What is happening with Services ?

I was under the notion that we a pretty much back to normal and the free money is gone.

I can't get a tree guy in less then 2 months
Any auto service is out at least 2 weeks if they will even do the work seems they are picking and choosing .
HAVAC guy just forget it same with plumbers .
"At least in my area"

Had to get a rental car and was told by the guy that was doing the walk around the 20 year old kid that just rented me the car makes a Hundred grand ?

I'm wondering if I've lost my mind .

Why is there such a shortage of workers or is the demand just that high ?

3rd World planned dependency 🤨

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

They are gone because everything has shifted.

Some people died, some retired, some took other jobs, some got deported, some went back to their own country. The low end jobs that nobody wanted to do are all out there looking dumb right now. Some are offering a lot of money, but it’s not enough. I’ve seen a couple of restaurants close due to lack of willing workers.

Either we are going to need robots, immigrants, or a huge population boom. The latter is the least likely.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher
They all died from the jab and there's a world wide conspiracy covering it up.



I'm joking...........
(Kinda)

The demand for services far exceeds the supply of services, expect to pay more as well. Best advice is to become more self reliant and live within your means. Its all temporary until we can get the latest arrivals from down south up to speed in the workforce, then things will go back to normal.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Also let me tell you my tree story.

I had this landscape guy that did some stuff around the yard. He was friendly and priced well.
He asked if we wanted a quote for some trees.

This Mofo wanted 1200 per tree. I looked him dead in the eyes and told him that I would cut the trees myself for that prices and he was charging over 10x the price than the other guys. Tree cutters are a dime a dozen here.
He was shook! This dude is known for “helping out” the elderly. Now I understand it. He is taking advantage of them!

I fired him and got my normal tree cutters that charged me 125 per tree, cut the wood all nice and moved it for me to use in my pit.

BE sure to shop around a lot.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

I manage a 240 unit condo complex and contractors are all booked solid and have been since covid. I live in a tourist destination and during the panedemic it was because all these places were empty and they they had time to remodel. Now after it is because everyone got kicked out for not being able to pay causing people to remodel.

On top of that, I can't keep enough landscapers due to people....not wanting to be #ing landscapers anymore lol. I get a bunch of kids who don't want to work despite my efforts to motivate or a bunch of 50-70 yo men who can't quite keep up.

People got real jobs or can make more from places like walmart etc. bizarrely enough. Or they got bank jobs etc.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Also let me tell you my tree story.

I had this landscape guy that did some stuff around the yard. He was friendly and priced well.
He asked if we wanted a quote for some trees.

This Mofo wanted 1200 per tree. I looked him dead in the eyes and told him that I would cut the trees myself for that prices and he was charging over 10x the price than the other guys. Tree cutters are a dime a dozen here.
He was shook! This dude is known for “helping out” the elderly. Now I understand it. He is taking advantage of them!

I fired him and got my normal tree cutters that charged me 125 per tree, cut the wood all nice and moved it for me to use in my pit.

BE sure to shop around a lot.

I'd love to know where I could find someone to cut down a tree for $125! I'm on the board of my condo association, and we had seven dead very large 50+ year old dutch elms that had all been killed by the emerald ash borer. The company we hired did it for $1,000/tree, for a total of $7,000. I'm not sure what kind of trees you had, but the ones we had were very large and could have been a danger if they came down during a bad storm. That actually happened to one of the trees on the corner of the street. Straight line 90 mph winds knocked a 50 year old tree down. The only company that could do it charged $4,000! Anyway, $1,000 a tree is actually pretty reasonable. They also had to take a couple of days to grind down all the stumps. They needed parts, which took 6+ weeks to get before they could grind the stumps.

Anything over $1000 a tree is probably too much.

a reply to: ChiefD

I’ve lived in two difference places here, first place 100 a tree, second place 125 per tree and they were HUGE. (Recently)
You have to really shop around. I also only hire licensed bonded companies with good reviews. They are out there. There are a lot of inexperienced tree cutters and totally not worth it. Also the good places don’t advertise, they get all the business from word of mouth. Any place that needs to advertise is either too expensive or not very good or both.

If you keep the wood they give you a small break vs them having to haul it, also I did not have the stumps ground, that also lessens the price a tad. You can drill holes and fill them with epsom salt and they will disintegrate.

I also have a couple of Ash trees that need to come down but I’m waiting for fall.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

I guess it depends on where you live.
I'm north of Houston and haven't had any delays for anything I've needed.

Some of us retired. Former electrician here. I found with the cost of materials, gas, insurance, etc it was no longer profitable for me.

a reply to: Skyhigh00

I was a landscaper for 5 years back in my mid 20's. I'm still just as fit as I was then . What are you paying landscapers? Maybe I'll apply.

Right now I'm making $1600 a month delivering medical supplies 4 hours a day 5 days a week. Can you bet that? But the same or fewer hours. Spending time with my family is most important.

For those that are wondering about how much I pay in gas. Nothing, I pay nothing. the job pays for all the gas I use.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

I got a tree guy in one day after the previous tree guy clotted up at altitude while trimming the neighbor's tree. It was a little more than I wanted to spend but that's how it goes. No issues with other services; got a new exterminator with one phone call, came the same week to begin scheduled maintenance. Driveway guy came when I scheduled to reseal the driveway. Got the carpet people to come give an estimate and a reasonable start date to do the back stairs. Probably some other stuff but there's been no issues.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

Right now I'm making $1600 a month delivering medical supplies 4 hours a day 5 days a week. Can you bet that? But the same or fewer hours. Spending time with my family is most importunate.

I was paying $50 hour for landscape help and couldn't keep people. People offering anything less than that won't even get anyone to show up. The problem is that housing is very high out here so people that typically do landscaping live too far away. I've told these kids (20s) if they started a company out here they would make a killing. There was one company that was wildly successful, but the guy retired during the pandemic.

I do think you could make a lot more doing landscaping again, however as you know it's a lot harder than driving and hours are unpredictable.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

ot the carpet people to come give an estimate and a reasonable start date to do the back stairs. Probably some other stuff but there's been no issues.

Got some carpet replaced here and they had to hire installers from another state. They were fantastic so not complaining.
No delay in install though so they are making it work.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I just had a tree removed a couple months ago. $1200 and I jumped at the price. This was an old oak that was huge when I was born, over 3 feet through and probably 80-100 foot tall. Loved that tree; if rednecks had tear ducts I would have cried when it came down. But it was leaning very badly and directly toward my house. Every storm, I would tense up and say a prayer that it didn't play "hot knife through butter" with my house.

Normal price was more like $1600. I got a deal because I didn't want it hauled off... that puppy will live on as lumber, firewood, and shavings for landscaping/mulch.

Now, a normal tree that isn't endangering property? They'll do those for $100-125. I might use them when I need more lumber. I have tons of big oaks just inside the treeline. The high price reflected the diffculty; that oak had to come down little by little. Took a four-man crew all day, and they were experienced. A normal tree? Takes maybe an hour. I would do it myself if I was still able.

My logger (he's been slowly clearing the mature cedars and oaks farther up the mountain) didn't show up last winter. He thinks he can this year, though, and he's offered to do the sawmill work in trade-off for a few cedars. His reason: he can't find help.

Auto service around here is like pulling teeth. It's nothing to have a two-month wait; I have had a couple places just offer to take my name and number and call me back when they can. So I fix my own car until further notice.

Other services are better... no problem getting HVAC repairs, for instance. My cardiologist's office told me yesterday they couldn't do a day-before reminder call on appointments because they were short-staffed, but they still handle normal appointments. Other offices are using automated reminder calls.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

Hardwood in a tight location could justify that price.

The trees I got quoted weren't by the house and they were pine. They were massive but you could drop them any direction.
I couldn't believe the 1200 per tree quote. Funny thing is after he left and I called the other guy, I saw the first 1200 guy drive by and look at it and all the trees were gone. He was probably sour grapes about an easy job missed.
I pay cash too so you know they love that.

a reply to: JAGStorm

That's what i was thinking... given the toughness of the wood and the precision they had to use to drop it safely, I don't think I got hurt on the price. But for pine without hazards? I could still cut pine like that! Might just take me a while...

TheRedneck