Buying Price or Paying the Price

Controlling your crisis:

After your last remodeling project, did you and your spouse find yourself expressing sentiments such as, “yes we lived through it,” or “Tom became like one of the family over the past six months, let’s take him to Martha’s Vineyard with us this summer.” Or even “Aaaaah!”  It is the nature of remodeling projects that they  are inherently controlled crises. The awareness of one’s surroundings, sanity and  sensitivity increase dramatically when strangers are invited into one’s sanctuary to first lay waste and destruction, and then to rebuild better than before.  Whom are you going to invite over for your next controlled crisis? As children, in continuing the time-honored tradition of the sleep-over, we invite our best friends to lay awake nearby and speculate about everything and lay partial waste to the family room or basement (even without tearing down any load bearing walls). Does the contractor that you hire share the same vision and goals as you do? The contractor/customer relationship will become sour if  both parties do not share a similar goal and vision.  Professional contractors who are established, successful, and have been around awhile, can consistently meet the customer’s expectations.

Buying price or paying the price?

 If you are buying price, whether you know it or not, you have lowered the expectations of the job and are aiming for disaster.  In residential work, the low- bid contractor’s goal and vision are often different from the customers, especially if the bid seems so low that it must be too good to be true.  It is a fact that most contractors are in the business to make a profit and leave their customers satisfied.  Often, the low bidder does not “see” the customers vision of the project and as a result,  fails to satisfy the customer.  Some typical scenarios of accepting the low bid are:  the contractor shows up the first week, collects a down payment check and disappears for three weeks; or, disappears entirely; or, comes back and takes six months to complete your addition for which you paid twenty-five thousand and any experienced contractor should charge  $45,000.00.  The twenty-five thousand dollar question: why did the contractor leave so soon after starting the job?  Answer: to finish a previous project which he could not continue without your down payment check.  
     
This is not a condemnation of contractors who fall into this trap. These contractors are well meaning and conscientious and will probably complete the work and are only victims of inexperience. How much does the customer really pay?  Has someone proven how stress is related to aging?  Perhaps a couple of years off the old life depending on one’s temperament - a far greater price!

Different Jobs

One frustration we constantly face is bidding on a job, not getting it because we are perceived as “too expensive,” and looking at the job later only to discover the job is vastly different from what we  were asked to bid on.  Sure, our price could have been a lot lower if we had used vinyl windows instead of wood, inexpensive home center fixtures and no Italian tile.  This could be labeled - the “false vision syndrome,” when we are lead to provide a price on a project not within the customer’s budget and not given the opportunity to bid on the “true” project.  

Hackneyed Expression - You get what you pay for.

We are often told that our prices are high and we are generally perceived as expensive.  One can only imagine our relief in finding out we are not the low bidders on the $150,000 renovation job.   Let someone else sour the customer / contractor relationship.

A few suggestions:

1. If most of the bids received are beyond the budget, scale back the job.

2. Hire a contractor licensed by the Maryland Home Improvement Commission - remember, even a peephole installer must be licensed in Maryland. Don’t just take it for granted their license number is displayed on their contract or leader head, verify the license on-line. I’ve heard of people displaying expired or false license numbers.

3. Despite the price, always choose a professional company with a track record of delivering quality projects, efficiently, which meet customer expectations.

4. Get a recommendation from a friend or neighbor and ask to see the project.

5. Does your contractor sell and still wear a tool belt?  In other words, if your contractor is physically building the jobs that he or she sells, then that should set off bells and whistles in your mind -- unless your job is the only one under way.  There are a few who can do it, and I salute them. However, it would take Superman or Wonderwoman to sell, manage a business and construct the jobs.  That is how most people start in this business.  Those who are finally able to put down the tool belt for the calculator and a sample book are the ones who succeed.

Finally, the most important suggestion is simply to use common sense when selecting a contractor and mind your cliches.