Working for out of state Clients

I haven't had a request for an estimate from an out of state homeowner in a long while now but the secretary took one yesterday.

Every time this happens, the first thing that enters my mind is concerns about payment.

I'm in Alabama and this caller lives in Utah.

It is a rental property at the current time with a deployed military guy living there when he is not overseas. So no one will be there. Heck, no one will even be within a thousand miles of there but us.

At a minimum he would have to pay for the materials upfront. Either pay half up front to me or he can just pay for his material to my supplier with his credit card. His choice on that.

What do you guys think? Should I trust him to pay for the labor after the roof is finished? Or what do you think would be the best way to proceed?

Turns out the roof in question is PURE GRAVY! 1- story, 1-layer and 5 on 12 walker. 27 sq.

The satellite imagery had the house across the street marked.

I emailed him a quote and talked to him on the phone. I will keep ya's updated on how it turns out. :dry:

Hey Mike, Here's some irony for ya!

Back when I used to sub-contract some of my roof replacements, I called up the supply house as usual and made a delivery order.

Was to be delivered to 1217 Saddle Creek Drive. When their delivery driver got to the turn he saw a subdivision sign that read "Saddle Creek". So he turned right but saddle creek drive was to the left. Saddle creek rd. was to the right.

And yep, there was a 1217 on BOTH streets. SO the supply house dropped off the materials at the wrong house.

I sent my sub to do the roof and he went to the correct house first but their was no material. So he turned around and went the other way, saw the material ( that was at the wrong house ) and started tearing off that roof.

A few hours later after over half of the wrong roof was torn off, he calls me wondering if he had made a mistake.

I went over there and Yep it was the wrong job. Also the police department pulls up while I'm there. A neighbor had called the homeowner who was on vacation and then called the cops. lol

The cop put me on the phone with the homeowner and I just said well mam, I hope you like slate gray! To which she happily replied that will work just fine and we roofed the house for free.

The supplier credited my account with the cost of the materials but I had to eat the labor.

To make things much worse when my rep from the yellow pages came to visit, She informed me that it was her house!

Whats the odds of that? :woohoo:

Yes you are correct Vickie. He found me through the google search engines. My website is 10 pages full of my history in roofing, all types of roofing knowledge and applications, about 35 images of what I am speaking of etc.

It is the best pre-qualifier I have ever had. People call here and ask for me by my first name. When I get to their house they act like we went to school together or something.

I sell ME. That is what most of them are looking for. Roofers like me that is.

It is revealed on the site that this is a very small business and the ones who prefer a large company simply never call or email me to begin with.

I'm about to head over there and try to snag this job in about 30 minutes. Wish me well.

PS, You guys replys helped me decide to go for it so if i don't get paid I'm gonna have to CAP LOCK YOUR ARSES!

:laugh:

I would find out how he heard of you. For some reason that would be my first question. Was it a referral? Did he see you in a forum and thought you seemed like a good business? if he researched your qualifications he cares about the quality of his installation. That could be a clue.

Ya know....There's a topic.

One of my very least concerns is/has been payment. As a matter of fact; On the other side of the fence - I get really aggravated, whenever a vendor has obvious more concern for payment, than he/she does about providing the service being discussed. I tend to not use them, if possible, sometmes, just on that premise alone.

I figure the client wants a job done and payment is simply a result of my services.....If I get the inclination otherwise, I simply recind.

Its a storm damaged roof and I'm pretty sure he already settled with the insurance for the front half only as he requested a quote for that and one for the entire roof, stating that if the other half was within his budget he would just do the whole roof.

I looked it up on satellite and it looks like a small newer home, maybe 25 sq. and 8 on 12 slope or less.

I need the work to help fill in the gaps and who couldn't use some extra income!

I don't think he is price shopping either but I could be wrong. Seemed like he might be having trouble getting someone to do it for him with him being out of state and also the house in question is pretty far out in the country side.

I'm the closest roofer to the project too! I'm gonna go over there today and check it out to see just "exactly" what I would be getting in to!

I had an out of stater rip me off on part of a job once. We roofed the entire house and replaced all the facia boards all the way around. He paid for the roof but never a cent on the facia work! I don't remember his exact excuse for not paying but I do remember that it was bogus!

Sometimes we make mountains out of mole hills There on the other end wondering if they pay you up front will the job get done lol Business is business get your normal terms follow the local rules and it will always turn out okay I hope, we never lost any money to a out of town client lots of grief and agro but the cash was good