Yippie Ki Yay! It's Time to Get Ready for Roofing Season!

“Roofing season” is rapidly approaching and the time to get ready for it is right now!

How would you like to do $2 million of roofing this summer? My company did! In June 2012 Colorado Springs was hammered by a hail storm, which is a typical occurrence along Colorado’s Front Range. It was a mile wide and cut through a northern portion of the city damaging 26,000 homes. That was a typical storm and not an unusual amount of damage for the community who experienced multiple storms each year.

Within 2 weeks our capacity was full with 200 roof and exterior damage claims. Most of the claims came through our TPA partners. The summer was full of activity. While we were busy the nice thing about roofing is that it is not an emergency in most cases. For those homes where it was we providing tarping services and prioritized first in scheduling, but most homeowners were happy to patiently wait for an opening. Many didn’t even want the work scheduled until the hail season had passed pushing us into September or later.

High volume – low pressure – that is what I like. The average roof claim is worth $10,000 with many exceeding $25,000. The reason for this high value damage claim is that rarely does weather damage shingles only. It is more likely that you have a complex mix of damages including gutters, fascia, siding or stucco, windows and doors, decks and fences, and a lot of fresh paint. Add it all up you have an overhead and profit, multi-faceted, larger than usual insurance claim.

One of the things I liked about hail season besides the high volume and revenue burst is that many homeowners don’t even know they had damage. When roofing crews showed up in their neighborhood the homeowner might be alerted that they too should call for a roof inspection. This leads to roof claims trickling in, sometimes it’s more like a fast-moving stream, until the onset of winter. This roofing response could last as long as 6 months from a single storm – and what do you think might happen if there were multiple storms or multiple cities scattered throughout the summer months – a ton of more work! You can only imagine the volume of the roofing opportunity your area could provide a restoration contractor.

The other thing I always appreciated about hail season is that completing a hail claim is just not that hard. You don’t need to sketch the roof these days since for just a few dollars you can get a full report from EagleView or pother similar services with all dimensions including squares, ridge cap, drip edge and more. Add that to the Xactimate estimate and no need for a sketch.

Using a Damage Assessment Guide and documented by photos you have everything needed to write a first-class accurate estimate. Once approved you can opt to subcontract the entire work to a roofing contractor or do the work with an in-house roofing crew.

The restoration contractor can pay a subcontractor at a per square charge including both materials and labor (i.e., $178 per square), or just for labor (i.e., $90 per square off/on) if you plan to purchase materials yourself. There is not much profit to be made on roofing materials, but I have found that the margins available on reroof labor is enough to make the project profitable.

Each of the other trades and materials for stucco, siding, windows, doors, paint, etc. can yield a more typical 40%+ profit margin. That along with labor profits can put the entire job at 40%+ profit yield. 200 roof claims could easily produce $2,000,000 of revenue and an $800,000 net profit.

Anybody interested?

Reference: 3 Month Coaching Plan: The Rain-Maker – Nail-It! Make Your Next Million in Roofing