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Contractors
How much do they charge and how much would you rather be paying? Asking as a contractor.
I know you're being somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but being an honest, trustworthy, and genuinely pleasant person to deal with will let you get away with at least a 10-25% premium in my opinion (depending on project size). More importantly, if you can deliver that service without charging too much of a premium, you'll be the first, and maybe only, person I call or recommend for the next project.
No, I'm actually being very serious. I'm self-employed and started my business 2 years ago from scratch with nobody to ask advice from. Everything I do is based on my own judgement, not on a "this is how others do it too" mindset - including my pricing. That's why I'm asking; I'm curious to hear about people's expectations. I don't have any peers to compare my practices to, so I'm only relying on customer feedback. Close to half of them have called me back to do another job, so I guess I'm at least doing something right. I just want to make it a win-win situation as much as possible. I know from personal experience what a nightmare it can be to try and find a quality contractor, so that's the niche I'm trying to fill.
The cheapest contractor usually does the lowest quality of work. Same thing with availability, if they have openings today, there's a reason for it.
In my experience paying a cheaper contractor just compounds expenses in the future, because you then have to pay what you should have paid to get their mistakes repaired.
Enough to make it feel like a punch in the gut. And then they schedule months out. Why do I do this? Two reasons, one i know they have already priced in all the headaches that they deal with on a daily instead of bullshitters who act like it is no big deal and two because once they start I know they will stand by their work and resolve any reasonable unforeseen/ concerns for the price they quoted. Real talk? Im a little lazy trying to get multiple people out and try to price around. If they show up for a quote when we scheduled it and know what they are talking about I pay.