Labor costs are extremely dependent on your geographic location, both in the general sense and also if you have any access issues which would make it more difficult for painters to get to your condo. (i.e. downtown location, unable to park close, no place to load/unload). So, not knowing where you are located makes it difficult to comment very precisely.

Painting costs depend on the number of colors, which colors you choose, whether you are painting doors, and the most variable cost is probably the amount of prep work required to get the surfaces ready for painting.

We're in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and a typical suburban condo of that size without any unusual requirements would probably run from $2,000 to $2,500 for a normal 1-2 rounds of prep work with two finish coats of good quality paint. Limiting the colors would reduce the cost, and not painting the doors would reduce the cost a bit as well. Pittsburg Paints used to have a brochure for the professionals with some estimating guidelines so there are some guidelines out there.

Thank you! We are using Benjamin Moore paint and live in Downtown Boston

Your quote sounds a little high to me, but I don't know your local market. Downtown anywhere ups the price and BM paint is a bit more money than the Pittsburg products we usually use, so your quote might be spot on for your market

I would suggest a visit to your local paint store and chat with the help there about finding local painters. They typically have a number of business cards and will pick out a couple for you if you describe your project and your concerns. Get a few quotes and be sure to ask about who will be doing the work...there are some companies where the person who quotes you the price and makes the agreement about the work to be done then sends in someone else to do the actual work. I prefer to work with individuals or small companies where the person who quotes the work is either doing the work himself or at least supervising the job.

Picking a contractor is like picking a spouse...no one is perfect and if you found a "perfect" contractor, he probably has a long waiting list. Ultimately, you will probably get a couple of quotes within 5% of each other...in that case, it is personality and workmanship that should be more important than bringing in the job $100 cheaper than the other guy.

Every project has three main variables - price, schedule and quality/quantity of work. Decide what is most important to you and choose your painter accordingly

Does your property fall under the Lead Paint Regulations (was it built prior to 1978)? Does the quote include painting stair railings and/or balusters and risers? Do they intend to refinish any of the stained woodwork - we always "refresh" the stained woodwork as well when we paint.

There's lots of variations in cost as already mentioned prep how many colors you mentioned lots of trim if its being painted there's lots of cost there if its being sprayed or brushed also plays in to cost increases also the level of work that you are looking for . There's lots of variables it's hard to say if that bid is high I'm not there to see your place or know exactly what you want done . If I assume that downtown Boston is like New York your cost is a lot higher out there . I would get two more bids and compare them apples to apples not oranges