Chapter 1 — The $25,000 bathtub
Here is where your money actually goes
This is the teardown of a $25,000 walk-in tub sale from a national television brand, using the figures I have watched move through this business for two decades. Almost none of it is the tub.
- The sales commission chain
- ≈ $4,500
- The closer on your couch takes 10–12%. Behind him is a sales manager on an override and a regional VP taking a cut. At a minimum of 18%, a $22,000 quote becomes $25,960 just to pay the people who talked you into it. You will never see this line on your invoice.
- The marketing machine
- $4,000 – $5,000
- The commercial during the evening news. The celebrity endorser. The direct mailers. The call center with the pleasant voices. Nobody absorbs that cost. It is on your tab, per tub.
- Corporate profit margin
- $5,000 – $6,000
- A healthy margin in most industries is 8–15%. The big brands target 20–25%, sometimes more — pure profit on top of everything above.
- The tub and the actual installation
- The remainder
- In-swing door tubs bought by the boxcar from the same two or three overseas factories, then set by a subcontractor the brand marked up 300%. The real work is the cheapest part of the invoice.
- Paid before a single pipe is touched
- ≈ $12,000
The honest number: a fully loaded tub with a lifetime parts warranty, plus a flat $3,500 standard installation by a vetted installer, lands at about $15,000. Same bath. Same hot water. Ten thousand dollars still in your account.
$15,000
What that same tub should cost you — a saving of $10,000.
Two ways in
The book is free. The help is $97.
I am giving the book away to readers who will tell me honestly what it did for them. If you want me personally in your corner while you do it, that is the second column.
The book
FreeFor an honest testimonial
- All 111 pages and 13 chapters. Read it right here on any phone, tablet or computer, in large print if you like.
- The full method — buy the tub first, then hire the installer at a flat, fair rate.
- The red flags that end a sales appointment on the spot.
- The job-site command checklist you hand the crew on install day.
- No cost, no card, no salesman. When you are done, tell me the truth about it.
The book + one call with me
$97One-time · one-to-one
- We go through the method together, on your house, your bathroom, your quote.
- The virtual walk-through: you film with your cell phone, I read your doorways, subfloor, water heater and electrical panel with you.
- I price the exact tub and the exact install so there is no mystery number left.
- I hand you the script for the conversation with any contractor who comes to the door.
- You do the legwork instead of a paid appointment setter — so there is a $500 credit waiting on your invoice if you order your tub through me.
What the $97 hour looks like
The Art of the Walk-In Tub Deal
It is four moves, in this order. The order is the whole trick — every dollar the big brands take is taken before step three, and doing this in sequence is what strips it out.
Film the walk-through
Phone camera on at your front door. Measure the clear opening. Down the hall, tightest turn, bathroom door jamb. The subfloor, if you have a crawlspace. The water heater nameplate. The breaker box, and how many open slots. Fifteen minutes. Bring a grandchild if it helps — I am 73, I call mine.
Buy the tub first
Before an estimate, before anyone sets foot in your home. Own it at a known wholesale cost — solid cast acrylic shell, heavy-duty all-aluminum outward-swinging door. Owning the tub is what kills the commission chain, the marketing overhead and the financing trap in one move.
Hire the installer at the real rate
A vetted installer from the network, at a flat $3,500 for a standard installation that uses your existing walls — tub set, plumbing and electrical done. Licensed, insured, line-itemed. He is assigned to you for the life of the tub.
Sign off on your own terms
On install day the tub gets filled with you standing there, and you learn to run it. He does not leave and he does not get paid until you sign. Parts stay free for life and ship straight to you.
Table of contents
What is in the 111 pages
- Fwd.Why I Wrote This Book
- 01The $25,000 Bathtub
- 02The Salesman in Your Living Room
- 03The Subprime Lending Syndicate
- 04The Power Move: Buy the Tub First
- 05The Subcontractor Shell Game
- 06Forced Competition
- 07What an Extra $7,000–$10,000 Does
- 08Know the Conversation
- 09Know the Red Flags
- 10The Virtual Walk-Thru, or How to Earn $500 in 15 Minutes
- 11Real Stories, Real Savings
- 12The Equity Trap: The Gift of Life vs. Leaving a Broken Inheritance
- 13The Whistleblower Cheat Sheet: Your Job-Site Command Checklist
Why free
I would rather have your honest words than your $20
This is a first edition and I am not going to put invented praise on a page in a book about how this industry lies to you. So the deal is plain: take the book at no cost, use it, and when you have a result — a quote you walked away from, a number you got down, a tub that went in right — write me a few honest sentences I can print here with your first name and your state.
If it did not help you, tell me that too. I would rather fix the second edition than sell you the first.
- Slot 01 — open
- Slot 02 — open
- Slot 03 — open
- Slot 04 — open
- Slot 05 — open
- Slot 06 — open
Straight answers
What people ask me first
Is the book really free?
Yes. No card, no trial, no shipping charge. Answer three quick questions, tell me where to send it, and you can start reading straight away. The only thing I ask is that you come back and tell me honestly what it was worth to you.
Why the questions?
Because a son reading this for his mother needs different chapters first than a man with a salesman booked for Thursday. Your answers tell me where to point you, and what to have ready if you book a session with me.
What do I actually get for $97?
Me, one to one, going through the method on your specific situation — your bathroom, your doorways, your electrical panel, and the quote you are holding. You film a fifteen-minute walk-through on your phone, we go through it together, and you come out of it knowing the real price of the tub and the real price of the install as two separate numbers.
Can I share the book?
Please do. Every reader gets a personal link. When someone you send buys a tub through me, you get $500. If you have not bought your own tub yet, you can take it as $500 off yours instead.
Do I have to buy a tub from you?
No. The book works whether you ever speak to me again — that is the point of putting it in print. If you do order through me, the walk-through you filmed yourself earns a $500 credit on your invoice, because you did the job I would otherwise have paid someone to do.
Is $10,000 off a real number?
It is the gap I have watched for twenty years between a national brand's quote and what the same class of tub and a fairly paid installer actually cost. Your gap depends on your market, your quote and your bathroom. The book shows you how to work out your own figure instead of taking mine on faith.
I already have a salesman coming this week.
Then read Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 before he arrives, and ask him one question: how much of this quote is the physical tub and how much is the plumbing and electrical crew. If he will not separate those two numbers, the meeting is over. Stand up and open the front door.
Claim your copy
Get the book. Then get the price.
Three quick questions so I can point you to the chapters that matter for your situation. Then the whole book is yours.
Who is the walk-in tub for?
Tap one to start.
Or write to Mike directly: [email protected]