Residential, is it just me?

So I was doing commercial for a few months and just recently entered the world of residential and I am trying to find my lane so to speak, or what is normal. Is it normal to have to move customers furniture and breakables, deal with broken screens and blinds and just not have room around your workspace in general? Does anyone ask the customer to have prepared the windows to be accessible. Is that unrealistic? Also trying to figure out what to do with tracks/sills. It seems like I am spending more time cleaning dog hair and bugs than windows. Correction I know I am. I bought a vacuum and created a package that includes screen magic and having the sills vaccummed for 50 bucks more. Even with the vacuum all the houses I have encountered so far are filthy and I feel like I have to scrub the windows and sills while I am there. The vaccums only goes so far. I am talking about 5-10 years of not being touched, according to two different customers. Am I just being a baby? I love cleaning glass, just not spending only 30% of time on the glass and the rest fumbling with old and breaking screens and dog hair. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

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i remember getting a lot of those. after i decided to never leave a flyer on a home worth less than 300,000 i have less and less of it

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Interesting. I am in am affluent suburb and they were all in that range for sure. My door hangers should be printed tomorrow so I can start cherry picking a little at least.

If commercial is where your heart is follow the feeling.

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i’ve done some nasty 600,000 homes, usually they are having the windows cleaned because of some special occasion, you want to target people who love clean windows for their own sake, they typically have cleaner homes period

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The easy answer to all your questions is YES. You will be moving furniture, dealing with screens, blinds, shutters. To me it is just part of the deal. If there are small breakables I will ask the homeowner about moving them, if it’s furniture I do it. When homeowners move stuff they often move things right to where I actually need to get.

With the tracks and sills: It can be difficult to figure out what is acceptable when it changes from customer to customer. What I’ve started doing is telling the customer about a “standard” clean that involves wiping a screen and frame with a wet towel and wiping out the tracks with a wet towel. I tell them that there will be some dirt and whatnot in the corner but it won’t scream DIRTY when they open the window. Then I tell them that I can detail the tracks with a tiny brush and a spray bottle for an extra charge per window. Almost everyone is satisfied with the “standard” and I really don’t want to do the track detailing.

Do residential is it’s own beast and dealing with all the different types of homeowners and all different kinds of scenarios in a home is why it takes time to really get good at it.

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Are you a furniture mover? I’ll work around things, but I’m not going to move a bed or a couch or whatever. Definitely not knick-knacks. You don’t know if that little elephant was a priceless heirloom from someone’s great grandma.

Regarding tracks and sills, don’t clean them unless you get paid. If you are getting paid, what’s your hourly rate? If it’s $100, then just work knowing that you’re making good money. Might suck, but that’s okay.

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Interesting insight. Commercial wasn’t where my heart was but that’s a different story. Still want to bid some commercial, just larger jobs. I get what your saying about the tracks maybe I just got a few really bad houses to start. I figured I would be moving furniture and working around things. My main concern is finding that line between what I do and what I don’t do. I think the customers most of the time aren’t educated to the cost of getting their windows cleaned and kinda expect the total package is always included. It’s good money I’m not complaining just new territory for me. I am definitely going to be canvassing some nicer neighboorhoods. Just joined the chamber of commerce so hopefully networking will turn some new leads.

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I just started my first week of residential and I made 660 in three jobs. Not a bad average but my hourly was right around 30-35 and I want to be at 60. I literally spent on all three houses 60 percent of the time moving stuff and cleaning tracks, maybe more. All three jobs were almost identical.

I think part of the problem was I was so nervous bidding these three jobs that I just threw a number out there without really inspecting the windows, screens, tracks or furniture situation for what I was getting myself into. On top of that I’m a bit nervous being new to be upfront and mention charging them a much higher amount of money for the level of dirt present.

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Don’t BE nervous, have faith in your abilities. Your process and speed will increase over time.

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Yeah, one of the greatest things you can learn right up front is to have confidence in your price. People buy on confidence. If you come off as nervous, shifty, or unconfident, they’ll pay more for someone else. What they want to know is a) can you do the job, b) will you do a good job, c) are you a professional?

Spend time on your presentation as well.

“The price includes, the windows, inside and out. Wiping the sills and washing the screens. We’ll give the tracks a simple wipe down, but if they’re really dirty, we can detail the tracks and vacuum them out for an additional $50. We can also apply conditioner for your screens for an additional $25. Would you like to go ahead and get on the schedule?”

“I’m more expensive than your previous cleaner? That’s because I pride myself in providing unmatched service and value to all my customers. I also have a 7 day rain guarantee. If it rains, I’ll come out and touch up any windows that might get ruined.”

Then when you arrive “I noticed some furniture up close to the window, I’d hate to break anything so would it be possible for you to please move anything that might be fragile or delicate?”

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“that’s a nice couch there… it’d be a shame if anything were to… “happen” to it…”

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iv recently found that if i bring the conver round to the dogs heritage it changes the focus. no more talking about the windows,or weather chit chat with the homeowner -wasnt that breed developed for hunting deer? suddenly dogs looking up at us, lookin worried ,hey … whats he gonna do to me? you want to chase deer dont you . i once made my own ammo . did you? actually no i didnt but i wondered did you back in the day?
this conver strangely gets real loyalty

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Is it normal to have to move customers furniture and breakables,

… Yes quite normal. Furniture is easy, If it’s not the window doesn’t get cleaned.
Breakables I ask them to move.

deal with broken screens and blinds

…Yep more normal.

and just not have room around your workspace in general?

…Same. And it’s not your workspace, it’s their home.

Does anyone ask the customer to have prepared the windows to be accessible. Is that unrealistic?

… Not at all. And often I help. No big deal.

Also trying to figure out what to do with tracks/sills.

… Clean 'em.

It seems like I am spending more time cleaning dog hair and bugs than windows.

… yep, hope you charge for it.

Correction I know I am. I bought a vacuum and created a package that includes screen magic and having the sills vaccumed for 50 bucks more. Even with the vacuum all the houses I have encountered so far are filthy and I feel like I have to scrub the windows and sills while I am there.

… Well I think scrubbing windows is part of the job. Sills I wipe, no scrubbing.

The vaccums only goes so far. I am talking about 5-10 years of not being touched, according to two different customers. Am I just being a baby?

…Hmm, well anyway, just check them out before you give a price.

I love cleaning glass, just not spending only 30% of time on the glass and the rest fumbling with old and breaking screens and dog hair. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

… More zazen grasshopper.

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Thanks for the advice Jared and thank you^^ sir for the breakdown of each of my questions haha I love this forum. I’ve been on many for many different loves but this is by far the most welcoming. Wcr that is. That was a typo I know I am going to be scrubbing windows I love that just not the cleaning the tracks that are 5mm wide part. I think its more a root cause of me obsessing if I am getting enough money for the job I’m doing cause I detail these things whether I want to or not. I have diagnosed OCD so it’s like I can’t help it I worry so much what the customer will think and I also want to do a really good job, I just obsess and think, am I charging enough?

I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I have had the same issues you are having. If you aren’t satisfied leaving the job with the money you made, something needs to change. How and how much do you charge per pane? Also, your target hourly needs to go up as well. My target when starting out (2 years experience under my belt) was $70 per hour. I know it’s hard to look at everything when bidding and you may bid when the customer isn’t even there, like I do sometimes. That means you can’t look at tracks, get a feel for furniture placement, etc.

Tell them on the phone or in person that if they were ABLE to assist you with taking items off the sills, raising blinds and moving furniture, you would give them 5-10% off. That’s an average of $15-20 off of what you charge. Well worth it to some. Some people completely line their sills with stuff and it takes forever to move things back and forth.

As for all the dirty stuff, ask them when the last time they had their windows cleaned. Charge more if it’s been more than 2-3 years. Tell them their next cleaning would be less if they booked with you next year. Figure out what works for you.

I only do residential. I love chatting up the customers and displaying my skills. It’s the reaction that I get that keeps me doing what I do. I also very rarely move furniture. I figure out ways around to work around it, mostly. I’m part contortionist and can be part furniture mover when I need to be. Read your customers. That’s the key. Throw down drop cloths on the bed and stand on them. I’ve almost always been told I could stand on the bed, which is crazy to me.

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Those are some great ideas. I wanted to be making at least 50 an hour but I think I’m a little slow so I lowered my expectations. House takes me 4-7 hours depending on size. At least lately. That’s the thing I’m still figuring out how to bid right now I have four set prices depending on one or two story and outside or in and out. I adjust it if the house looks bigger or smaller. I would like to to bid 50 an hour straight up or more but for instance I did a house today that took almost 8 hours. I got 300 so it’s close but yeah that’s the easiest way I could think to bid but it might be high for some people and I need the business. Love the insight.

I work in pest control currently so forgive me if I speak out of turn, but 1 of the things a salesmen used to do was add 200-300 dollars for brown recluse treatments if the technician got there and the lightswitch/plug cover plates were not removed. He was encouraging them to do it because it increased treatment time by a good 30min-1hr, after that people started removing faceplates.

Translate that to W/C: Ok Ma’am, it looks like it will be $250 for your 15 1st story windows and your 10 2nd story, now all I ask is that the blinds/curtains and furniture blocking the windows be pulled away or it’ll be an additional $50-($x) and you’ll need to sign a blind/curtain waiver in case 1 pulls out of the wall breaking something or a blind disintegrates into millions of dry rotted bits

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No its not just you,but I do think it gets easier after awhile.

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