Charge by the hour ?

I only charge by the hour if the customer has a punch list of tasks to complete. I do ask for their budget so we know how much we can get accomplished. The, by the job, pricing seems to get less pushback if it's something I can give an estimate on because I it's something I do a lot of. But don't for the, excluding any unforeseen expenses" clause😏

I hate it and never consider it anymore. I tell the customer I am not charging you for my time to complete a job, I am charging you to complete a job on time.

Sometimes a $1200 job takes 2 hours and sometimes a $1200 job takes 6 hours. We all obviously love the 2 hour/$1200 job but reality is, they aren't always like that. Gearing up to go into an attic to quickly reattach a vent pipe or crawling into a tight dirty crawlspace to pass a wire through, vs. walking around a beautiful property looking for structural issues? Same time, different situations. If you had a variable hourly rate maybe you could make that work, but then Mrs. Smith asks why Mrs. Jones only paid $35/hour and your charging her $55.

The mentality of hourly wages get messy way too quickly. You should work on pricing your jobs as a whole and then your mind will be at ease.

We charge by hours.  I just feel that I do not want to take advantage of the customer if it takes less and I do not want to lose if it takes more.