There is a local plumber in my area that has been charging a $39.95 Service/trip charge for years and he is doing very well in his business. www.mikebachmanplumbing.com There are articles about him in the successful contractor magizines. www.thesuccessfulcontractor.com I've heard of some contractors successfuly charging $59 for a service/trip charge.
The tv repairman that came to my house told me on the phone that it would be a $40 trip charge and $40 diagnostic charge. Then he would give me the price for the repair.
I used to go to the customer's home and not charge anything at all to give them an estimate. This was costing too much money and time to do this for free so I started charging the service/trip fee of $39.50 the estimate is free.
I added the safety evalutaion as a tool to sell more work such as installing GFCI recpetacles where needed. It's just a quick walk through checking for the obvious and checking the loadcenter.
There is an electrical contractor in Atlanta Georgia that only does residential service work. He has 53 employees and 27 service trucks. He does $6,000,000 in sales anually. There is money to be made in this type of business you just need to learn how to do it properly. Another benefit of this type of work is that you are collecting your money daily from the customer. You don't wait 30 days or more trying to collect as you do from most GC's and industrial jobs where they need to process the invoice.

I had an appraisal done on my home. The appraiser spent less than 30 minutes at my home and the cost was $250.00 I've heard this is one of the cheaper appraisals some cost more.

[This message has been edited by A-Line (edited 12-14-2004).]

[This message has been edited by A-Line (edited 12-14-2004).]

[This message has been edited by A-Line (edited 12-14-2004).]