Do I detect a little case of "price-fixing" coming on?

bbell, just make sure you're charging enough to make money. It's really easy to go backwards in this industry, especially if you've got a pushy regional or national client that keeps making you drive farther from home and do work for less just to keep the work you have in your territory. Nobody is making money doing 1 acre grass cuts for $30 or less.

Hud allowable is $50 a CY for debris, $100 for winterizations, $60 for lock change with deadbolt, and $40 for a padlock. Do a search for 2010 HUD mortgagee letter on Hud's website and read it over.

Bad Assett,
I appreciate your help. Because of your guidance, I'm on track for a contractors license, signed-up for an RRP certification course, have several quotes coming in from business insurance companies, already have my FEIN number and have registered my LLC with the state. So, I'm well underway with getting my business up and running thanks to you, with a target opening date of April 1st. Still have some marketing tasks I want to complete between now and then and then spread the word. I have a past life in marketing and web-design so that stuff comes natural to me. So again, I APPRECIATE YOUR HELP!!

Vermont, price fixing is the exact opposite of what your seeing here. Actually, I would call it information seeking rather than price-fixing. Since you and Bad Assett are probably multiple states away, price-fixing wouldn't be an accurate description in this "case". Simply feeling my way through starting out in this industry is all. Thanks though.

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and have already spent 2 hours reading some very intersting stuff here and learning alot! I have recently started a foreclosure cleanout company, set up the LLC, gotten the required insurance, check out licensing and from what I have found out I dont need a license in Indiana. So now all I need is some advice on how to go about finding jobs? I have researched everything I can in the last 2 months and feel overloaded with info but not enough to have any work lined up. lol Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated. There seems to be alot of knowledgable people here! Very glad I found this forum!!!!

The national firms generally want to hire a one-stop preservation company. That would include rekey, winterization, lawn service as well as trash outs. Your best bet might be to try to track down the companies that do this now for the nationals and see if they will sub out the trash-out part to you.

Thanks PA Roadkill. We do offer a one stop shop doing everything from rekeys to winterizations, repairs ect. We are a family runned business using only family and close friends at this time and running on a shoestring budget. It seems most of the larger companies expect you to carry workmans comp to sub for them, but we have a workmans comp exempt certificate and would like to avoid that extra cost in the start up phase of our business but some companies wont accept that.

Debby, only the owners of the company can be exempt from worker's comp. Is everyone working for you an owner? I can't imagine that you will be able to offer repair work in Indiana without a contractor's license. You'll need to be licensed by the EPA if you're going to be doing work on pre-1978 homes.

Getting a contractors license is a great idea. It can open up tons of different doors for you and allow you to offer a broader range of services.