I don't negotiate with individual customers. I had a customer who I gave an estimate for a 200A upgrade try to beat me down. He called me a pirate and a thief among other things and tore up my estimate. I didn't budge. He called me back at the end of the week after getting 3 more estimates and said he had decided I wasn't so out of line after all. I told him I was sorry but I just wouldn't be comfortable working for someone who would deal with a pirate and a thief. I do negotiate with a GC I do a lot of work for. I do some new homes for him but mostly commercial new construction. I cut my price on a new house for him this summer by 15% if he paid 80% of the total job up front. Having the extra cash up front allowed me to buy 3/4 EMT for his next commercial job before it went up 22%. I didn't have to use my creditline, pay any interest on borrowed money, and I saved more on the early conduit purchase than I gave him on the house discount. Borrowing &10,000.00 for 90 days would cost me $300.00 in interest and fees. I will negotiate with a GC by giving discounts for cash up front if I can recover it and then some by operating on his money. We do this a lot on large jobs like churches and other commercial buildings. So does his plumber and HVAC guy. Money up front allows you to buy materials in quantity and when the fluctuating pipe and wire market is down a little. I am fortunate to have a place to warehouse the materials. He wins because he can hold his price over 4-8 months when other GCs have to build in cost increases from their subs on materials. He called me early last spring when 12-2 went down to $105.00 per 1000' and offered to advace me $2500.00 for romex if I would give him a good price on 3 houses this summer. Can't beat that!
