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In Vancouver B.C. the prices are unblievable there is a new development selling 400 square foot condos for 100 grand :confused:

Who in their right mind is going to live in a 400 square foot place :(
 
The condo I live in is 2 bedroom, 1 bath and is 750 square feet. Parents bought it for $90K, it's worth well over $150K 2 years later. I need to be able to buy a home by the time I'm 25 or I'm going to be screwed.
 
The problem is the same in B.C. for anybody from 18 to early 30s the prices have gotten so high we don't make enough money to buy a house. I'am in the same boat I can't afford a 2000 dollar a month house payment.

I think the gov't and the public will realize there is a problem when there is no younger generation left in some areas to work in the service industries.
 
I dunno how you guys west of Montreal pay the prices you pay for housing.

I'm with Scag I need a decent house NOW! I'm scared sh*tless about this new refinery,7000 jobs at its peak can you say FT McMurray? its gonna end up being chaos here in 5 years

ha we'll be making 15 bucks an hour living in half a million dollar homes :rolleyes:
 
Sinjon- Props to you for making a profit... but 660K for that house is unreal! I understand that location makes all the difference, but where I live that house goes for 250K tops. That just tells you how the market varies in different zip codes.
 
Well, I can tell you here in Ohio around where I live house are $80,000.00 up to about $200,000 for average houses. They are house way more expensive too but that is not average for the area. For a stick built house for a family that is nothing special you better plan on paying around $130,000 with not hardly any land. I own a few farms but I can tell you I went this spring looking to buy a house and with all the bills that come with the house even with $20,000.00 to $30,000. down I just cant afford it and have much left over to have a descent truck and save any. Now if I wanted a little car I could make it. Still though I could not save much. Around here unless you farm, truck or excavate the pay is horrible. The average income is around $35,000.00. Most jobs starting out around here start around $8.00 an hour and take forever to get to $15.00 an hour. Im glad I got a trade as a computer tech/network administrator but I just could not support me and my gf when we get married on it. Thats one reason I have invested all these years and stayed at home because I knew I could not afford to get a farm or anything if I just moved straight out. Money around here is not easy to get at a day to day job. That's one reason I have bought the farms to make my networth more and why I bought the skid. I guess you could say I have an expensive life style farming but that was what I wanted and I did not want to be broke. Most people around here it takes both there incomes to make it. Today's living in the US is based on both the man and woman living. Even in the big towns like Dayton, and Cincinnati don't pay any better. I have talked to people in other states and it sounds about the same. Yeah I could move somewhere that the rich live and maybe make more but Im sure it would take the extra made there to live there. I have choose jsut to face it head on and do what I can to save and learn all I can to make more money. It kinda amazes me that these companys want you to bend over backwards for them when in reality unless you have another income you just cant make it.
 
Around here if you had no bills at all and just wanted to buy lets say $100,000.00 dollar house with $30,000 down you are just gonna barely make it and months something brakes look out.
 
I don't know about most of your guys areas but around here there is skid steers and mini excavators everywhere. I been thinking about getting into it for five years but kept investing. It's a matter of time in Ohio jsut like trucking the pay will get cut in the small excavating field. Seems to me a guy would be better of staying on the big side jobs in excavating that require the bigger equipment. Not as many people will go out and buy that stuff. It takes allot more cash flow to stay on the big side.
 
You know Fieldman12 you would think that guys would try and get into the small stuff as it takes less (than buying a full size excavator, backhoe etc). Around here I can say that they go right past the small stuff and into the bigger iron. I suspect that the new guys getting into excavating around here anyway got into the field by working larger iron for someone else. They are not interested in working with the small stuff. I have been largely left alone. Skid Steer companies come and go but no one has tried to take me head on yet in my area (meaning set up very similiar to me). The money is real close between a skid/mini and a back hoe. Most guys opt for the backhoe. I can't throw a dead cat here without hitting a backhoe. I guess the market is big enough to keep everyone busy but I don't know for how much longer. I can now do both and that will help I think diversify me. The tougher problem I think is getting type cast into only having smaller equipment. It may take some time before guys get used to me running a 160.

I have always said that you can make more money digging the right smaller hole than a big hole. I can bid holes for full depth house additions that are difficult to get at for everyone with big iron and make really good money. A guy with a mini and skid steer has no problems accessing tight spots. I can make 3-5k on these types of digs depending on conditions. It takes a big new home to get that kind of money out of new home excavation. It comes down to competetion. Many guys with big iron competing for the same jobs. Few guys that are set up to tackle smaller niche jobs can make good money without all the competetion.
 
You know Fieldman12 you would think that guys would try and get into the small stuff as it takes less (than buying a full size excavator, backhoe etc). Around here I can say that they go right past the small stuff and into the bigger iron. I suspect that the new guys getting into excavating around here anyway got into the field by working larger iron for someone else.
The biggest hurdle for me using compact equipment is convincing the Contractors that I can do the job that they would normally want a loader too do.
Things like backfilling basements,Padding out lots,etc.
There are 1/3 acre lots with 3000 sq /ft footprint(house) that they insist a 953 loader be used for final grade and backfilling.
My rate is half there's and on these type jobs I can be very competitive and alleviate the logistics of moving the machinery.

It has been tough so far.
I keep picking up a few contractors here and there ,but it will take time.
 
It's funny out here it is mostly open fields other than the towns. Where you use to see the big equipment such as track hoes, backhoes, and track loader, even bulldozers for the most part have been replaced by the skid steer and mini excavator. Me I am not going to stick my head out and buy anything I know I dont yet have the business for. The skid steer we need on my farms and the familys farms. Anything that skid makes besides on the farms is just extra money to help keep the machine up, replace it, and me. Im serious around here you just dont see the big equipment anymore. It's around still dont get me wrong but on jobs like building a Wal-Mart or roads. Every ag dealer around here just about sales skids and mini excavators. I kinda think in a way the smaller stuff could be a double edged sword. Good for someone like me that wants to make some extra money and possible get bigger but at the same time I thing floods the market with more people that can afford the small stuff and have access at all the dealers for the small stuff. Before the small stuff you had to go a good houror more from here to find a Cat, Deere, Volvo, Case construction dealer. Now since the small stuff has came about just 15 minutes and if you have a pickup at least a 3/4 ton you can haul it and don't need a cdl if you can keep your wait under the cdl limit. I sometimes wonder if I should have started this five years ago before everyone else started around here. The friends that I have that do the work claim they have all the work that they want and say I should not have much trouble fininding the work. I have one friend that has all the big equipment and keeps getting bigger everyday. He is 23 and only been at it a couple years. You would not believe all the high dollar equipment he has. In my opinion based on my area you need to either be really big or really small. Seems like the jobs for the middle man is harder to find.
 
AWJ "The biggest hurdle for me using compact equipment is convincing the Contractors that I can do the job that they would normally want a loader too do."

I have also run into this. Typically older contractors or customers but not always.

Last year I started doing work for large electrical company. I showed up on a large construction site to dig about 4000 feet of main power line 4' down in hard rocky soil. The foreman on the job and his guys looked at me like I was from Mars when I showed up with the TK to dig that. They later said they thought I would be there for a week, putting them behind schedule. I had to cross gas and temp power, compact a portion of the trench and backfill the rest. I was out of there in a day and half and I did that job by myself. They were very surprised I got done soo quick.

I try and win guys over one job at a time. It is important to run the best performing equipment you can find. You only get one chance with customers like that. If you or machine can't perform your done. Like the saying goes, do it right and they may tell a few people about you. Do it wrong or ineffectively and everyone knows. That is partly the reason I try and keep newer more productive machines. It costs me more up front, but It comes back in more work and a better reputation, I think. That philosophy is more important running smaller equipment than large. If had shown up with an old 580K and took 3 days to do the job they would have been fine with that. The bigger iron, even older bigger iron gets a lot more slack than the smaller stuff I believe. After nearly a decade and half in this area, I have slowly been able to change peoples minds. However it is still an on going battle.
 
I think your right to an extent,as far as the size of machines goes ! But the bottom line is if you as an owner and operator has the experience to perform.

You see it everyday someone trying to get into the bigger,better jobs with new,and good equipment ,but they haven't a clue how to do it.Takes them longer doing the same work as the guy with the smaller equipment because he hasn't the experience.

Some move the dirt twice or three times,grades are off,and so on.So to some contractors that hire the big equipment guys, that has inexperienced operator and it actually takes longer.

Bigger isn't always better.Hard to be a good hardworking owner operator most of the time.Only problem is there not enough owner operators to go around!
 
I agree Construct"O. I think the issue is, assuming both contractors are unknown to the customer, the guy with the newer bigger equipment will get more respect to start with than a guy with smaller equipment. Once the dirt starts flying that may change but from the start there is a misconception that if a guy has big iron he knows whats going on. I can't tell you how often I have been asked when I am going to get a backhoe. Its like some of these guys think you need a "hoe" to be legit. Never mind the mini ex. is more productive for what I do with it and that it costs near what a newer backhoe does. At the end of the day, the experience or ability of the operator and his equipment will win or lose the day. The frustrating part is you may not get the opportunity to prove yourself once they find out what size of iron you have. I am sure having the words skid steer in my business name really doesn't help me win over new accounts that are not familiar with me. Especially if they are looking for someone to do larger jobs or jobs that they would deem not skid steer appropriate. I have consider changing names to something less specific, but that can be a major headache also.
 
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