I was talking to a guy today that cleans in my area. He has 2 lads working for him and has been at it for 10 years. Certainly no fly by night.
He cleans a large council estate 3 miles away from me.
I asked him, "how much you getting for those houses now". He said £4.00.
I am under priced at £6.00 WFP. He is still trad, but insists he is making good money. I don't know what these guys secret is, and I still haven't found the answer after 14 years.
£4.00 for a 3 bed council house. I hope he doesn't canvass my round. Dai
OK - I'm not saying this is true but lets take a leap of imagination here!
Guy pays two lads "£60 each in the hand" not all if any gets declared.
Guy pays himself £100 a day and not all if any gets declared.
If they share a car that is the owners and use trad. then it's cheap to run.
That equals weekly £300 plus £300 plus £500 wages plus running costs -- say £100 = £1200
Let's say they all work (as in actual shining) an average of 6 hours per day and do 7 council (non-bay semi's)houses in 2 hours.
£14 x 6 = £84 per man per day x3 = £252 x 5 = £1260
It breaks even, especially if no insurance, tax etc and even if the above amounts are declared they will slide in under the tax threshold of a family man especially if the owner's wife does the books and gets paid up to her allowance for doing it.
I wouldn't do it but I can understand in a depressed area why contented people or those with low motivation (happy with a life of telly/pub
) do.