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How to Price Foreclosure Cleaning Jobs to Earn the Most & Keep Satisfied Customers

Updated on February 11, 2010

Foreclosure Cleanup: How to Price Jobs Right

Tips on How to Price Your Foreclosure Cleaning Services Right from the Start

Foreclosure cleanup is an incredible small business opportunity, especially right now. Many enterprising entrepreneurs are starting this type of business, but immediately hit a stumbling block when it comes to how to price their services. Hence, following is some advice on how to price your foreclosure cleaning services so you earn a decent amount – and ensure repeat, happy clients.

Foreclosure Cleaning Companies: 3 Things to Keep in Mind When Pricing Your Services

I. Know What a Given Service Costs: This is rule number one, for if you don’t know how much it costs you to offer a service, you can’t possibly price it to earn a profit – which is what you’re in business for, after all.

So, find out what a given foreclosure cleaning service costs you to provide.

For example, if you have to board up broken windows on a property , then you need to find out how much the boarding and nails costs, PLUS add in your time for actually doing the work.

This is where many small business owners fall down in pricing. They forget to add the cost of their time in. If you’re paying a contractor to d the actual boarding up, then you’d add in how much you need to pay them.

Labor – whether it’s yours or a contractor’s – costs. It’s a vital part of pricing a job right.

Foreclosure Cleanup Jobs Pricing Tip: One of the biggest mistakes foreclosure cleaning business owners make is not adding in the cost of “running around time.” In business – any type of business – time (and gas!) is money. Keep this in mind.

II. How Much of a Profit Do You Need to Make: Sometimes, pricing a foreclosure cleanup job simply boils down to how much you want to earn on it. For smaller jobs, ie, a lock change, it may not cost you that much in actual dollars to do it, which makes it a small profit job from jump.

BUT, if you want to offer this service because you want to be a “one-stop, full-service foreclosure cleaning shop,” – which means more business overall from clients -- then you simply factor in how much you need to make off this service to make it worth your while.

For example, if you can get locks changed for $50, but it takes you 30 minutes to drive to the property, wait for the locksmith, drive back home, prepare the invoice and send it out, you could have spent a few hours or more on this “simple” lock changing job.

So, even though it only cost you $50 in cash, how much do you think you need to charge to have made this worth your while when you look at the time factor. Twice that? Three times that? Only you can decide.

III. Get More than One Estimate: In foreclosure cleaning, you’re going to rely on a lot of contractors. And, their rates vary widely. Hence, always get more than one estimate. In fact, get three or four. Why? Because this will give you an idea of what you should be paying for a given service.

For example, let’s say you need to get the exterior of a house painted. One painter may charge $1,100, while another may charge $1,800. Yet a third may charge $1,450. So, what should you be paying more or less?

To get a “pricing measuring stick”, so to speak, use the average of the three estimates.

Foreclosure Cleaning Jobs Pricing Tip:Cheaper is not always better. A lot of this business depends on trusting your gut. You’ll learn more with every job you do. In the beginning though, you’re going to have to rely on common sense and your gut.

The bottom line is, foreclosure cleaning can be a very lucrative small business to start. But, if you price a job wrong, you can literally be out of business before you start. So, take the time to learn how to price your foreclosure cleaning services right from jump.

Foreclosure Cleaning: A Viable Small Biz to Start in Good RE Markets, or Bad

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