Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

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cheezit
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#16

Post by cheezit »

I also charge and or pay finders fees based on a percentage of the job I'm either taking or subing out.

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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#17

Post by TreyHouston »

Im in the construction buisness. I bring contractors work and take a 30% cut as well. I also talk to the client to get their real number and inflate the price to meet that. Everyone is happy!
If these guys did that and I found out, i would want my cut or I would not keep feeding them jobs. I brought them the client.
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#18

Post by jerry_r60 »

cheezit wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:27 pm I also charge and or pay finders fees based on a percentage of the job I'm either taking or subing out.
I’m guessing you guys agree to this up front which is a very different story than what I’m hearing from the OP. If there is missing info then different story.

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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#19

Post by WTR »

TreyHouston wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:47 pm Im in the construction buisness. I bring contractors work and take a 30% cut as well. I also talk to the client to get their real number and inflate the price to meet that. Everyone is happy!
If these guys did that and I found out, i would want my cut or I would not keep feeding them jobs. I brought them the client.
I’m interested. Is this “true” budget told to with the expiation if privacy?
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cheezit
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

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Post by cheezit »

jerry_r60 wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:16 pm
cheezit wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:27 pm I also charge and or pay finders fees based on a percentage of the job I'm either taking or subing out.
I’m guessing you guys agree to this up front which is a very different story than what I’m hearing from the OP. If there is missing info then different story.
I'm a mechanic by trade. If someone comes to me to do work that I either don't do/ don't need or don't want, I will broker that job out. I call someone that does and ask what they will charge for the job. I call my customer up give him a price that includes my fees. Customer pays me, I pay the person that I broker to. I keep my percentage the guy doing the work gets exactly what he asked for and the customer still saved a bunch.
Keep in mind we do this only with people we have worked with in shops and know well. It's not a secret that we all profit off each other and we stay busy as a collective.

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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

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Post by rdcrags »

Real Texans consider a Texas handshake as more binding than something on paper.
TX CHL 1997
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#22

Post by mojo84 »

cheezit wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 7:03 pm
jerry_r60 wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:16 pm
cheezit wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:27 pm I also charge and or pay finders fees based on a percentage of the job I'm either taking or subing out.
I’m guessing you guys agree to this up front which is a very different story than what I’m hearing from the OP. If there is missing info then different story.
I'm a mechanic by trade. If someone comes to me to do work that I either don't do/ don't need or don't want, I will broker that job out. I call someone that does and ask what they will charge for the job. I call my customer up give him a price that includes my fees. Customer pays me, I pay the person that I broker to. I keep my percentage the guy doing the work gets exactly what he asked for and the customer still saved a bunch.
Keep in mind we do this only with people we have worked with in shops and know well. It's not a secret that we all profit off each other and we stay busy as a collective.
How does the customer save when your fee is being added to the amount the mechanic that does the job charges? Seems like simply referring the person to the mechanic that can do the job would be the thing to do to. Why get paid just for giving someone a name or making a phone call? Now, if you are supervising or managing the work, handling any necessary paperwork, providing diagnostic and estimating services and offering some sort of warranty, I can see you getting an override or fee. However, just referring someone and then adding on a fee doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

Now, if the mechanic that does the work pays you a referral fee out of his normal profit margin or the customer offers to pay you a referral fee, that is another story.
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#23

Post by mojo84 »

rdcrags wrote: Sun Jul 29, 2018 10:25 pm Real Texans consider a Texas handshake as more binding than something on paper.
Was there a handshake agreement that the person making the referral would get an override on the project? Was the guy that made the referral working as a general contractor or did he just put two parties in contact with one another?
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#24

Post by Keith B »

RPBrown wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 1:35 pm I deal with this type of situation quite often. One of my GC's will introduce me to a homeowner or business owner and they will contact me direct. I personally will not bid direct to the individual in this circumstance unless my GC gives his blessing on it because the GC gives me a LOT of work.
It is not illegal to do so unless you are under contract, however, it is unethical.
:iagree: with RPBrown. If you made the original agreement with the GC, then he verbally contracted you to do the work and you work for him. It's the way you do the business acting as a sub-contractor. I own an electrical business and will not cut out the original GC unless he releases me to do the work directly with the customer. Otherwise, I bill the GC, he pays me, then he adds his percentage on and bills the customer. Doing it otherwise is a good way to get cut out of jobs period.
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#25

Post by mojo84 »

I didn't see anywhere in the original post that there was a GC/Subcontractor relationship involved in this situation. Did I miss something?
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#26

Post by Keith B »

mojo84 wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:18 pm I didn't see anywhere in the original post that there was a GC/Subcontractor relationship involved in this situation. Did I miss something?
In the original post 'He wanted to charge the landlord or the tenants 30% on top of my bid for the work even though he was not going to be doing any of the work himself. '

This is what a GC does.
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#27

Post by mojo84 »

Keith B wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:38 pm
mojo84 wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:18 pm I didn't see anywhere in the original post that there was a GC/Subcontractor relationship involved in this situation. Did I miss something?
In the original post 'He wanted to charge the landlord or the tenants 30% on top of my bid for the work even though he was not going to be doing any of the work himself. '

This is what a GC does.
I understand what he wanted to do. Was there a GC/Sub-contractor relationship? He also said in the original post he had no verbal or written agreement with the guy. It sounds like one trade contractor/craftsman wanted an override just for putting two parties in touch with each other. I do not believe that is typical in the construction industry to just assume there will be an override when there is no business relationship between the referring party and the person being referred?
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#28

Post by Keith B »

mojo84 wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:51 pm
Keith B wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:38 pm
mojo84 wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:18 pm I didn't see anywhere in the original post that there was a GC/Subcontractor relationship involved in this situation. Did I miss something?
In the original post 'He wanted to charge the landlord or the tenants 30% on top of my bid for the work even though he was not going to be doing any of the work himself. '

This is what a GC does.
I understand what he wanted to do. Was there a GC/Sub-contractor relationship? He also said in the original post he had no verbal or written agreement with the guy. It sounds like one trade contractor/craftsman wanted an override just for putting two parties in touch with each other. I do not believe that is typical in the construction industry to just assume there will be an override when there is no business relationship between the referring party and the person being referred?
I do this type of referral work all the time. If the company just calls me and tells me of the work and I contact the customer to arrange the work and the customer directs what's done, then no, they are not the GC. I may give them a finders-fee, but that is it. However, if the person/company arranges for me to do the work, and I am to bill the company/person, and they bill the customer, then the company/person is acting as a GC.

In this case, I think the issue is both parties didn't have a clear set of expectations and it has caused a riff. May not be a big deal if never working for that middle-man again, but if you want future work through them, then better let them make their coin on the job.
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#29

Post by mojo84 »

Based on the original post, I do not believe it was the beginning of a budding business general contractor sub-contractor relationship since it was just an online interaction that led to a referral. Here are some points I think are key. However, we are just hearing one side of the story.
Odinvalknir wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 9:30 am So I am not a residential contractor in the general sense. I work in the chemical plants as a electrician, instrumentation technician. Just a little bit of background.


I I have been out of work for about a month and decided I would pick up some side work doing General Contracting out in the public world as an electrician. A guy that I met through a job site on Facebook put me on to a job at a house that he has done some work in before. The guy had no work of his own skill or craft at the house he just knew these people needed something done and that I wanted to work. We do not have any business agreements documented or verbal. To me it just seems like he was playing the middleman, and got $100 for his effort. He wanted to charge the landlord or the tenants 30% on top of my bid for the work even though he was not going to be doing any of the work himself. The landlord and tenants had my phone number and called to ask me if I was willing and able to do the work not under any agreements with the original contractor. To which I said yes because as I stated there is no agreements between me and the other guy saying that I am his subcontractor or that I have to pay him any percentage or that the landlord has to pay him any percentage of my work. The contractor caught wind of this as you would expect and is now mad at me for taking on the work and at least in his mind cutting him out of the equation. Am I in the wrong from taking on the work not being his subcontractor but going at it under my own name?


Tl:dr got put on a job through somebody that I do not know personally and he believes I am cutting him out of the equation because the homeowner did not want to pay him 30% on top of my work even though there are no agreements between myself and the person who directed me to the job


That would be like me telling you about someone I knew needed some electrical work done and putting the two of you in touch with one another and then expecting a 30% override. I do not believe that is how it does or should work. I do agree if the referring contractor performed the functions of a general contractor and there was a GC and subcontractor agreement, verbal or written, then the OP should not have done the work direct but that is not what the OP says happened.
Note: Me sharing a link and information published by others does not constitute my endorsement, agreement, disagreement, my opinion or publishing by me. If you do not like what is contained at a link I share, take it up with the author or publisher of the content.
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Re: Looking to get a unbiased opinion on a personal business situation

#30

Post by cheezit »

mojo84 wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 8:33 am
cheezit wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 7:03 pm
jerry_r60 wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:16 pm
cheezit wrote: Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:27 pm I also charge and or pay finders fees based on a percentage of the job I'm either taking or subing out.
I’m guessing you guys agree to this up front which is a very different story than what I’m hearing from the OP. If there is missing info then different story.
I'm a mechanic by trade. If someone comes to me to do work that I either don't do/ don't need or don't want, I will broker that job out. I call someone that does and ask what they will charge for the job. I call my customer up give him a price that includes my fees. Customer pays me, I pay the person that I broker to. I keep my percentage the guy doing the work gets exactly what he asked for and the customer still saved a bunch.
Keep in mind we do this only with people we have worked with in shops and know well. It's not a secret that we all profit off each other and we stay busy as a collective.
How does the customer save when your fee is being added to the amount the mechanic that does the job charges? Seems like simply referring the person to the mechanic that can do the job would be the thing to do to. Why get paid just for giving someone a name or making a phone call? Now, if you are supervising or managing the work, handling any necessary paperwork, providing diagnostic and estimating services and offering some sort of warranty, I can see you getting an override or fee. However, just referring someone and then adding on a fee doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

Now, if the mechanic that does the work pays you a referral fee out of his normal profit margin or the customer offers to pay you a referral fee, that is another story.
Very simple, your saving between $25 to $75 an hour for labor. So for a set of head gaskets on you diesel truck you come up somewhere between $800 $1250 less in cost over the dealer in labor alone. Then end consumer may likely be paying less for parts as well.
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