Your opinion please? Pricing for services performed.

[LeftyFingerPop]

Would you please give me your opinion on something?

Let's say Joe calls me up and asks me to install an electrical outlet in his home. I am not an electrician, but Joe knows that I will be able to do this job according to code. So I go over to Joe's, take a look at what is required, and tell him I will do it.

Joe asks me what I will charge. I know that I want to make $50 per hour for my time, and I THINK the job should take me no more than 2 hours. I have two options on what I can tell Joe:

1) I will charge you $100 Joe.

2) Or, i can tell Joe I will charge him $50 an hour, and I think that the job will take me 2 hours, but if I run over, I will still have to charge him $50 per hour. This would not be entirely fair to Joe, because due to unforeseen problems, or perhaps slow work habits on my part, Joe could end up paying $500 for a simple job.

Therefore, I tell Joe I will charge him $100. I run into unforeseen problems, the job takes me 4 hours instead of 2. I still end up making $25 per hour, and Joe does not have to bear the brunt of me poorly estimating the time required for a job.

This leads me to a hypothetical question. Let's say I want to hire a housekeeper. She INSISTS on charging by the hour, and not by the job. She has good references, seems very qualified and energetic. I decide to take a risk and go with her hourly pricing.

Here is what I ask her to do:
Wash, dry and fold 5 loads of laundry
Deep clean 6 rooms in a 2200 square foot house....this includes....vacuum, shampoo carpets, clean blinds, clean refrigerator and microwave, complete dust, 2 bathrooms are included, and i want the grout cleaned on the tile floors in both of them, ceiling fan clean, wipe down walls in each room.

Not considering the fact that she wants $30 per hour, what would you consider to be a reasonable price to pay IN TOTAL for this job?

Just looking for a ballpark figure on what you think is reasonable in your part of the country.

Thank you.

[KitchenWitch]

1. Because of the shampooing the rugs I would say that around $300 is

what the going rate here for that level of service.

[LeftyFingerPop]

2. That's for everything I have listed KW? n/t

[KitchenWitch]

5. Yes.

Granted one person would not be able to get that all done in one day.

[trof]

10. I just paid $69 for pro cleaning of a 25' X35' room and hallway.

Carpet, I shoulda said.

[Pacifist Patriot]

3. Around here, the scope of the cleaning you've indicated would run you around..

$300-500 depending upon the service you hired. Because of the intensive nature of the job most services would probably send a team and I estimate it would take them the good part of a day.

[Mike03]

4. I have a weak spot for people who do this kind of work, because

in general, this is work we should do for ourselves. I would personally pay her what she wants, by the hour. But based on your description of what your needs are, she would probably make more if she asked for what it was worth overall, which I would guesstimate at between $250 and $350.

[LeftyFingerPop]

6. Thanks all...

You've given me the info I need. I appreciate it.

[cloudbase]

7. I can't estimate a total,

but if she has good references, then I'd pay the hourly rate. I've no problem with charging for time and materials, as long as everything is agreed to up front.

[LeftyFingerPop]

8. Thanks.

[Parche]

9. If Joe Blow The $69 per hour

:rofl:
:hi:

[NMDemDist2]

11. if she can get all that done by herself in 10 hours

I think you should marry her and offer to bear her children

that's two days work IMO, 14-16 hours is my guess...

[mtnester]

12. Hell I would adopt her for sure

agreed

[Pacifist Patriot]

13. I'd let my husband marry her.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

14. I would go lesbo for some of that ....

Seems reasonable to me.

[LeftyFingerPop]

15. Ok....UPDATE

She's looking at around 30 hours or so. Rounded off at $30 per hour, lets call it $1,000.

I've seen how she cleans...and she gets EVERYTHING.

Now, I have to figure out if this is reasonable.

Time wise, 30 hours seems reasonable. Less than 1 week of 8 hour days.

Dollar wise? Figure the equivalent of $50,000 per year.

She has to buy benefits out of this, but I'm pretty sure she won't pay FICA or taxes on any of it (it's just her).

Let's say her medical and other traditional benefits are equal to 30% of her gross, that she has to pay out of her own pocket. So now, she's down to $35.000 per year. Let's gross that back up by the same amount because it's under the table (no FICA, Federal or State taxes).

So the answer is, if we were to turn this into a traditional corporate job, she is paying herself a comparative $50k per year for housecleaning.

Might be a little high I guess, but not horribly unreasonable if she does a professional job?

[S n o w b a l l]

16. So....

In essence you're asking if $1,000 is a reasonable amount to clean a house to your specifications.

Seems high to me. And, I'm now considering going into the housekeeping profession.

:hug:

[NMDemDist2]

18. she's supplying the equipment and supplies or you?

but 30 hours doesn't seem out of line for the amount of work you've asked.

I had to wash all the walls in here when we bought it and that alone in 1400 SF took me two days

YMMV

[CTyankee]

17. Just hubby and me and no pets. We pay $60 for 1 1/2 hours just

for vacuuming, cleaning 1 and 1/2 baths, changing bed sheets, light dusting, and cleaning the kitchen (which I keep clean and neat). Every two weeks. We employ 2 people, a man and wife from Russia. Ours is a small house and no kids. We are both in our 60s. He is still working and I am retired. I can't drag a heavy vacuum cleaner around anymore. Since I am now home all day I can keep things neater and cleaner than I could when I worked, so the cleaners' work is less burdensome...