Always Get a Second Opinion
We recently contacted three roofing companies to provide a quote to re-shingle our house. One contractor quoted us $7000 and another quoted $3000. The third contractor didn’t bother to show up even though we had agreed on an appointed day and time. What a difference between the three companies. I’m not sure how you stay in business when you stand up a customer but I’m glad they didn’t show. They saved me the headache of tracking them down after they didn’t finish the work. I am also amazed that there can be a 130% difference in price for the same job. But the question is will a $3000 roof be good enough and will it equal the quality of the $7000 one? It’s hard to know without some good references. I think some additional quotes are warranted as well.
Comments
3 Responses to “Always Get a Second Opinion”
Leave a Reply
I thought I’d chime in an say that while fixing and flipping five houses, I found a huge discrepancy between contractor pricing. The longer you look the cheaper it gets (I promise this). However, another guy once told me that if you always take the lowest, fastest bid - you’ll get your share of the lowest quality work, done on someone else’s schedule. This has proven to be very true for my endeavors.
My suggestions are ALWAYS bid out the job to at least three contractors. Even if you already have one that you have used before. Different contractors have better pricing/performance for certain things. For instance, one contractor I had was an excellent roofer, but his tiling crew was slow and over-priced. In addition, if one of the contractors bidding, skips an appointment, doesn’t promptly reply to a message (within reason), or shows any signs that make you uneasy- eject him from the pool of potential bidders! Your gut (or GOD) will tell you more than you know.
Second, get guarantees and/warranties where possible. If you get a low bidding contractor that is willing to get the job done for an exact cost and within an exact time AND put it in writing (with you gaining something in return for any defaults), he should probably be your top candidate. Unscrupulous contractors will often get the low bid job and hit the client with change fees, and cost overruns and things you may not have even asked to be done. At a minimum make sure the quote contains EVERYTHING YOU want done for that price. If construction clean-up isn’t on there it may not happen, etc.
Third, when talking with the contractor does he listen to your needs and not talk over you. Many contractorsthink THEY know exactly what YOU need! Otherwise you’d be doing it yourself. This is assinighn. Maybe I know a thing or two about concrete, but just don’t have the time or tools to do the job. Research the project you need done so you can ask a few intelligent questions and look for honest answers. A good contractor will not only give expected answers, but try to further educate you on the situation.
Fourth, I like to note things like, does he offer to take of his shoes, or bring a flashlight and have you take a look, or have a clean appearance (double edged sword). These are good indicators of how he will respect you and your property during the job. About that sword. Many contractors have a job bidder who only handles the bidding/quote portion and won’t actually be doing the job. This is a tuffy. He will most likely be clean and neat (he’s not the one pushing the shovel) and may even be the most courteous of all, but that is his job. This may have no bearing on the quality/timeliness/manners of the crew doing the job. I try to get a sense of how many jobs he is pushing into his company, by directly asking or noting if his phone keeps ringing or if he seems hurried off to the next job. Too many jobs and his crew usually can’t keep up (at least in terms of quality he promised). His paychecks are based on volume, NOT the crews. Not to mention that your requests will seldom get passed on to the crew. If he mentions that he has very little going on, be wary of this. It may be a seasonal thing, but could be indicator of commission desperation. In this case he may low ball and upcharge like I mentioned before. (On an aside, I also have a quirk of looking at their vehicle: brand new with all the bells and whistles might indicate they make too much an tend to overcharge. Old and really banged up with bumpers held on by bailing wire might indicate how the job will be done and a need for income. Used, appropriately dirty, and perhaps a box of brown doughnuts on the dash are alwasy good indicators of an honest working man to me.)
Finally, the one thing nobody every does -REFERENCES!!! Get them!!! But do it smartly. Ask for three. One good. One bad. And one from a job they are currently working. The first one will be a canned reference, usually from a cousin who owed them a favor. The second they may not even give you, but if they do with an explainition from there end it would go a long way for me. The third is a twist. I get a lot of weird looks when I ask for this one. It takes time to arrange this one (another good indicator for you) because they have to ask permission of their current client. Also, you will likely get the details of how the crew operates and both the good and bad for this person. Many people tend to forget all the problems they had during a kitchen remodel when they see the finished product (usually because they’ve been without a dishwasher for so long they can’t remember when they had it so good!)
Again, the contractor can lie (and there is nothing you can do). If a friend has used them, that is usually the best reference.
In closing, I should also point out that if your potential contractor is as verbose as I have been in this posting - you may want to look elsewhere because he may spend more time talking that working…and well all know hammers don’t actually get tired!
@Joshua
Thanks for the references tip. I can see how getting a reference from a current customer could be very informative. I will definitely request that in the future. Now go get some rest. You must be tired after writing that comment.
I also find that being this verbose chases away all but the most dedicated contractors…