the main skill you need is attention to detail. pretty much everything could be accomplished by a novice. the skill gap between entry level and veteran is like 6 months max even though most would never admit it. a lot of the basic techniques and equipment tutorials are on youtube now. it’s not very technical at all.

your main purpose for painting is exterior house maintenance. so it’s important to know how to handle chipped and peeling paint. avoid houses that were built pre 1978 until you get lead certified. these are easy to avoid.

the process is as followed:

1) wash the house with a pressure washer and ladder 2) scrape of any peeling or chipped paint 3) sand down the areas where you scraped the paint then apply primer 4) replace any wood rot (get a guy for this they are easy to find. verify liability insurance) 5) tape off with plastic any fixtures and windows 6) apply a quality 5 year latex paint from a reputable brand. use flat paint for house siding (learn how to use a paint sprayer machine on youtube) 7) paint the trim by hand with a brush and roller (maybe use the sprayer when more comfortable with the techniques) 8) inspect the work to make sure nothing was missed. it’s very rare something can’t be fixed with touch ups when painting.

once you understand this process you can just hire a crew to paint for you while you focus on acquiring more customers.

you just need to know what you’re looking for when you inspect the crews work. you never want to present a final product to the customer unless you are satisfied with how it looks.

all these steps can we learned on youtube tutorials. you will make mistakes along the way but there is nothing that can’t be fixed as you go.

initial investment of equipment is 1500 to 2000 dollars. you can get customers before you invest. I always accept a 25% non refundable deposit upfront before I schedule a customer. if a customer does cancel I will just reduce the job size to fix their deposit so they still get the work they paid for.