Rehab for Hire

[Ralph Meyer]

l've been asked by a couple of people about rehabbing an old Genesis-one of which is getting ready to do an 8 hour road trip to go pick one up!

I plan on charging $140 for cleaning/paint/wood finishing and he would pay new wood/hardware and whatever replacement parts he wants.

I will also tell him about my mediocre skills and to not expect a new car finish on parts that have been stripped/painted, and that it takes as long as it takes-up to a month.

This would be more money than I would expect to make on a resell, but I'm kind of reluctant......I'll have to make sure he understands this is a hobby for me and not a job. Heck, if I feel like I've done a crappy job, I can only charge him the normal 43 cents an hour I would usually want.

Anyone else doing this? Anything I need to be wary of?

 

[Bruce]

Ralph,
I did a "rehab for hire" grill earlier this spring. It was the father of a guy I had sold a grill to last summer. I too was a bit hesitant because I was worried "what if he doesn't like it". I was also worried that after I quoted him a price, I would find additional issues with the grill once I started taking it apart.

That being said, I did the same work on his grill that I did on all my grills last summer so that I knew he was getting what he would be expecting. What I did was basically add up all the parts that would be needed to be replaced and then I added $150 (for my time and labor and supplies) to that to get the price. You can offer options such as premium solid rod 7mm cooking grates vs cheaper stamped steel ones. You can offer 16 ga stainless flavorizer bars vs the ceramic coated steel ones. You can offer to replace burners or just rehab the existing ones if they are still good.

That being said, I prefer to sell grills outright simply because I know if they decide to buy it, I know they are happy with it (and the price). Otherwise, they can just walk away.