exterior house painting

that time of year and now that I have coached my daughter in doing her own painting she has realized how " not fun " it is!! I think she is going to get a contractor. As I told her ... it feels never ending because as you start to prep ( which is 70 percent of the job ) your creating lots more " UGLY " in what you thought was a beautiful house. All the scraping, paint flecks around your house, splotches of primer giving it that super classy look! So long story short .... no instant gratification here. But once you put in the elbow grease and the time, then you get to put the color on and the finished work will last. 

But .... since she is going to get the painters to do it , a surprise.... bids came in from 1500.00 to 7000.00 for the same house. Get references and make sure you get good product on your house . I am recommending she use Sherwin Williams Duration paint. It is self priming, low temp and a really good life. If someone says they are going to be done in 2 days , I would wonder at that , since drying times at least need to be considered and also how many painters will be working on the project. So many variables and no guarantees that the 7000.00 bid will be better than the 1500.00 although I am known to say" you get what you pay for" You need to get some references and ask some questions about their methods.... spray or roll and brush?  priming? what type of primer are they using ? are they including the supplies in their bid? do they have liability insurance and are they licensed to do the job? Who are their employees and how much experience do they have? Very often . you'll love the person doing the bid but they are NOT going to be  painting for you, which is fine as long as they have loyal long term , well trained employees. I do believe it is hard for someone to complete a good job at one of these lower bids. They will run out of steam and time, everyone deserves a fair wage. There's a reason you're hiring someone else to do it . It takes time and experience like anything else to get a job done right.