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Foreclosure cleaning is a hot business right now. Many are getting into it, but immediately hit a stumbling block when it comes to pricing. Following is some advice on pricing your foreclosure cleanup services.

Foreclosure Cleanup Companies: 3 Things to Keep in Mind When Pricing Services

1. Know Service Cost: The first things to keep in mind when pricing your foreclosure cleaning services is to find out what it's going to cost you to provide a service.

For example, if one of the things you have to do to a property is replace the broken windows, then you need to find out how much the windows cost and how much it's going to cost to get them installed (if you're not installing them yourself).

To make a profit on this service, you would then add time and labor costs to that.

Foreclosure Cleaning Pricing Tip: One of the biggest mistakes foreclosure cleaning service company owners make is not adding in the cost of "running around time." In business - any type of business - time is money. Keep this in mind.

2. How Much Do You Need to Make: Sometimes, pricing a foreclosure cleaning job boils down to how much you wan to make. For smaller jobs, ie, simply changing the locks on a house, it may not cost you that much to actually do it, which makes it not worth your time.

BUT, if you want to offer this foreclosure cleaning service because you want to be a one-stop shop for clients, then you simply add in how much you need to make off of it to make it worth your while.

For example, if you can get locks changed for $50 a pop, but it takes you 45 minutes to drive to the property, meet with the locksmith, drive back home and then write up the invoice, you may have spent two hours or more.

So, even though it only cost you $50, how much do you think you need to charge to have made this worth your while? $75, $100, $125? It's up to you to decide.

3. Get More than One Estimate: In the foreclosure cleaning business, you're going to rely a lot on contractors to set your prices. So you must, must, must get more than one estimate to get an idea of what you should be paying.

For example, let's say you need to get the exterior of a house painted. One painter may charge you $1,200, while another may charge $2,000. Yet a third may charge $1,600. So, what should you be paying.

To get a "pricing measuring stick", so to speak, for this foreclosure cleaning service, use the average of the estimates.

Foreclosure Cleaning Pricing Tip: Cheaper is not always better. A lot of this business depends on your gut. With each job, you'll pick up lessons that will help you price the next one that much better.

Foreclosure cleaning can be a very lucrative business. But, if you price a job wrong, you can literally be out of business before you know it.

To learn more about how to price foreclosure cleaning jobs, log on to Start-a-Foreclosure-Cleanup-Business dot com.

May be reprinted with the following, in full: Learn how to price foreclosure jobs so you can make your business a success and never have to work for someone else again. Everything you need to know can be found at Start-a-Foreclosure-Cleanup-Business.com, ie, 200 pages of first-hand information from the owner of a leading foreclosure cleanup company in Atlanta, GA.

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