Local house washer

[We Wash Concrete 64]

Theres a local house washer that just ran an ad in the paper, full page color insert, that he does every year. On the ad he's got a summer special; vinyl siding houses $75 to $125. I've talked to him a little, seems to be a real nice guy. Drives a nice new Ford dually but seems like all he uses is a small Northstar pressure washer that never leaves his truck. His truck stays perfectly clean as well. He told me he cleaned 2,300 houses last year between himself and his helper. Not discrediting the mans work - I don't like to speak negatively, and he's obviously doing something right - But I couldn't roll the hose off my rig for a $75 (or even $125) house wash. Is it possible to clean 40 houses a week (2300 a year) for a solid year? I guess if you could, you could afford to charge an average 100 dollars per job, because that would bring in 230,000 a year. I'm glad I clean concrete, and don't particuarly view him as compitition.

[MMI Enterprises 289]

He's pulling yer leg a bit... by maybe as much as 1k houses!! I can see a single rig making it to 4-6 jobs five days a week for an hour or two per job but that is max...

[DustinC 64]

I'll never understand why some people like to work twice as much for half the money.

[PressurePros 248]

Bull. Working an average of 260 days per year (accounting for weather and working six days per week which I doubt he is doing) means he is doing 8-9 housewashes per day six days a week. It ain't happening. Any fool making $50,000 a year can finance a dually and run ads.

[Jarrod 22]

He's full of crap. With that squirt gun, he can't possibly wash more than 2 houses per day. Some of my competition consist of "nice guys" too. But they are morons.

[We Wash Concrete 64]

By stateing he drove a nice clean truck I was trying to implying that I did not feel he was a "fly by night - blow and go" kinda guy. He's been in business for some time. Assuming he does clean 2300 houses a year at 75 to 100 each I couldn't figure out how he's been in business for so long charging those prices. But as everyone has indicated, he must be charging more per a house and cleaning less houses.

[WashRite 14]

especially with that small of a set-up. When I first started a couple of years ago and before I decided to push commercial work over residential, I picked up a nice little job that had 140 vinyl houses built one beside the other. We only did 4 houses per day but that was in only 6 hours. We finished the job in 6 weeks. I had two guys working M-F and I worked on Saturdays. Of course I was new to the business so we may have been a little slow but we only had to move every other house. The killer was having to refill my 325 gallon water tank because we couldn't use the tenants water. Using those numbers I would have only completed 1200-1400 houses. I had a small Lowe's PW and a small 3 gpm hot water unit. One guy did the porches, pre-sprayed and moved hoses while the other one did all of the siding.

The bad news is some one bidded the job for $65/house and I bidded it for $100/house. To get the job I had to meet them at $80/house. I guess they liked me more than the other guy or they were just beating me down. Either way it turned out to be decent money but I would have to rethink that decision now.

In fact, this will probably be my last week as a part time PW. I plan on turning my notice in this week and begining my full time PW business.

[Doug Dahlke 114]

If this guy is doing 2,300 houses a year he should put a book together on how to get that many jobs, sell the info and sit at home waiting for the money to roll in. If he does a good job the 2,300 he did last year are probably still good to go so he needs 2,300 new customers this year. At a 70% closing rate he would need to be getting 9 phone calls a day 365 days a year. Sounds impossible to me.

[FCPWLLC 233]

If this guy is doing 2,300 houses a year he should put a book together on how to get that many jobs, sell the info and sit at home waiting for the money to roll in. If he does a good job the 2,300 he did last year are probably still good to go so he needs 2,300 new customers this year. At a 70% closing rate he would need to be getting 9 phone calls a day 365 days a year. Sounds impossible to me.

My thoughts exactly! Sounds like a guy that goes door to door through nieghborhoods. Hence the low price. Cold calling breeds those low prices.

Baffles me as to why guys would want to work so hard for so little.