If you get three or more estimates from referrals, you will know whether you are being overcharged by one or more. The reputable tradesman don't do this because they want repeat business.

I’m completely convinced that contractors Zillow your address before they quote you.

I’m in the exurbs and the same thing exists. We’re in what’s considered an UMC neighborhood, known for trees and acreage. We get…OK prices.

Our friends moved from this neighborhood to a country club gated neighborhood, golf course, boating lake, pool club, etc.

Our water heaters both went out about the same time. Both gas, both same volume.

A $1800 job for us, and they were getting quotes between $5k and $7k

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems everyone charges more. The plumber, electrician, housecleaners, everyone is charging us significantly more than when we lived 15 minutes from here, but in a less expensive zip code. I get needing to make money, but don't be ridiculous.

I'm trying to find a new housecleaner and quotes I'm getting are easily 2x what we paid in our previous neighborhood, and for a smaller house.

We have lived in Bethesda for 20+ years, and everything here is more expensive because of the zip code, it has nothing to do with covid. I have friends who live in 20854 / Potomac. Whenever they need a contractor, they say they live in Rockville for the same reason, there's an upcharge for Potomac

This! I lived in McLean in a 1944, 1000 ft, 2 BR, 1.5 bath house that was the size of a new build garage. Didn’t matter: there was always a McLean surcharge! Funny to see the reaction of the contractors! I had one out to discuss renovating the bathroom: he suggested we tear down the house and rebuild instead.

I moved within the same zip code in Chicago, but I moved from a white collar neighborhood to a blue collar one and costs for every kind of service were cut in half. Half the people on my street are contractors of some sort and we pay very little for maintenance projects.

It’s awesome.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Inflation has caused things to cost more. I live in the same neighborhood as I did precovid and everything costs more, handyman, housekeeping, etc.

This. You might be right, but please understand, costs for these kinds of house maintenance projects has absolutely skyrocketed.

I think a part of it is reduced immigration, particularly illegal immigration, which started under Trump but was maintained under Biden and, in the case of legal immigration/visas, further reduced due to the pandemic.

I live in a more blue collar neighborhood and trust that my eyes are also bulging with sticker shock.

Illegal immigration is at an all time historic high.

Right, that's why 10 year olds are working at McDonalds and Republicans are weakening and getting rid of child labor laws, because there are plenty of american citizens willing to work at meat packing and produce picking jobs.

BTW, unemployment is close to record lows, even with all the layoffs in high tech. And for African Americans, unemployment IS at all time lows.

If it makes you feel better, I live in PG county and some companies just exclude the whole county from their service zone.

Suck it up and pay up, you’re rich. It’ll be fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Inflation has caused things to cost more. I live in the same neighborhood as I did precovid and everything costs more, handyman, housekeeping, etc.

This. You might be right, but please understand, costs for these kinds of house maintenance projects has absolutely skyrocketed.

I think a part of it is reduced immigration, particularly illegal immigration, which started under Trump but was maintained under Biden and, in the case of legal immigration/visas, further reduced due to the pandemic.

I live in a more blue collar neighborhood and trust that my eyes are also bulging with sticker shock.

Illegal immigration is at an all time historic high.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True. Vet bills, car repair, exercise classes, services like home organizing. All of it costs more in expensive neighborhoods.

Why can’t you just go to a vet, car repair & exercise classes in a cheaper neighborhood?

Of course. Often I do. Sometimes, it's not worth the travel time. You could probably do the same from your neighborhood, no matter where that is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems everyone charges more. The plumber, electrician, housecleaners, everyone is charging us significantly more than when we lived 15 minutes from here, but in a less expensive zip code. I get needing to make money, but don't be ridiculous.

I'm trying to find a new housecleaner and quotes I'm getting are easily 2x what we paid in our previous neighborhood, and for a smaller house.

We have lived in Bethesda for 20+ years, and everything here is more expensive because of the zip code, it has nothing to do with covid. I have friends who live in 20854 / Potomac. Whenever they need a contractor, they say they live in Rockville for the same reason, there's an upcharge for Potomac

1000% This.
I live in Potomac and my friend lives in Silver Spring. I called a plumber to replace a bathroom faucet, I was shocked with the price they quoted. The next day I asked my friend to call the same plumber for the same service and the quoted price was lower.

They charged you a higher price because they correctly picked up that you would be a pain-in-the-@ss customer who would create extra work for them by doing things like asking for phony quotes.

If they knew that they would decline to waste time on a phony quote.

I've often asked to pay for a quote, because I know I am trigger-shy. Vendors always refuse.

Lol, plumbers don't "refuse" to charge for a quote; in fact, they often require it. I just replaced my water heater and paid anywhere from $49 to $89 to three different companies just to come out and look at it. The one I went with deducted their quoting fee from the overall cost of the job.

Are you posting from the last century? My plumber asks us to send pictures and videos and is often able to quote based on that. We then exchange information about materials and he shows up prepared to do the job.

Anonymous wrote:I live in Potomac and my friend lives in Silver Spring. I called a plumber to replace a bathroom faucet, I was shocked with the price they quoted. The next day I asked my friend to call the same plumber for the same service and the quoted price was lower.

Watch a few videos and figure out how to do it yourself for free. I am not handy at all but I believe you can probably figure out how to replace a faucet rather easily.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems everyone charges more. The plumber, electrician, housecleaners, everyone is charging us significantly more than when we lived 15 minutes from here, but in a less expensive zip code. I get needing to make money, but don't be ridiculous.

I'm trying to find a new housecleaner and quotes I'm getting are easily 2x what we paid in our previous neighborhood, and for a smaller house.

We have lived in Bethesda for 20+ years, and everything here is more expensive because of the zip code, it has nothing to do with covid. I have friends who live in 20854 / Potomac. Whenever they need a contractor, they say they live in Rockville for the same reason, there's an upcharge for Potomac

1000% This.
I live in Potomac and my friend lives in Silver Spring. I called a plumber to replace a bathroom faucet, I was shocked with the price they quoted. The next day I asked my friend to call the same plumber for the same service and the quoted price was lower.

They charged you a higher price because they correctly picked up that you would be a pain-in-the-@ss customer who would create extra work for them by doing things like asking for phony quotes.

If they knew that they would decline to waste time on a phony quote.

I've often asked to pay for a quote, because I know I am trigger-shy. Vendors always refuse.

Lol, plumbers don't "refuse" to charge for a quote; in fact, they often require it. I just replaced my water heater and paid anywhere from $49 to $89 to three different companies just to come out and look at it. The one I went with deducted their quoting fee from the overall cost of the job.

This is funny, because DH and I have often felt we were getting markups because service providers don't really want to come to our area (in NE DC, and it's actually very lovely but if you are from elsewhere you might now know that). Like, we'll get quotes so absurd it like, just say you don't want to come here and we'll move on...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Inflation has caused things to cost more. I live in the same neighborhood as I did precovid and everything costs more, handyman, housekeeping, etc.

This. You might be right, but please understand, costs for these kinds of house maintenance projects has absolutely skyrocketed.

I think a part of it is reduced immigration, particularly illegal immigration, which started under Trump but was maintained under Biden and, in the case of legal immigration/visas, further reduced due to the pandemic.

I live in a more blue collar neighborhood and trust that my eyes are also bulging with sticker shock.

Illegal immigration has exploded under Biden to a staggering number. Millions. By contrast it was in the thousands under Turnip. I have to concede this point to the Republicans.

This is patently untrue. What has gone from hundreds of thousands (not “thousands”) under Trump to over a million under Biden is the number of encounters at the southern border. These result in apprehension or expulsion, not immigration. There are no statistics showing a huge surge of unauthorized immigrants such as you say. See, e.g., https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/01/us/undocumented-immigrants-exodus-us.html or any of the monthly CBP reports. And don’t forget that a huge fraction of unauthorized immigration is visa overstays, not border crossings. Don’t let the Republican scare tactics fool you.

You love the taste of the kool-aid, don't you? Of course they're getting through. The CBP has admitted it and asked for more help to keep it to just "encounters".

Lol. You pay more because the contractors don’t live in your neighborhood and have to factor in commute time and incidentals (both ways).

I used to live in a neighborhood filled with contractors. Hired guys that lived on my street, they gave great rates since no time is wasted commuting, they go home for lunch, if any issues can come back easily, no gas etc.

The more expensive the neighborhood is the farther the vendors tend to live and they have to compensate. It’s a big markup. Think about a plumber with a 100k truck with over 100k in equipment in it, that van needs to be productive during all work hours.