Services for clients that flip cars

House of Wax

House of Wax

Active member
I need to pick your guys' brain here especially if anybody has been involved in this.
 
Beginning last fall I started picking up side work detailing cars.  So far it's just been a car here and there, which is about what I had in mind from the get go.  I had a guy contact me tonight that had gotten my name from mom of a girl that goes to school with my daughter letting me know that he flips cars on the side and wanted some more information and what I'm all about.  At the moment he has 3 cars that apparently he wants done pretty quick here so he can sell em.  This type of work isnt' really something I had put much thought into when I started doing this last fall, so I'm not sure where to even start as far as what I should offer and at what price.  
 
For those of you that have done work for this kind of a client, what are you typically doing to their cars and at what price?  He said he already kinda has a quote from somebody else, but wanted to talk to me first.  I have no intentions in getting into a bidding war with someone else to do work at rock bottom prices cus quite frankly I don't NEED the work.  I just want to kinda have a gameplan together before I call him back.
 
Just tell him your regular hourly rates and prices if you don't want to work for peanuts. If you're willing to dumb down your quality of work to accommodate a cheaper agreed upon price, then it'll work great. Doing cars for people that flip cars basically means you'd be doing work for a used car dealer, which means cheaper price, which means lower quality. When I do work for car lots, it usually goes like this


Light vacuum

Air purge interior and door jambs with blow gun

Dry brush carpet and upholstery

Thorough vacuum

30 mins


Spray spots with spot cleaner

Spray carpet and upholstery shampoo

Agitate carpet and upholstery with brush

Wipe with towels

Vacuum

30 mins


Wipe interior plastic, door jamb gaskets and leather with apc and water based dressing mixed together (looks ok)

Clean headliner with spot cleaner

Clean windows

Wipe door jambs

1 hr


Clean wheels, tires and wheel wells

Wash car

Dry car with spray wax

Use solvent to remove excess tar and sap

Hand polish light waterspots on windows with all in one polish and 000 steel wool

Wax most visible parts of car (hood, fenders, top half of doors) (use all in one glaze/polish/wax instead of wax if the car is in noticeably bad condition)

Spot polish headlight and a scuffs

Dress tires

Clean windows

1 hour


Approx 2 hours on interior, 1 on exterior

3 hours total on average, working at a moderate to quick pace

Sometimes 1 hour total to 5 hours total depending on the condition


Yes, I do cheap production style detailing when working on car lots, and I'm not ashamed of it. The key is to let go of "real detailing" the moment you start a production style detail. The cars still get a dramatic improvement and the main point is that both the owner and I are happy. Though not "real autopian detailing" I like this style of work. It allows you to test your speed and challenges your detailing skills in a different way
 
He text me back after I left a message on his phone yesterday saying he already has a guy coming to do it. Honestly a bit relieved as I had a hunch the whole time it was going to be a bigger pain in the butt than it was worth. Thanks for the tips anyways guyd
 
From my experiences with dealers/flippers... Always looking for the bargain details. Not all, but most want u to take a stone and turn it into a diamond for $60 to $80... If you're lucky, maybe $100... These are flat rates, no matter the size. I've detailed for a few dealers over the years, but stay away from them these days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
150 each car


 


mix D300 and HD speed and a tangerine polishing pad.  You will get some cut, and leave it glossy.  its a cheater way of doing things the cut corner way.  For dealers, they dont care, but I could never do it for a retail client!
 
Kengo123 said:
Yes, I do cheap production style detailing when working on car lots, and I'm not ashamed of it. The key is to let go of "real detailing" the moment you start a production style detail. The cars still get a dramatic improvement and the main point is that both the owner and I are happy. Though not "real autopian detailing" I like this style of work. It allows you to test your speed and challenges your detailing skills in a different way


 


 
Click to expand...
<p style="font-size:12px;background-color:rgb(247,247,247);">I agree 100%.
<p style="font-size:12px;background-color:rgb(247,247,247);"> 
<p style="font-size:12px;background-color:rgb(247,247,247);">The vast majority of dealers don't want and won't pay for anything close to Autopian-level work. I made a thread about dealership work a few months back:
<p style="font-size:12px;background-color:rgb(247,247,247);">http://www.autopia.org/forum/topic/132926-input-on-a-dealer-account/ .
<p style="font-size:12px;background-color:rgb(247,247,247);">There's a lot of good info in that thread, also, be sure to read David Fermani's post in that thread about half way down the page. 
 
I get $100 bucks a car or SUV.  I absolutely hate doing these cars and lucky enough for me it is only a few a month.  Don't mind doing them as much during winter when things are slow.  But again I hate doing them.  I find it hard trying to dumb down my work.  We are detailers and it is tough to just let some things go but honestly I had to learn to give the guy $100 worth of work.  You really need to because the second you go over and beyond for the dealer he turns around and bums out on you the next time that you haven't done the same amount of work.  I understand the dealers not wanting to spend the money due to the fact the detailing charge is coming out of their profit but many times that car is sold because of the work you have done to it.
 
You are probably better off.  Since you do this on the side I presume you do it because you enjoy it.  Not only would you not likely make the money you want to but you really wouldn't have enjoy the work, just as fergnation said.  I don't usually do these but I did one recently for a regular customer.  Car was trashed and the turnaround was amazing.  Charged $300 but probably should have been >$500 for the time I spent.  Only did it because he left it with me for a few weeks and I worked on it here and there and used it for a test subject and training vehicle.  I enjoyed the challenge, but not the job.  
 
about to get into a few cars being flipped.


 


process will be:


wash with APC


clay with clay towel


HD speed on a tangerine pad


interior vacuuming and floor mat pressure washing or replacement


interior apc wipedown with extraction on carpets


 


charge will be 200 per car, time will be no more than 2 hours with two people (4 hrs total).  The key to making money here is to NOT be doing the work yourself!  If you want to make 100K a year detailing, you have to do high end work, or do volume with help!
 
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