[thanohano44]

A BIG Amen to that Freemont! If nothing else you are simply a glorified employee who gets to proudly say you are a "contractor". If they say jump, you better be willing to say how high? Don't forget no such thing as a day off in this biz, you'll need someone to answer the phone or email at all hours of the day/night. Vacations are pretty much non existent (unless you have a crew/second in charge you can trust to get the job done right and close out the W.O.'s).
Simply put, even though you fee like you'll be taking the leap and plunging yourself into a road of prosperity....there are consequences. Your relationships both personal and professional will become strained (i.e. if you have kids/wife....forewarn them that there is now another family member that will be consuming the majority of your time, your friends...well plan to see much less of them) as this biz is a 24/7 commitment and only the strong survive.

Just my .02

Exactly....

 

[thanohano44]

I'll add to this by saying you should get equipment to refinish hardwood floors. We are seeing more and more people ditch carpet for hardwood out here. Some of these 50-60's homes have BEAUTIFUL hardwood under the carpeting. A little refinishing and they look like new. Carpeting is on a downward spiral here. I'm ditching all the carpeting in this house when we finally purchase it due to the wifes Allergies..........

A little info here:

The changing of the generations could also contribute to a continuing shift to hard surface flooring. In 2007, Generation Y was more likely to purchase hard surface flooring and area rugs, while Baby Boomers and older generations are more likely to purchase wall-to-wall carpet. This trend indicates that the flooring market could increase its dependence on wood and laminate flooring, vinyl sheet and floor tile, and ceramic tile over the next decade. Currently however, Generation Y may prefer the lower-end lines of these markets, since their incomes are probably lower than their older cohorts.

http://blog.floorcoveringinstitute.com/2009/11/floor-covering-trends-target-generation.html

I just ripped out all the carpet of my rental to lay tile. It's too damn expensive to keep replacing and cleaning carpet. Just get a damn throw rug.

I'm going to do it in my house later this month. You'd be surprised what you can get at EOM and EOY from distributors. Lol.

 

[thanohano44]

Unless your established it's worse than that bad. Even if you are established, there is no love in this business and a National will shut you down in a heartbead if someone underbids you. They don't give a crap about quality FOR NOW but when this low quality work hits their pocketbook things will change. I have been seeing more REO's conveying back to the bank lately due to hacks screwups and it's only going to get worse. Eventually when it hits there pocketbooks enough, prices will come back up and quality contractors will get back in but as it stands we are loosing good contractors by the boatload and they are being replace by broke hacks that can't afford to do the job properly.......

I've seen about 8 reo properties get reconveyed back to the bank. For both hack work and probably incorrect filing. I hope it happens more. Get the hacks out.