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Originally Posted by speeder
Where was this? In California? Bay Area? Describe the two houses, otherwise this story makes no sense. Here in Los Angeles, (and probably other places), the cheapest house painters BY FAR were always Koreans when I was a house painter. I was among the most expensive, doing big restoration jobs on multi-million $$ older homes in historical neighborhoods, etc..
The Korean painters would bid jobs for a fraction of normal pricing and they were absolute slob painters and butchers who skipped the whole prep part of the process or made a token swipe at it w an electric sander. They would do a job in a fraction of the normal amount of time and for a fraction of the price.
I'd hear hilarious anecdotal stories of them showing up to do a large painting job with the paint on the first day. To put this in perspective, on many jobs I did, 80% of the job in terms of time and expense was prep and 20% was applying the final finishes. If the house has any architectural significance and isn't some stucco out building, hiring them is like taking an old 911 or 356 in for a restoration and the guy starts painting the car on the first day.
Asking about the cost of painting a house w/o a lot of details and location is impossible to answer. There are houses in the valley here that I would paint the exterior of for $1k plus paint and I've worked on a job in NYC where they were spending 6-figures on one room, and that was 25 years ago. I'm familiar w jobs in SoCal where people spent $750k on interior finishes. I know that these are extreme examples but illustrate the spectrum between Korean painters, (or other slobs), throwing paint at some house and true artists who get paid like heart surgeons for custom finishes. 98% of the painting business is smack in the middle of those two, most people want a quality job that will last and don't want their beautiful stone wall foundation and driveway spattered w house paint.
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My house is in Portland Oregon. An older (1911) house, 2.5 stories (I'm counting the attic as 0.5 since its the family room), about 2800 sf, wood siding, your typical Portland Craftsman-style Foursquare. A modest amount of detailing (exposed rafter tails and open eaves, etc) but not ornate like a Victorian. I'd guess the roof eave is about 25 ft off the ground. Existing paint condition is okay, still adhering almost everywhere, but starting to crack or detach in certain of the most exposed places. The last paint job was around 2000, it wasn't speeder type quality but has lasted this long. It is not a showpiece house, and the foundation walls are plain and lined with scrap wood, a derelict scooter, two old tires, and bags of potting soil, if that gives you a picture.
The two neighbors houses I mentioned are pretty similar to mine in size, height, form, style and age. Both 2.5 story Craftsman-ish style. One is owned by two schoolteachers with two kids to send to college. The other is owned by two highly paid DINKs (double income no kids).