Moving From Residential To Commercial

custrel

We subscribed to isqft our first year, but now we primarily use Builder's Exchange (http://www.bxwa.com/bxwa_toc/private/generals.html) - which has work posted by GC's who have jobs (or are bidding jobs) in states west of the Rockies.

Many of the bigger and mid-sized commercial GCs post the plans & specs of the jobs they are actively bidding on BXWA.com, and there is no cost for to you to see them, although some GCs might require that you enter a password which you can obtain from them by simply contacting them and telling them you want to bid that job.

We also subscribe to the DJC (Daily Journal of Commerce) which lists upcoming commercial work for Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. I don't think it covers Idaho, but if you are looking to work in Eastern Washington or Oregon, then I would be something I would look into - its about $300 for a six month subscription, and $600 for a full year.

You get a weekly paper to wrap your fish with, and a weekly email with the latest bid dates for upcoming work.

I enjoy commercial work more than residential. You might have to deal with ever changing schedules, and every so often a big GC might try to bully you into doing free work for it (although not as bad as some home owners can be), overall I find it less stressful since I prefer dealing with other professionals who know what to expect rather than home owners.

Good luck!

Platinum Const

Yeah, I tried talking to a few supers that I know were laid off recently. They all seem to be just that- superintendents. No knowledge of the business end, only daily operations.

bodean614

I bid work for a commercial painting company in ohio and we are finding that We get about 5% of what we bid. Every job we are bidding against 10 different painters and can lose a job over a couple hundred bucks. I as an estimator am salesmen also. We are making money but not enough and just keep doing them for cash flow. as far as the bond very hard to get larger than 250k. Some GCs would prefer to get 1 bid for multi trades so you might try bidding multi scopes and build you reputation that way.
we use blue book and the builders exchange.
also if you are going to be needing to buy a lot of blue prints I would suggest buying a wide format printer.
We got the canon ipf710 and are incredibly pleased and within 7 months its paid for itself.

SuretyPro

I have seen and worked with quite a number of residential contractors trying to make the move to commercial. To get bonding in excess of $250k single / $500k aggregate you will need to bite the bullet and get a good CPA who can put a financial presentation together that the surety underwriters can use to extend surety credit. The other keys to getting bonded is a good line of credit and use a surety/insurance agent that has experience and a wide range of markets to work with.

griz

Nowdays public works jobs are very very competitive. More who is low bid and can change order the project to death. It's very good work you just have to KNOW ALL the rules and play by them. RFI/RFP/Change order is a royal PITA, but it is how it is played much to the dismay of some of us er older guys. Bonding now days is very tough. Maybe you can partner up with a GC to get some projects under your belt. Be patient you may have the technical experience to complete the job but not the business experience in today's climate. Good Luck!! Griz

TomthetoolMan

The good news is if you are the low bid you win. The bad news is if you are the low bid you win. What did you forget?