I read all these threads about how "college is a scam, learn a trade". Trades are good, but this is better! I work roof an exterior contractor doing insurance restoration work. When reading below, keep in mind I have no college degree, but am also far from retarded.
Pros:
>Make your own schedule. Work as little or as much as you want.
>Work generally from June until November, as this work is seasonal
>Your earning potential is truly limitless. Least I ever made was 80k (first year). Every other year ranges from 110k-250k, this year will be 400k.
>Income is literally adjusted for inflation in real-time, as insurance loss estimation software accounts for cost of living adjustment and inflation.
>Opportunities for travel all over the country, if you so choose.
>Varied and challenging. Almost every work day is different than the preceding.
Why Aren't You In The Insurance Restoration Biz?
I'm not sure I understand, what do you do? Is this some sort of manual labor ?
Cons:
>Your "own" schedule can be fucking crazy. I worked everyday, 12-15 hours a day from middle of June last year until beginning of December. I took 4 days off. Not an exaggeration.
>If your good and want to make shitloads of money, you work your balls off from May/June until it snows (see above).
>Earning potential is unlimited, but it's 100% commission. I get a draw based on my sales between 4k-10k a month and get a gigantic or series of very large checks end of the year.
>Travel can suck. Some places are shitty. Have been in Jackson, MS for work for example.
>Varied and challenging can mean total clusterfuck. There is such a thing as too busy. In August, my work line rang 3500+ times that month.
>Independent contractor, so no bennies.
I do zero manual labor. I just make sure the manual labor gets done and my projects are profitable. I actually don't particularly like to build shit, I just know how it should be done and how to get it done.
former property claims adjuster here. OP is a gigantic faggot and guaranteed scumbag. He's a roofer, basically, and chases hail storms.
its a good job if you have no other options, are a felon, have no scruples, and want to work with the shittiest people on the planet.
No, I actually work for a reputable local contractor. My last job was managing the insurance restoration division for one of the top 20 largest contractors in the country. I did work for a stormer, but we were actually reputable and did good work. 65% of my business is referrals, and you don't get very far doing a shit job. That being said, a big fucking hailstorm definitely attracts felons, scumbags, and scammers. I am none of the above. Claims adjuster isn't a bad gig in this business either, but just like my end of it, 90% are fucking idiots.
And working with felons and retards sometimes is half the fun. As Iong as the retards aren't doing any work, then your golden. The sales end of this attracts all kinds of fuckers because you legitimately can make 50k in a month. It's like crab fishing or people watching in Vegas. Better than a rousing story about how "Bob paid full RCV for a fence on Coverage A instead of ACV on Coverage B!"
Good thread idea but doomed to page 11 cuz Jow Forums is full of agoraphobic man children
Prefer fishing locusts in AK maybe next time gramps
Someone will see this and maybe it will change their life. I responded to a fucking Craigslist ad for this work 10 years ago and was the best thing I've ever done. Now, I have an extremely valuable skill set that is applicable to both the construction and insurance ends of my business. I can literally get a job anywhere in the country probably inside a week where I could make a solid six figures. Not that it isn't hard as fuck. I know exactly 6 people that have done this for a living for more than 4 years; 2 make actual money doing it.
I guess I'm retarded because I still don't actually understand what your job is
QRD
>Big hailstorm (or hurricane happens)
>Fucks up bunch of houses
>Fucked up houses need fixed
>Insurance pays to fix fucked up house. Homeowner pays just deductible to fix all that is fucked
>I sell job. "Your house is fucked, but we are amazing, A+ and we can fix it"
>Meet insurance adjuster and go over damages.
>Go over insurance estimate and damages with homeowner, figure out scope of work to be completed, pick colors and products, sign contract
>Put in detailed orders in online construction CRM
>Make sure shit gets done, starting with roof.
>Collect first check from insurance. If they have a mortgage, fill out paperwork for lien holder and send that and check to bank for endorsement
>Arrange for balance of work to be completed by employees or subcontractors. Make sure it gets ordered correctly and done.
>Negotiate final settlement with Insurance carrier.
>Invoice insurance carrier that all the shit is done. They release second check.
>Collect final payment of original claim and any approved additional amounts by insurance carrier from client
From Aus here
how the heck do i get into contact with these insurance comapnies to do contracting with them, i currently run a painting business with my dad thats been running for 35 years
any advice?
Mine is mostly a person to person type business. Your dad should go visit insurance agents, but I doubt it would bear much fruit as usually they want to refer a general contractor. Some carriers have direct repair lists where the contractors on said list get referrals directly from the carrier, but again, same limitations apply. His best bet would be visiting general contractors and working for them as a sub. You get more and steady business but for a little less money, and he can still do his own thing under his own business. I know good painters are hard to find.
Shit, was supposed to reply to you. Being the GC can be a bitch. Roofing, siding/exterior cladding, and windows is generally where the money is. The roofing part will make your GL and Comp. Insurance automatically the highest rate, as roofing is literally one of the most dangerous jobs you can do. Depending on your business' thoroughput, you may need to be liquid to the tune of 300k+ and be able to carry that amount for 30-90 days. Direct repair programs often have specific requirements like certain length in business, Dunn and Bradstreet evaluation, documentation of owned equipment, and professional/client references. I would also advise not doing anything construction-wise that your not ABSOLUTELY SURE you can do correctly; stay away from trades that you know nothing about until you do. I would honestly stick to painting. Just find more people to paint shit for. GC's will solve that problem. Painting can be extremely profitable. Build value in your products and services and you can justify higher costs. Paint bidding is the most esoteric aspect of my job, as there is rarely a set price per square foot. Every painter I have ever worked with just looks at it, figures how many gallons of paint and how long it will take and gives me a price, and I tell him if I can live with it.
Cheers for the info dude.
How did you scale your business to the size it is curerntly? What style of advertisement did you use and did you use sites that people create job ads?
sorry if you are just primarily insurance jobs only.
thanks for all the info man im looking into taking over my dads business, he is alot more old school and does things the old ways. where i understand that internet marketing is the future.
So you're a general contractor? Or you just generate leads after major storm events and contract contracts? I'm still so confused. You just answered a craigslist ad? Are you a ticketed tradesman?
How does one, with no prior experience in this field of work, get into this line of work?
I get what you do, but how the hell did you get hired?
Do I even have a chance?
If you live in the US I believe government programs offer loans that are relatively easy to get if you plan on using it to restore infrastructure. I'm not entirely sure but someone can correct me if I am wrong.
No, I work for a general contractor. I do generate leads and the like, mostly through referrals. I am not a tradesman. I am basically the tradesman manager on my own jobs. It's sort of like a business inside a business. The business I work for "Joe Contracting Inc" contracts with my company, which is just me and serves as a pass through, to sell/manage/collect construction projects from hailstorm/hurricanes/other covered perils. I pay an overhead fee that comes out of the job of 10% of the total, so 5k job is 5k overhead. That overhead covers advertising, office generated leads from advertising, office staff, insurance etc.. Whatever is leftover, i.e. profit, I split with the company. So if I have a 50k job with 25k cost and 5k overhead, I split 20k with the company. And yes, I really just answered a Craigslist ad. Tons of contractors advertise for these jobs for some reason. Look on Denver CL now and I guarantee there will be tons on there for "restoration sales" or "roofing project management". I thought it was a scam at first, but 2008 was not a good year and needed a better job, so decided fuck it. 10 years later I am here.
Literally everyone has a chance at this job. It has a very high attrition rate (would guess 85%+) and turnover usually occurs in a matter of weeks. We hired 50 salesman last year. Most lasted a week. Some lasted a couple months, but didn't make enough to stay afloat. Out of the 50+ from June, there are two of us left, and I brought the other guy. He's barely even good enough to make a living at this. He did 350k last year in business; I did 3.1 million.
Jesus fucking christ, 3.1m in a year?
Fuck I'll quit my job right now and work for you, what's good?
Shit, I'll do your work and take 30% and you can keep the remaining 70%.
Whaaaat. Is it just glorified door to door sales? I don't know shit about any trade though..
I don't run the business I work for, I just run my own business inside their business in a manner of speaking. We do new construction, but the real money is in insurance work for savvy folks like me. This is an odd business as a solid chunk of it is person to person either through referrals or door knocking. Knocking doors is for fags, so I take leads given to me by the office and turn them into 3 other jobs via referrals. Finding salesman/tradesman is usually accomplished on Craigslist or websites that center around this particular facet I'd the industry like rooferscoffeeshop.com or for insurance jobs catadjuster.org.. Those new apps like NextDoor seem pretty effective for generating new business. I am a big believer in regular Google as well. Yelp or something like Angie's List or HomeAdvisor are scams in my opinion. The company runs a TV ad that seems very effective, probably the most effective actually. It's hard for someone like me to wrap my head around how Instagram/Facebook/Twitter can be super effective for this industry, but I am one of those 35 year olds that is very tech-savvy but thinks social media in general is fucking retarded.
I didn't make 3.1 million, I sold and managed 3.1 million worth of business. My cut will average out to 17-19% of sold business total. Average is around 10%. Mine is higher because the insurance carriers all use the same asshole loss estimation software (Xactimate) to attempt to fix the prices and our margins, but folks like me are experts at using it to fuck them for proper margins on jobs.
It can be. And highly fucking competitive door to door sales at that. Some people I talked to this year talked to 30 other salesman from different companies about their fucked up house. People that do the door to door thing hardly ever make real money, because it's a numbers game to them. I personally hate that shit and don't do it, so I concentrate on closing at a very high percentage and turning the one job I get into 3-4 others.
>the insurance carriers all use the same asshole loss estimation software (Xactimate) to attempt to fix the prices and our margins, but folks like me are experts at using it to fuck them for proper margins on jobs.
Can you give examples of how you go about this? I'm guessing during your first year you learned where they were cutting corners so you could negotiate better deals?
These leads and referrals are people that are going through their insurance right? Why do you or the office need to hunt them down?
I'm confused why the insurance company doesn't post the job/work needed and let anyone bid on it then, or host their own platform that they can direct customers to to make finding contractors easier.
I'm a software dev and making something like that would be pretty straight forward and would streamline the whole process. Hell making a 3rd party platform and getting insurance companies onboard to direct their customers there seems like it would be really profitable.