Price senior downsizing projects so the hidden hours actually pay. Free, no signup.
All defaults are editable starting points, not industry standards.
Sorting with a grieving client runs at a fraction of packing speed. These lines are the margin killers.
Senior move managers lose money on the nice round flat fee. A $2,000 flat quote sounds fine until the slow decision hours, the donation trips, the vendor coordination, and the drive between both homes all get priced at zero. Start with your bar (65), profit margin percent (25), minimum project fee ($750), and monthly take-home goal ($5,000). Pick a project preset: Studio downsize, 2-bed to senior living, or Full family home, each filling sorting, decision, packing, unpack, admin, and vendor hours as editable starting points. The hidden-hours card prices the margin killers: donation and drive trips times minutes, round-trip miles at your vehicle rate, plus supplies and out-of-pocket costs. Results show on-site versus hidden hours, your time at your bar, hard costs, true cost, and profit, plus the recommended flat quote (never below the minimum fee, true cost plus margin, rounded up to $50) and your effective rate against your bar. The leak note names the hidden share of the project as a percent. Verdicts are PRICED RIGHT, CLOSE, BUT LEAKING, WORKING TOO CHEAP, or LOSING MONEY. The gut check grades your instinct fee; the month planner turns your goal into projects. No signup; runs on your phone.
Example only, not typical pricing. The 2-bed preset at a $65 bar with 25 percent margin: on-site hours are 12 sorting plus 6 decision plus 10 packing plus 8 unpack plus 3 admin plus 2 vendor equals 41 hours. Hidden hours are 2 donation trips times 60 minutes equals 2 hours plus 4 drive trips times 30 minutes equals 2 hours, for 45 own hours valued at $65, which is $2,925. Hard costs are 60 miles at $0.67 equals $40.20 plus $180 supplies equals $220.20. True cost is $2,925 plus $220.20 equals $3,145.20. Recommended flat quote is max(750, 3,145.20 times 1.25) rounded up to $50 equals $3,950. Effective rate is $3,950 divided by 45 equals $87.78 per hour, which clears 1.05 times the bar, so the verdict is PRICED RIGHT. The leak note flags hidden hours at 22 percent of the project. A $2,000 gut quote would pay $44.44 per hour, leave $1,950 on the table, and fall $1,145.20 short of true cost. The month planner turns $804.80 of profit per project into 6.2 projects and about 280 hours for a $5,000 month, and flags the over-160-hour month: fix the quote before taking the volume.
What counts as hidden hours?
Decision time, donation and sell-off trips, and drive time between the old and new homes. These hours never show up in a walkthrough, but the tool prices every one of them at your bar.
Why does the tool recommend a flat quote instead of hourly?
Seniors buy a project, not a clock, and the recommended flat quote is reverse-engineered from your bar rate. The flat fee still has to earn your hourly target.
What does the hidden-share percent mean?
Decision, donation, and drive hours as a share of your total project hours. When that number runs high, the flat fee is mostly paying for the parts you almost forgot to price.
When does the minimum project fee decide the quote?
Small studio downsizes can cost less than $750 to run. The minimum fee holds the quote up so the smallest projects still cover setup, supplies, and the trips.
What does WORKING TOO CHEAP mean here?
The flat fee clears true cost but your effective rate falls under 90 percent of your bar. The hidden hours are winning, and the project needs a higher fee or tighter scope.