, but I am willing to bet if the US did more to get the illegals out of this country you would be able to raise your prices. I was always raised to work for a good wage, never leave a job unless you have another one that pays more. If the time comes here where I need to charge $5 per window then I’m out of this business. I am not the type of guy who is going be the hardest working lowest paid in the business. I honestly think people who charge low prices for their service have never had a paycheck over $500 so when they hit up a job that I would charge $1000 they charge 1/2 an think that’s cool. Maybe it is for them. But if I was them and saw many other companies charging double my prices and getting work with no problems I would raise my prices instantly.
BTW I really don’t think if you moved here and put up a shop you would be rich. Just cause our prices are higher per national average does not mean we make more. Like I said cost of living here is crazy. Insurance, taxes, gas, food heck just about everything cost more and the dam politicians are stealing everything no matter what anyone does. We just had a teacher retire here for a 750k cash package, not to include her 250k per year pension that the people here will be paying for, forever. After that happend many are finding out there are tons of teachers here who have the same type of contracts. It’s just crazy here, seriously. But it does make for interesting days. Average person owning a home in a safe part of the state will need to make $6000.00 to $8000.00 per month to pay for everything and have very little to place in the bank. My last electric bills averaged $400 per month. When I calcuate what I am paying out at the end of my month I get very upset so I dont think about it much. I dont have any kids so I’m not even calculating those costs. I know people who make 6 figures per year here, have 1 kid and still have to leave a huge chunk of their money in the bank. When the kid hits 18 they will not be able to get loan for the kid to go college due to them making 6 figures. Like I said it’s just crazy to live here. But then again I’m sure it’s not much different over there.
Top 10 Worst Foreclosure States For July, 2008 in United States
Rank State Total 1 every 1000
1 Nevada 10,060 106
2 California 72,285 182
3 Florida 45,884 186
4 Arizona 13,350 195
5 Ohio 13,457 375
6 Georgia 10,061 385
7 Michigan 11,591 389
8 Colorado 5,376 390
9 Utah 1,911 472
10 Virginia 5,745 562
BTW heres a pretty cool map
http://www.trulia.com/home_prices/
I ran a cost per living comparison against LA and NY. Here are the results for an average national salary of 45,000.00
The cost of living in Los Angeles, CA is 16.0% lower than in New York, NY. Therefore, you would have to earn a salary of $37,788 to maintain your current standard of living.
Employers in Los Angeles, CA typically pay 5.7% less than employers in New York, NY. Therefore, if you take the same type of job in the same type of company in Los Angeles, CA you are likely to earn $42,425
Yeah i agree with you, I do not feel sorry for all of these people losing there homes, if you cant afford a 30 year fixed mortgage you should not be buying.
as for the 5.00 per window i charge $8.00 per window.
Our taxes are high out here too.
property tax is 1.5% of the purchase price.
gasoline is around $3.80 per gallon right now…
