£1000 for straight combi boiler swops?!

[Marco]

Spoke to a letting agent today. If I can match the following, I can get jobs off them!!:

Straight boiler swop £1000 (for German boiler?!) inc boiler and mats.

Landlord cert (1-3 appliances, mostly just 1) £40 per property, happy to bundle 3 together close to each other. Current guy wants to increase to £45.

seems pretty low to me but still learning to price up etc - what do you think? Are they trying it on?! First letting agent I've delt with, so not sure how this compares?

Can't be a power flush or magnaclean for that?! How does it effect warranties etc? what about adding TRV's/room stats etc

I've been working off around £60 for certs as that seems about average round here.

 

[gaspastemania]

I do landlord certs for £40 but thats because work is pretty quiet round my way , thats pretty tight on a boiler swap tho and what make of boiler for a start german is bit random .If its a worcester with time clock [plus need stat etc you got no chance as they would be getting an install fo free and last i knew nobody goes to work for free.
Also quite sure it would validate your warranty if not flushed etc , try giving them a labour charge on boiler upgrades then whatever materials are .Does sound like they are trying it on a bit tho.

 

[villa_tom]

I do certs for £60 like yourself, when I spoke to a letting agent he was offering £45. I'd take it if he was offering a bunch together but not for the odd one. I don't do many installs and when I do my mate prices them up but you'd be hard pushed to earn a living off a grand a swap. I think agents just try their luck with us sometimes.

 

[bikerbas]

Hi mark how are you getting on?Did you get that bathroom job i gave you number for,You need to ask them what boiler they want installing sounds way to cheap

 

[GQuigley67]

guys round here doing boiler swaps for less, fitting ideals, not making much profit and not powerflushing etc

 

[gaspastemania]

You will always get guys doing boiler swaps with quick profit in mind.I bet they dont even take into account what spec is really neeeded more a case of 24 kw no mater what and some shoddy boiler .

 

[CES]

Their ripping the proverbial mate. £1000 for a boiler swap including a german boiler??, erm Viessman or Vaillant?
I would be hard pushed to buy the boiler and materials for under £1000. So no labour = no power flush = no warranty when it fails in the first year or so.
I would be running ,not walking away from that lot mate.
As far as Landlords go, I charge £80 for up to 3 appliances.
Letting agents are ok to be on the books of but they will use and abuse you if you let them.
Try getting in with estate agents, solicitors and property lawyers, you can sometimes buy advertising space on their property schedules that they send out to prospective buyers.

 

[Marco]

Hi mark how are you getting on?Did you get that bathroom job i gave you number for,You need to ask them what boiler they want installing sounds way to cheap

Hi Bas - no they had got it sorted when I rang, but cheers for the lead - any others give me a shout though please! Hows things with you, sounds like you are pretty busy when I spoke to Steve last? Less busy at the moment hence looking at jobs like this! Yeh what is a 'German' boiler! I suspect thats what they last paid (maybe band B bit cheaper?) plus inflation, maybe knocked it down a bit to try it on?

 

[Marco]

Their ripping the proverbial mate. £1000 for a boiler swap including a german boiler??, erm Viessman or Vaillant?
I would be hard pushed to buy the boiler and materials for under £1000. So no labour = no power flush = no warranty when it fails in the first year or so.
I would be running ,not walking away from that lot mate.
As far as Landlords go, I charge £80 for up to 3 appliances.
Letting agents are ok to be on the books of but they will use and abuse you if you let them.
Try getting in with estate agents, solicitors and property lawyers, you can sometimes buy advertising space on their property schedules that they send out to prospective buyers.

Was charging £80 as well for Cets only, no service, but getting undercut! £60 seems normal now here, one was £39 even for one off! I try to get away with £80 if poss or 'upsell' to include service.

This is first contact with an agent, they didn't quible at all about the repair cost they called me for, so maybe they keep it low on the routine stuff, but you can get it back on the repairs. You won't make any on call outs though if they are happy to leave a tenant without hot water for 6 days (ok lack of parts over bank hol slowed it down, but still!).

Next step for me is book some time with a few agents to see what the other rates are and see if it can pay ok and like you say try to get on their books even if just ready for holiday cover or ready for winter.

Still new to gas so was costing each job. new tactic now is to have 'standard' prices worked out to tweak as required. Done similar for bathroom installs, tiling, some plumbing jobs, and certs work. Harder to do this for gas installs & repairs as still leaning! I tend to base on what a job should take, and if i take longer thats my incentive to improve with experience! Is that how others do it?

 

[Marco]

You will always get guys doing boiler swaps with quick profit in mind.I bet they dont even take into account what spec is really neeeded more a case of 24 kw no mater what and some shoddy boiler .

yeh - i asked if it was for a 1 bed flat and she said it could be up to 2/3 bed houses! Sounds like bottom end rentals so they probably don't worry about the time it takes their tenant to fill the bath! Big hospital up the road, so some of the other agents near me will have nicer properties on the books, so they might be looking at better quality jobs? we'll see!

 

[CES]

You're always going to get someone undercutting you, up in Edinburgh Ive had Landlords say they know guys carrying out Certs for £20, but a lot of that is just to start you haggling.
Dont be lead into thinking you always have to drop your price. Its easy to drop a price but harder to raise it again when the market picks up. Obviously more volume of work dictates a reasonable discount. I would think about standard pricing but you have to weigh up each individual job, as no two jobs are exactly the same unless you're house bashing.

 

[Marco]

You're always going to get someone undercutting you, up in Edinburgh Ive had Landlords say they know guys carrying out Certs for £20, but a lot of that is just to start you haggling.
Dont be lead into thinking you always have to drop your price. Its easy to drop a price but harder to raise it again when the market picks up. Obviously more volume of work dictates a reasonable discount. I would think about standard pricing but you have to weigh up each individual job, as no two jobs are exactly the same unless you're house bashing.

Scary at £20! might offer to match £45 based on getting 20 and work bundled into 3 at a time min? That not too bad then, sounded like most were boilers only some with hobs/cooker, next to no fires, so that wouldn't be too bad especially when quiet! Want to see what other agents are paying first before going too low like you say

 

[bikerbas]

Hi mark shame they had it sorted,Yes been busy but going a bit quiet now.How did you get into the letting agents,could be a good number if you sort the prices out if they give you a few jobs.

 

[tamz]

If it was plus vat and you were on the bones of your backside, you could feed the weans on that.
They are trying it on. Std practice for letting agencies. Tell them to do one.

 

[grahamgas]

I have stopped working for letting agencies, except for on ethat is run by my Brother in Law.

They are the same as all of these companies offering subbie work, for £20 per hour. Vedhas, JTm contracts, and now corgi it seems.

They are parasites trying to take your hard earned. One letting agency, a multi national, used to take 10% surcharge on any invoice submitted. They had be beaten down to £40 on LGSC's. So when I invoiced them I was only getting £36. Then to top it off, I got quite friendly with one of the landlords, through our local cricket club. Turns out the Letting agent had been charging him £80 for his LGSC's. What an utter barsteward.

Graham