Rental Property Investor · Midland, TX · Member since 2019 · 46 posts · 17 votes
We have a small 750sq ft single family home that we have completely renovated. Started getting quotes for paint and I was shocked!!!! This does include interior and exterior with trim. But still, $8000!!!!! How do y’all feel about this quote??? Any suggestions for getting the price down? Btw, the painting on the exterior is on newly installed siding, no scraping or sanding required.
Obviously that’s way too high for that small of a house. That’s a quote from a guy who doesn’t have time to do it, or doesn’t want to for some reason, but will if you pay that outrageously high number.
No point in trying to talk him down. Just get other quotes.
The only thing worst than painting, is painting. But as @Steve Vaughan mentioned, you will pay a lot of money to practice patience. Roll up the sleeves and do it yourself for 1/10th the price, after a few jobs it really isn't that bad. I actually think I enjoy it now.
Some of these responses are laughable. You're not going paint anything in a afternoon, except maybe a few walls. The $8k bid does not seem like a rip off, it's prob just retail pricing as others have said. May be tough finding a good/ cheap painter right now, most contractors are very busy, I know I am. finding someone in the home depot parking lot can be very hit or miss, and you'll still likely be babysitting them. I painted a large wood house years ago and it was around $25k materials and labor, I know that's hard to fathom for some. Was I ripping the homeowners off? No, they got multiple bids and still chose me. Labor is going to be very market specific, and people are busy. I wouldn't go too cheap if this is a rental property either, you don't want to be painting the exterior again in a few years bc of lousy paint and workmanship. I would try asking around for references, ask at Sherwin Williams too. Good luck with the project.
All depends on location. No one here can tell you what's reasonable without being local. I've paid wildly different numbers in different markets. From $250-$500 for a 750 sf apartment to $10,000 for a 3,500 SF house. All depends on location, quality of paint, and size.
Go on facebook. Hire someone for 20 bucks per hour. an EXTEMELY slow painter will be done Inside and out in a week. 7 ten hour days comes in at 1,400 dollars. Anyone that slow I would cut loose in the first few hours because you can just tell, But I am going with extremely slow painter numbers for worst case scenario. Add 800 bucks for paint and primer etc.
2,200 dollars total. (again this number is much higher than I pay), I find painters this time of year for 16 bucks per hour. Best time to find employees as construction slows down.
This is why I always suggest people doing there own work when starting out. This way you know costs right off the top of your heard. If a contractor quoted me 2,500.00 I would just say, "thank you for your time". and let them on there way. I would not be angry or insulted because they are just fishing for bigger fish.
Have you attended any of the local REI events? It is a good place to network. I met with one of our REI members today to take a look at one of our houses. 8k does seem a bit steep. Have you gotten multiple bids?
Many suggestions to paint it yourself. If this is your first one, fine, learn the ropes of physical labor, the time it takes and the material costs but if you want to own and manage a business, you should not be doing labor that you can hire out for $25 per hour or less. Your time should be considered more valuable than that and be spent on items worthy of your time like raising funds, deal sourcing, design, networking, etc.
@Sean Tippens has all your trim been patched, sanded and caulked? Prep time for trim can get very expensive; I just got a quote for $24k to repaint a 1200sq ft one floor interior home for a client (not an investment) because all of the trim needed to be prepped
I said that for a $/hr wage you would have to babysit that's for sure. Even if it took them an entire day to paint one room at that rate you would run say 7-10 days for the entire house for a total of $1120-$1600. Still way below the quote of $8k. With outside added also and another 10 days your looking at $3200 max. So its another option to look into to save money but everything comes with risk.
If I hired a painter for $20/hr and he pulled out tape to paint baseboards i would let him go immediately. No true painter needs painters tape. I don't even paint often and i still get perfect lines without tape. So maybe you just got a fake who said they could paint because they were looking for money!
@Sean Tippens I wouldn't try to negotiate on the bid. The contractor is probably trying to rip you off unless there is something crazy we don't know about the property. If that was their motive from the beginning, I think you would be looking at trouble going forward with them at any price. You should be at about $4k for materials and labor.
@Sean Tippens since it's been a few months, you've probably already made a decision but I can tell you that from my experience, quotes from contractors in Midland are all over the place and there is shockingly low follow-up after the quote. How did you select your contractor? How much of the house is actually siding anyway? I see very few houses in Midland which do not have a heavy amount of stone and brick.
Based on past paint estimates in Midland, I'd say $1500-$2k for interior is competitive and exterior totally depends on what you're working with. I'll also add that there is a great suggestion from @David Greene in his book Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat on this. Ask to see the breakdown as to what is labor vs materials, etc. and do the math to see what they are trying to charge per hour and potentially purchase the materials for them if they seem inordinate... Give them the opportunity to rectify once you've had a closer look or just move on to someone else.
We just painted a rental in Midland. Did all interior (walls, ceiling, doors, trim and baseboards). Paint and labor included was $4800. Obviously pricing in Midland is higher then most markets due to the lack of availability of good providers and high demand but your quote still seems extremely high even for the midland market. One of the keys here though is to ensure you get someone who knows what they are doing and has a good track record as opposed to someone new to the business and just trying to take advantage of the high price point. We had a previous painter for another property that nickel and dimed us to death and took way too long to complete the job. Needless to say they are not around anymore. We learned our lesson On that one.
Having a 1250 sq ft, one story home, and a 825 sq ft garage apartment (2nd Floor) getting painted completely inside and outside in Beaumont TX. Will come out to around $7,000 labor and material
Exterior (Siding and Trim): - Pressure Wash - Caulk, wood putty, all exterior - Prime exterior - Paint Exterior Siding and Trim
When you are fixing damaged drywall with mud, matching texture (in texas most walls are textured), using primer to cover terrible old smells, then going on with a new layer or 2, dealing with trim that is damaged, it isn't always as straight forward as it seems. And when you do the job yourself, do it right, you can find that what you thought would take a week takes a month for bigger houses (not 750 sq ft).
Paint is one of those things that you can do yourself, but you need the patience to do it right. I find if done properly (bigger expense initially) it can increase rental value greatly.