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My guy who helped me after Sandy works out of his own home, his wife does book keeping for free on weekends and drives his own minivan for jobs.
Rotor Rotor I got an estimate and funny guy brought up cost of his rent, advertising, and his fancy truck. I was like you are fixing a sewer line and I see paying for that but now I am paying your car payment and your yellow page ad. He had a point. I get it. But at same time he was double the guy I hired.
And if the guy you hired who was half isn't carrying any insurance, guess who becomes his workers comp carrier when he gets injured? YOU. No, your homeowners insurance doesn't cover it.
And if the guy you hired who was half isn't carrying any insurance, guess who becomes his workers comp carrier when he gets injured? YOU. No, your homeowners insurance doesn't cover it.
And if the guy you hired who was half isn't carrying any insurance, guess who becomes his workers comp carrier when he gets injured? YOU. No, your homeowners insurance doesn't cover it.
Enjoy paying the guy's disability for life.
He works for himself. 2 mins to ask him to sign a WC exemption form.
Being a GC is very lucrative. I have no clue why you feel a need to make it sound otherwise.
I have no problem with what they charge. and plenty of people pay it. Nor do I disagree with the costs of running a business. I'm in IT. I charge $225-275/hr. Companies pay it. Maybe you won't pay me and prefer to setuo your office network yourself. Doesn't bother me.
at the end of the day, I built a 1000 sq ft extension with a 700 sq ft basement for under 100k. Which is less then 50% of most of the quotes that I got.
I'm putting out my experience on this board. You're doing the same. Maybe I'm better at finding subs who charge reasonable rates. I was able to save a lot because i pulled in a few favors too. Thought my situation would be similar to OP because he didn't need certain trades.
who did your framing/foundation/shell. I love to hire them. I have folks who can do inside
Being a GC is very lucrative. I have no clue why you feel a need to make it sound otherwise.
I have no problem with what they charge. and plenty of people pay it. Nor do I disagree with the costs of running a business. I'm in IT. I charge $225-275/hr. Companies pay it. Maybe you won't pay me and prefer to setuo your office network yourself. Doesn't bother me.
at the end of the day, I built a 1000 sq ft extension with a 700 sq ft basement for under 100k. Which is less then 50% of most of the quotes that I got.
I'm putting out my experience on this board. You're doing the same. Maybe I'm better at finding subs who charge reasonable rates. I was able to save a lot because i pulled in a few favors too. Thought my situation would be similar to OP because he didn't need certain trades.
I think the reason you are confused is because you must have gotten some really high quotes when you did your job which have skewed your views. Not everyone charges the same rates you were quoted.
Anyways, you didn't really comment on any of the information which I gave you... You kind of just disregarded it. I'm telling you from experience. You can't really ignore the facts..
I think what you are not understanding is the difference between a GC who does not have any employees and a GC who staffs his own crew. Some GC's who just sub out there work obviously have a lower overhead because they have little payroll and are barely on site. They just bid out to all trades, so basically everyone is a sub and has lower rates.
A GC who staffs a crew is more of a traditonal builder who is on site working throughout the building process. Home owner pays more but gets better service and most of the time better quality.
Last edited by DesignBuild516; 09-28-2015 at 07:17 AM..
I think the reason you are confused is because you must have gotten some really high quotes when you did your job which have skewed your views. Not everyone charges the same rates you were quoted.
Anyways, you didn't really comment on any of the information which I gave you... You kind of just disregarded it. I'm telling you from experience. You can't really ignore the facts..
I think what you are not understanding is the difference between a GC who does not have any employees and a GC who staffs his own crew. Some GC's who just sub out there work obviously have a lower overhead because they have little payroll and are barely on site. They just bid out to all trades, so basically everyone is a sub and has lower rates.
A GC who staffs a crew is more of a traditonal builder who is on site working throughout the building process. Home owner pays more but gets better service and most of the time better quality.
My guy has his own crew and it is cheaper. But he also helps a big home flipper, has relationships with landlords and condo and coop associations and businesses. So he can keep they working 50 weeks a year. It is folks with own crew who cant manage keeping them 100% booked that is an issue. Which is hard. Only way to get a discount is to be "filler" meaning you could wait 1-3 years till his crew has a gap and he will schedule you in.
Other issue is some guys who are GC like to sit in Denali with a clip board sipping coffee. My guy I noticed for better or worse did carpentry, painting, electrical, basic plumbing etc. He was there working with crew nearly ten hours a day and if something did not show up or behind schedule he would jump in. Also he got lunches, coffee, and my favorite he ALWAYS drove crew to job site. No one can come late or sneak out early. And he always bought free lunch for workers as they don't get to sneak out on a long lunch. And he always negotiated flat rate from folks.
Honestly I would not like to work for him. But the jobs keep moving. And in 2009 he still paid his workers salary even when he and wife had to move back home to his Moms basement and his wife take a 50 hour a week job. He earned loyalty. He learned his lesson and is adding city work and coop or condo association and office building work to his clients and hopes to have zero residential in a few years except "friends and family and prior customers" too fickle.
The Long Island contractor I used before I knew better, had 70K trucks, waterfront home, jetskis, boats, pool in yard stay at home wife etc. He spent like a drunken sailor in good times and then nickel and dime you to death in bad times as his nut was so high.
Contractors in general are not good at managing money. I dated a girl for a while whose family was in this business and it was funny. It was 1993 and the brother was like I made 100K last year and it was all cash. He was spending like crazy. He actually bought a house on water and a boat. I was like 100K is not much money. But to him with a HS diploma and being only 29 he thought he was a multi millionaire.
I think the reason you are confused is because you must have gotten some really high quotes when you did your job which have skewed your views. Not everyone charges the same rates you were quoted.
Anyways, you didn't really comment on any of the information which I gave you... You kind of just disregarded it. I'm telling you from experience. You can't really ignore the facts..
I think what you are not understanding is the difference between a GC who does not have any employees and a GC who staffs his own crew. Some GC's who just sub out there work obviously have a lower overhead because they have little payroll and are barely on site. They just bid out to all trades, so basically everyone is a sub and has lower rates.
A GC who staffs a crew is more of a traditonal builder who is on site working throughout the building process. Home owner pays more but gets better service and most of the time better quality.
You are correct, I am comparing to the higher quotes. I also received lower quotes, but nothing was remotely close to 100K for a finished product ( or even 110 or 112K with a supposed 10-12% profit).
You are also correct, I couldn't respond to everything you wrote. Honestly, I didn't read all of it before sleeping last night.
I'm just offering my personal experience on pricing. I'm not commenting on if GCs are worth their price.
Maybe I should also add, a project that probably could've been completed in 2 months by a professional GC, will take me over 9 months to complete. I was low priority to my some of the subs, because they have to keep their builders happy by finishing their jobs first. Getting your friend in to help with electrical, takes time too. Instead of spray foaming all the exterior walls, I had to caulk every seam, every nook, before applying good old fashion fiber glass insulation. There were a lot of issues with my build, It wasn't easy. But to save money coming out of my wallet, I spent the time to research and worked slowly. I don't make 100K a year, so to save that amount is worth the extra time taken off from work.
My guy has his own crew and it is cheaper. My guy I noticed for better or worse did carpentry, painting, electrical, basic plumbing etc. .
Is your guy a licensed plumber, licensed electrician, and licensed for home improvement? Is he carrying insurance as all three? Or is he sliding under the wire doing work which he is not licensed to do, and carrying insurance soley under home improvement?
You are correct, I am comparing to the higher quotes. I also received lower quotes, but nothing was remotely close to 100K for a finished product ( or even 110 or 112K with a supposed 10-12% profit).
You are also correct, I couldn't respond to everything you wrote. Honestly, I didn't read all of it before sleeping last night.
I'm just offering my personal experience on pricing. I'm not commenting on if GCs are worth their price.
Maybe I should also add, a project that probably could've been completed in 2 months by a professional GC, will take me over 9 months to complete. I was low priority to my some of the subs, because they have to keep their builders happy by finishing their jobs first. Getting your friend in to help with electrical, takes time too. Instead of spray foaming all the exterior walls, I had to caulk every seam, every nook, before applying good old fashion fiber glass insulation. There were a lot of issues with my build, It wasn't easy. But to save money coming out of my wallet, I spent the time to research and worked slowly. I don't make 100K a year, so to save that amount is worth the extra time taken off from work.
Hard to argue with you because you do seem like a sincere person. I understand some of your points and I'm sure you understand some of mine. Best of luck on the project.
Is your guy a licensed plumber, licensed electrician, and licensed for home improvement? Is he carrying insurance as all three? Or is he sliding under the wire doing work which he is not licensed to do, and carrying insurance soley under home improvement?
I was self-contracting and he had a 'handiman contract" so his insurance unless they burn down house while on the job or worker lose a hand while on the job it is not a lot of use. I even paid the subs he had directly.
I have a ton of umbrella and property and liability coverage on my own.
Seems they still are rather liberal when homeowners themselves do work or self contract as long as you are on site and supervising and dirty. The two licensed contractors working on houses next to me gave my crew a dirty look. I went out and introduced myself as the homeowner and said I was doing the work. They were nice folks. But it is hard dirty work. Also the public is very stupid in hiring contractors anyhow. I look like a successful contractor. I wore my timberlands, levis, hoodie, flannel shirt, baseball hat and had the SUV. A few folks tried to hire me and the stores gave me the discount without asking. When I was shopping for stuff wife was dressed nice and they thought I was there contractor.
For fun I looked at licensed contractor test in Nassau and it is like show up clean, not drunk with proper insurance and pay fee. Not to hard. If I am ever laid off I am set. I even already own a clipboard.
Only funny story is after Sandy when inspector knocked on door and surprised me and I opened it the actual guy quickly grabs a tea cup and joins my wife in kitchen with kids for a snack. I told inspector I am homeowner doing some work myself and dont have any permits to show as it is my own house and just doing some spackling and painting. He then asks how bad it is. I go my wife has company over and they are having tea and cookies. If the damage was bad would she throw a party. Sooooo funny.
The guy looks like a mild manner CPA or Eye doctor who wears business casual. He told me sometimes folks think he moved into neighborhood or is a realtor or something.
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