Things are daunting for everyone; most notably for painting contractors. It is not merely one factor making it this way. It is a bunch of stuff that have occurred in concert with each other to produce the picture perfect tempest to rub out the entire painting industry. Lets look at some of the reasons, why things are the way they are, as a result, we will be able to have a better understanding of the problems.

. Unemployment figure: 10 % and growing. This puts the clients we go to work for, out of a job and affords them further time at their house to accomplish things such as house painting. Additionally they aren’t able to meet the expenses on their homes, therefore they paint their houses personal in order to try to sell them.

. Foreclosures: Banks are taking monumental numbers of homes back and they aren’t to willing to invest any cash into these homes to get highest dollar for them.

. First Time Home Buyers: They aren’t incredibly enthusiastic about dole out cash to get their houses painted because of job concerns and the fact that most have exhausted almost all their cash just buying there home.

. Long Term Investment Buyers: Fine group of clients to know but the majority of the time they produce their own employees that perform this variety of work for ten percent of what you need to charge as a painting contractor.

. Brand New Homes: This particular category has nearly all but stopped and I’ve witnessed interior painting companies that relied on nothing else, other than contacts with housing developers and did not know how to make their own jobs, now become bankrupt.

. Refinancing: When all of the refinancing was up for grabs, our patrons held heaps of ready capital. At this point the banks do not want to refinance anyone giving our regulars a negative cash flow.

. Over Inundated Housing Market: If there is a bunch of houses on the street around the neighborhood that are foreclosed, they probably are bringing the house values lower and the emotional impact of the “Superior to the Average Effect” is also affected. That is the exact phenomenon that pushed them to dart out and purchase a new Lexus because the neighbors got one. It’s at this moment working in contradiction of your company.

. Contractors Are Not Busy: Once general contractors get slow they cease sub contracting work and start to carry out all the work from start to finish including the house painting.

. Painters Unemployed: That’s right, you did what you needed to do as a painting contractor, you chopped down your painting team to just you and perhaps one other. Lets examine what happened to the individual employees your business fired? Several may have went back to their place of birth but a few remained and nowadays these house painters without insurance or a license became your direct rival. They need to make a living and surely they can do it for a smaller amount cause they do not have all the over head you carry. Tuesday my wife put an quote in for $7001, a different guy placed one in for $6501 and that is all right and then a house painter, that painted a house down the street and had a personal refs from the owners friend came down and bid $3900 !! What the heck! The painter could have bid $6499 and yet received the job but he was only the employee of the company that painted the friends house at the end of the street. He got laid off, came back to every one the houses he had painted underneath his bosses company and handed out his card. He had no idea how to bid house painting so he bid way to little. This is happening all the time, right now.

. HGTV: Unemployed clients have extra time to watch Television and they pay attention to this TV show and think they can do anything.

In closing I’d like to state that it is easy to put our tribulations in the painting industry on one group but as you have seen it’s much more than merely that. Only the strongest will survive this and I’m set on being one of them. I for one maintain the advantage on most just because me and my wife are painters and I am great at marketing. The painting price war has began and I am going to win!

If you need painting contractors [http://www.schmidtpainting.net/] in the Massachusetts area call Schmidt Painting Contractors at 508-292-9945.

You can also see a really cool before and after video portfolio at the above link to foster some design ideas.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Derrick_Schmidt

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Picking A Dependable Contractor

As a professional contractor of thirteen years, I had plenty of time to know the roller coaster of first beginning, the formative years after I had the know-how to branch out and add components to my business, and finally the years when I had reputation and only accepted high end work. That’s when you’ve hit contractor nervana no matter whether you are a general contractor or a particular craft contractor.
A general contractor may be a house and business builder, or a home improvement specialist or both. This kind of work involves a significant physical toll on numerous individuals that tackle it because of financial, schedule, and worker concerns. Most contractors don’t survive accepting one job at a time and this compounds the troubles that go along with this type of work. Contractors are notorious for getting more jobs going than they can sensibly manage and much of what they do in staying on schedule for their clients depends on the schedules and dependability of their sub-contractors. Hence the angst numerous home and business proprietors have starting into a project with a professional contractor is understandable. It is unfortunate that as a group, they are suspect even though there are numerous very fine, dependable and integretable contractors in business across the country.
A niche or trade contractor may be a house painting contractor, woodworking contractor, framing contractor, sheetrock finishing contractor, cabinet finishing contractor, electrical contractor ….and the list goes on and on. These type professional contractors may have crews of their own or may work by themselves directly for house or business owners or sub contracting for general contractors. Again, there is an regrettable generally negative perspective of trade contractors since so many of them have used their limited skill to get in the door, collect whatever money they can, and vanish leaving behind unfinished projects and customers feeling burned and shit.
So, how do you pick out a responsible general contractor or trade contractor? Pretty much the same way you choose anybody to do anything. Search for somebody who has been in business for a while and has defineable roots in the community. If you can’t find out where they live, don’t hire them. If they don’t have a physical business address, take a wide road around them. The smallest of sub-contract tradesmen/women can estab
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lish a home business office with telephone. They should have at least the marginal requirements of the local ordinances such as business permits and any other required items to do business legally in the city where you live. And finally, they should be able to begin a job, complete at least a project within that job, including buying the basic materials before being paid by the customer. Some contractors will wait until a job is completely complete, while others may itemize a bid into projects expecting periodic pay during the bigger job. Either way is fine, but the contractor should be able to begin a job and complete something before being paid. Never hand a contractor money up front.
A contractor should always provide a specific, clear, written bid for all work that is to be done. As a painting contractor, I composed bids and guaranteed the terms on the initial bid, irrespective of any problems I ran into or additional material or employee hours I had to pay for. For the entire 13 years I was in business, I never once broke the confidence of a client by asking for more than I bid on their job. This should not be an non-negotiable deal breaker, but it should be clear what will incur extra costs for the customer in the event the contractor should run into unforeseen expenses while the job is underway.
Finally, the most obvious. Find multiple people the contractor has successfully completed jobs for. If a contractor can’t give you a verifiable reference list, go on to the next one. If you can’t get somebody else to vouch for them, go to one who you can find trustworthy references for. And by the way, don’t just ask about how good the job was. Ask about whether the contractor showed up on time and finished within a reasonable time.
There are many great, talented, and trustworthy contractors in business. And while it’s too bad that you have to weed through bad ones to find them, observing the elementary rules above will give you a very good chance of selecting a contractor that will complete your project for a reasonable cost and within a reasonable time frame.

By: M.N. Rogers

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

M. N. Rogers was a residential/commercial painting contractor for 13 years. He and his crews moved in to homes with the homeowners and spent as long as three months in their homes working around furniture, household belongings, pets, kids and other challenging situations. He has numerous small, information based web sites online. One of those describes the Makita Impact Driver on the web site www.makitaimpactdriversite.com.

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