A Common Misconception about Home Remodeling

"You should always get three bids"

Not necessarily. This tactic is probably responsible for more dissatisfaction within the remodeling industry than any other single factor.

Why?

If you objective is to get a quality job at a fair price, simply comparing it to another estimate is often misleading. There aren't any "standard" prices or "standard" specifications for remodeling projects. Each quote or estimate you receive is a reflection of what's included in the actual job that a particular contractor is planning on completing for you.

Given that you are buying something that does not yet exist (as opposed to a car that you can test drive, for example) it's impossible to tell how similar (or far apart) one contractor's proposed job is from the next.

Even if you think everything is the same or "similar enough", it rarely is and you won't discover this until the job is underway or worse yet, completely finished. This is AFTER you've invested some or all of your money. Most likely this will amount to thousands of dollars!

In the case of buying a car and comparing prices from one dealer to another, you are much more likely comparing the EXACT same car-built by the same manufacturer. But, you're not buying a car! In fact, what you are buying is note even built yet. You can't "try it out". You can't "text drive" it. You can't even see it!

This is true whether the remodeling project is basic or complete. Even with a job as basic as replacing windows or roofing, one contractor's methods and materials can be (and often are) vastly different from the next. Even building codes don't adequately protect you from these variances.

When you compare prices in this business it's far too easy to be fooled or mislead by not fully understanding what each contractor is planning on doing nor how each one plans to do it. Most contractors are not very food at communicating exactly what it is that they plan on doing, nor are they good at explaining how they may differ from the other contractors that you may be considering.

Therefore, if you get different "prices", without doing much of the other due diligence, you may believe all the contractors you've called are much more similar than they really are. This may very well tempt you into justifying one of the lower prices contractors. In this business, taking an approach like this can be very dangerous and oftentimes....VERY EXPENSIVE!

If you're concerned about getting a "good deal", consider relying on a contractor that has an excellent reputation. It's very rare to find a contractor that has earned an outstanding reputation of quality and service that charges too much for the work they provide. In fact. if they didn't do exceptional work or charged too much, they wouldn't have a good reputation or substantial list of satisfied clients. They simply couldn't fool such a large number of people into believing that they were good if they weren't indeed good.

Many people who consider the method of getting multiple bids believe they are well served to solicit bids, then throw out the high and low and take the one from the middle. Instead of simply inviting contractors to come by to look at your job, ask around first to see who has a good reputation in your area for doing a great job on projects similar to ours. Get recommendations from friends, relatives, neighbors and local lumberyards.

Take note of any job signs that you see in your area and stop by the job site to have a look around. Talk to the homeowners to see what they have to say about the contractor.

If you feel confident enough with the quality, dependability and reputation of the recommended contractor, by all means, consider stopping there without contracting others. It may go against "conventional wisdom"but honestly believe you will be far happier as a result. Additionally, calling other contractors may simply confuse you.

 Expert from Upscale Remodeling