Don't do texture in garage, it will collect dust and dirt and is hard to clean. The texture will be black if you work in your garage at all.
If the garage is just for parking cars and not working in and you like texture do it yourself and save the money. Personally 750 isn't a lot considering the guy will have to come back a few times due to the drying times. But if 750 dollars is "outrageous" to you then go buy a 40 dollar hopper from a box store and watch some youtube vids and learn how to texture. I've done a bunch and it's not that hard. Then buy some GOOD primer and paint from a paint store, not the junk the box stores sells and spend about 50 bucks on painting supplies and paint it yourself. Buy GOOD paint brushes and roller handles and paint trays and you will have them for many years and can use them to paint other areas of your house.
Here's a little advice on things like this. People/companies charge for their services and knowledge. They most likely have a hopper that costs several hundred dollars, drop cloths, taping tools, etc. Then they are paying a guy or two to come to your house and do the work, these guys(hopefully!) are skilled and have some experience that you are paying for. They also have to pay for overhead like sending a guy out to your house to give you a reasonable quote to do the job just to have you consider their quote outrageous. So they paid for gas and a guys salary to send him out to your house to measure and give you an estimate, I'm assuming this was a free estimate. They also pay workmans comp and liability insurance so you aren't responsible if one of them get hurt on your property. So they are already negative on this job that they probably aren't even going to get. The point is the price seems pretty fair to me. But like you said everyone has to decide on where and how to spend their hard earned money. Personally I don't think your qoute was outrageous but I am just cheap and would do this myself for a couple of reasons. First I hate giving my money to others for something that I could do, weather it be auto repair, home repair, etc I try to do whatever I can and save money. Second, I would use this for an excuse to learn something new and buy new tools. I would much rather spend the 750 bucks on a hopper, compressor, painting tools, etc to get the job done than pay someone else to do the job. Some guys that make a lot more than me and have the money to spend would rather give it to someone else and have their weekend free. If you buy good tools you will have them for the next project, painting or texturing the inside of the house when it needs it and then the tools are already paid for so you will be saving a ton of money.
