Frequently I speak at value-added contractor meetings sponsored by progressive manufacturers and distributors. I recently held a series of financial seminars for Willoughby Supply as part of their Willoughby Supply University program. At that program, I asked attendees to bid a roofing job. The job was approximately 33 squares, but it was not up and over. It had a fair amount of hips, valleys and other details. The numbers, while not surprising, were indicative of the pricing problems the roofing industry faces. Most contractors do not understand their overhead and arbitrarily price jobs by the number of squares rather than the time it takes to do the job.
Prior to asking the class to quote the job, I had five different experienced professional roofing contractors from our networking groups bid the job based on their costs and what they would sell it for. Their average price was just over $17,000, but the class results were much lower. By the way, these roofers sell at over a 40 percent closing ratio, are honest and know what they are doing. The bids from those in the class broke down as follows: