Pricing and estimating

The skeleton price system

Quoting from vibes is how new operators end up working for $18 an hour. The system successful operators teach is a skeleton price with condition adjustments, and it takes one afternoon to build and a season to calibrate.

Start with a per-square-foot skeleton for each service. Working operators use roughly $0.10 per square foot of living area as a house-wash skeleton (check against your market: surveys put house washing at $0.15 to $0.50 per square foot, so $0.10 is deliberately at the floor while your reviews build, HomeGuide). Concrete gets $0.15 to $0.35 per square foot. Roofs get $0.40 and up. Wood gets $0.30 to $0.80 per square foot, the surveyed deck band, with brighteners and the slower single-pass pace priced into the rate. Then adjust, in writing, on three axes: dirtiness (years of growth, algae coverage, soot), complexity (stories, slope, access, landscaping that fights you, delicate surfaces), and time (your actual hours, which shrink every month you work).

Operators describe the adjustment as plus or minus one to three cents per square foot on a house. A clean 2,000-square-foot house quotes toward $160 to $180. The same house with eight years of growth, a steep lot, and ivy touching the siding quotes toward $240. A three-story with heavy soil goes higher still. You are not guessing; you are applying rules you can explain to the customer while pointing at the wall.

Every quote also carries the minimum job charge. Solo operators commonly set $150 to $219; one nine-truck company publishes a $219 floor. The floor exists because setup, drive, and chemicals cost the same for a small job as a big one, and "just the front walk" still consumes your morning's first slot. Say the minimum plainly: "My minimum for any visit is $X, so at that price you may as well add the driveway."

The closing-rate feedback loop

Your prices talk to you through your closing rate, the share of quotes that become jobs. The guidance from operators who track it: 40 to 50 percent is normal and healthy. One company reports 73 percent, and credits systematic follow-up rather than cheap prices. The loop is: closing below 40 percent means your prices are too high for your market or your sales process is broken; closing above 50 to 60 percent consistently means you are underpricing and leaving money on the table. Track every quote, win or loss, from week one. Ten quotes a month is enough signal to steer by.

Follow-up is where the 73 percent comes from, and it is boringly simple: every quote gets a text the same evening and a call three days later. Operators teach that most sales are made at the second or third contact, while most new operators make zero contacts after the first. The quote you sent Monday and never mentioned again was someone's second choice all along, and they would have picked you if you had asked twice.

The phone script and the curb quote

When the phone rings, your job is to book the estimate, not to quote blind. The script operators teach, compressed:

"Thanks for calling in. Happy to help. What part of town are you? And is this the house, driveway, roof, or a bit of everything? Most jobs like this land between $X and $Y in your neighborhood, and the exact number depends on the siding and the amount of growth, so here's what I'll do: I'll come by tomorrow at 5, walk around with you for ten minutes, and give you the price on the spot, good for 30 days. Does 5 or 6:30 work better?"

Three things that script does: it pre-sells the price band so the curb number is never a shock, it commits you to an on-site walk instead of a photo quote, and it offers a choice of times instead of a yes/no. At the property, walk the loop from "The house wash, start to finish," measure the flatwork with a rolling wheel or a phone app, then quote at the curb, verbally, with a written copy following by text. Operators who quote at the curb close on the spot far more than those who promise "I'll email you tonight"; the email quote competes with dinner and every competitor's email quote.

One discount structure, used deliberately, is enough. The good-neighbor discount for booking while your crew is already on the street costs you a little margin and saves a whole truck roll; give it only when you are physically on the block. Everything else holds price. The operator who discounts from fear trains customers to wait for the sale.

Your price list built, the next problem is someone to price for.