Recession Talk (Uplifting & Encouraging)

JoeMudder

I've heard that the recession should bottom out soon. Which would mean that we should see it improve before too long.

Does anyone else have info on what things might look like for this upcoming year?

I have seen companies at least hiring on a temporary basis which gives me a bit of encouragement. I'd like to share encouraging news here.

If you have anything that's depressing you become part of the recession and I ask that you please keep it to yourself.

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A+ Texture LLC

In my area I just did a job for a guy that owns a real estate co. He said things are starting to pick up a little bit. There are people who may not buy a house now but they will pay to remodel their own house so remodeling buisness is up a little too. I heard some debating on Fox Buis. the other day. One guy was very optimistic and the others were not, but at least we are seeing some be optimistic, we didn't have too much optimism 6 months ago. I think that if were not at the bottom now, we are darn close, and things are gonna start turning around. When we talk to customers we should all tell them that things are picking up and getting better. I believe in self fullfilling prophecy. BE POSITIVE!!!

Custom Drywall Svc.

yea....

whats troubling, is hearing the commercial real estate market is going to be 'crashing' soon......this of course, i heard on all the news networks though, i.e., the media.

we all know, and im sure are frustrated with the way the media reports things.

they say things are good, people believe it.

they say things are bad, people believe it (and act accordingly in that manner)

they say commercial real estate is about to get bad, people believe it......and here i am seconding that thought.

go figure.

bottomline, of course take everything with a grain of salt. we'll know when we see it directly getting better in front of us.

my company on the otherhand, i HAVE been noticing an ever so slight upturn in the market.

the way i measure this is just a few simple factors.

1st, bids that i have been sitting on for months, some a year.....are finally 'breaking ground'

2nd, in the past 3-4 weeks, i've been called upon to bid much much more jobs. the bad weeks, the phones would be stagnant.....but as of late, seems like theres at least 1-2 ppl calling for drywall bids per day. big and small.

so, thats my .02

i DO feel things are getting better.....and like A+ said, i do also believe in self fulfilling prophecy, haha.....i do the saaaame thing A+.......if a customer asks, i tell them things are looking better, and that my company is very busy. (although it could be a complete lie) hahha....but you guys know how that works.

anyways....good luck to all.

and please, this is gonna sound stupid, but MAKE SURE YOU GUYS MAKE MONEY ON ALL YOUR WORK!!!!!

i.e., dont compromise your margins too much, just because joe blow drywall is pricing his work at cost.

we all need to start slowly slowly raising margins.......if we all have this mentality, we can ourselves start bringing things back to where they should be.

ive bid work for cheaper than i usually do lately, ill admit it........but STILL, theres a price / sf that i will NEVER meet or go under...no matter who im up against.

silverstilts

Nice to hear that , things around here seem going good too , busted our balls off so much in the last year I really don't mind if it did slow down . But contractors are already scheduling work very consistent , so I hope i don't have to waste time on those just looking for a cheap job . I hate to say no to work because you just never know what next week will bring , but on the other hand can't work for nothing and stay in business .. I got to hand it to all who will stick it out thru good and bad times , it makes us better business men (women) learning how to manage ourselves and our business in a way to make some money. Silverstilts aka the Rock Doctor

Custom Drywall Svc.

A+ Texture LLC

Well I listened to talk radio the other day (Ipod died), and I think it was Bernanke? Was saying something to the effect of the recession being more or less over and things will be getting better now. I'll take any good news these days. Funny thing too, the last 2 weeks I've been the busiest I've been since December. I'm feeling pretty stoked about the future of things again.

LadyFinisher

I do work for several Real Estate Agents in my community they all are saying things are starting to pick up and there is a lot of benefits the feds are offering to people to buy homes. People need to remember that what goes up has to come down and what goes down has to go up. That is how it works even during the 30's. Things are going to get better its just tring to hang on til it does.

Mushin Drywall

Pretty ruff here in CA. Piecing together small jobs, but grateful to be working. Material suppliers say its getting a little better but nothing to write home about. In times like these you have to try to stay full off the crumbs.

eastex1963

Just an update. I have 6 jobs lined up, on the books. Fairly good sized ones. Residential. Two reno's and 4 new. That's a far cry from 0 in Nov./Dec. Maybe.......I know, that's a big MAYBE, things are leveling out??????? Dunno, time will tell I guess.

JoeMudder

I finally got a whole house instead of some little job that's so small I can't work all day. It's a nice house too, 10,000 feet of board and large rooms. I bid on another one but have no idea yet if I have it.

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Mushin Drywall

Congrats! To both of you guys. I picked up a small commercial job today.
I agree that staying positive is important, not always that easy. We'll crawl out of this mess. Its just going to take some time.

Frankawitz

Well I can say that I am doing alright and in this area people are sitting on the edge with GM waiting to see if they have jobs after GM goes into Bankruptcy, So some folks are scared and not wanting to spend any money, but I can say that I have found the ones with money and looking to fix up their houses, I am doing a exterior stucco job and yesterday I went to start work on the back of the house on the 2nd story, well I was suppose to remove one section out of 7, well I got up on the roof and found that all 7 panels are rotten and need to be removed and replaced.
Well the HO didn't care to hear the bad news, but what can they do.
I have to put a price together for this new work, which is good cause it means more money and work for me. But I have had one of the neighbors come over and asked me to give them a price on their house, which is great. Oh I noticed a few of you guys that posted don't list what area of the Country you live, it would be nice to see where you guy are from so we can see how work is picking up around the Country. Well we are getting rain today so I don't know how much work I can do. well I hope everyone keeps busy. I know I am.

www.frankawitz.net I might be loosing my website before to long oh well the server is a rip off.

Attached Images

Exterior Stucco 107.jpg (97.6 KB, 1 views)

JoeMudder

Try chosenwebhost.com I've heard they are good.

If you want to talk prices try this thread Sub Contractor bidding

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