I am very seriously considering giving up. I've been at this full time for 2.5 years and moonlighting another 2. My work in residential cleaning could be described as absolute failure.
If it wasn't for commercial work, which is more VCT and tile and grout, I'd be dead. I do tile and grout with my 175 or auto scrubber and
melamine floor pads.
Before you say that is the wrong way, just today, 7am until noon, I cleaned the porcelain tile at an Italian restaurant, about 2,500 sf. $250 for 5 hours work. Not awesome, but I can live with it. I pre-sprayed with degreaser, then autoscrubbed with plain cold water. I've been doing this place the first Sunday AM of the month for over 2 years now.
Yesterday, I had a conversation with one of my aldermen. He is a friend, former co-worker and lives just around the corner. We talked about the recent boom in rental properties in the market. In the past year, a city of 25,000 we added about 100 rental units. An existing development added about 50 upscale units and across the street a new place built about 50 with another 50 to be completed this year. The cheapest rent? $1150 per month for a 1 bedroom. I went to the one still under construction last month pretending to be a renter. One bedrooms were $1200-1250 per month. Two bedrooms were $1400-1550 per month. I nicknamed this complex "laminate city" for the laminate and "luxury vinyl" flooring. No wall-to-wall to be found. All the three bedroom units were already rented before they were done. This leaves me confused.
As for owned homes, you have homes built with maple strip flooring c.1925-1975. These homes are like my own home, they make up about 50% of the market. The values run as low as $100,000 to as high as $400,000. I see about 1 in 20-25 homes has piles of wall-to-wall carpet on the curb, it is spring junk week in many towns. A lot of people ripped up wall-to-wall and found the nice maple strip floor. I bought my home in 1999. It had carpet only in the living room, dining room and hallway. I ripped it out in 2000. I did put a 10x14 area rug in my living room. I am a carpet cleaner, yet I don't actually have any carpet.
If you go to post 1975 construction, that is less than 30% of the market, you find low end dumps with wall-to-wall or high end without. I don't think they actually have built much housing for the middle class in this market. I'd say 50% live in pre-1975 construction and as they discover the hidden hardwoods, then get rid of wall-to-wall. I'd say 20% live in rental units. That was a bright spot for a while. I cleaned rental units for a company that owned 2 properties for about a year. Last November, somebody under cut me big time and I lost them. I am bidding on the 400 or so units owned by my city's housing authority. About 1/2 are senior citizen and the other half are the projects. My alderman encouraged me to write a proposal. About 10% live in homes that are post 1975 and worth $500,000-$1,500,000. In all this time, I got into a grand total of one. About 20% of the post 1975 construction is worth $100,000-150,000. Due to NY taxes and utility rates (we pay more for electricity than anyone in the country, about 35-40¢ per kilowatt) the money is really tight for these people. I believe the true middle class has moved away in large numbers. About 5% probably live in mobile homes. A friend's son just paid $40,000 for a 2004 double-wide on a 1/4 acre lot in the sticks. The land was worth $20,000.
You have upper middle class and wealthy who have very different tastes. You have some with imitations of what the wealthy have. For the life of me, I just can't figure out what to do.
I do a fair number of screen and recoats on wood floors. That's something that after you do it, they don't need again for 5-10-15 years, depending on wear factors, did you do 1 coat down and dirty or 3 coats and sealer? Did you use $40 finish, $70 finish or $100 finish? Never been back to a screen and recoat. In a way, that's a good thing, but bad for my wallet.
Do I live in a market so wildly different than others? Seems to me that may be the case. A lot of old construction and very few actually middle class homeowners. I am at a loss for ideas. I have been approved for a $25,000 business loan from my city's economic development agency. It is a 5 year balloon loan. If I am current at the end of 5 years, it becomes a 5-6 year conventional loan. Right now the interest is 3.75%. That's $115 per month. Chump change. The balloon payment is about $22,600 that will go for about for about $415 per month after that. They told me that a loan they just made put another $10,000 on the balloon payment, so this company is paying off a $33,000 loan for the next 5 years. They were also given an $8,000 tax credit because they created two part time jobs for residents of my city. They have gotten several small grants during this time as well. The government has been very generous with them. They are anxious to be generous with me. I know three out of 8 Aldermen and my wife's family has been friends and neighbors with the Mayor and his family since childhood. I just wonder if I am setting myself up for a larger failure, because the truth be told, the last year has been a huge backslide for me.
... If you have little ties to NY I would move if I was you..
