Let’s say you are speaking with a contractor and they offer an estimate that is out of you budget.
Do you keep shopping around for a lower price, or trust that you get the quality for you pay for?
The lowest price isn’t the best rout to take by any means. Ask yourself questions like, is my budget realistic for work rendered? How did I come up with my budget? Quality company’s are not able to drop their pricing because that’s what it costs them to complete the project at even a slight profit margin.
I hope this helps!
Team RiBella
Preparation is the best practice to approaching a construction project. Know your budget, the cost of the material and time the job will take. Based on this information, ask at least 3 GC’s to bid on your project. Then, select the GC that fits your criteria. This method will allow you the option to compare 3 bids, so you already have a lowest and highest. But, prepare yourself for your project.
One of the Golden Rules in life is, You get what you pay for. If someone comes under your budget and its sounds too good to be true, ask yourself what is the “bargain” you are receiving. Compare the materials being used in the build along with the quality and if possible have everything in writing in terms of warranty. You don’t want to end up repairing a remodel you just had done and end up going over your budget later on.
First, how did you come up with your budget for the project?
What? if any? where the considerations when coming up with the budget?
I would go with a contractor that lists what your money is being spent on for materials and labor, when the work will be completed, how long the project will take, how large of a crew will be completing the work. If this contractor is out of your price range for having the entire project completed at one time but he or she is the contractor you would like to have complete the work, maybe consider breaking the project up into smaller more affordable phases.
Sometimes what we think it should cost is entirely off, compared to the actual cost.
We are in the top 5% of 128,670 contractors in Washington State and plan to be in the top 1% soon!
I would also highly consider a contractor that offers free on-site consultations to go over all the details of the project and answer any questions or concerns you may have. Also a good idea to pick a contractor that generates free estimates / bids based off real world, real time, pricing of products and labor as oppossed to computer generated estimates / bids.
Hope this helps!
If you receive a quote out of your range by all the contractors, I like it when the client lets me know, because I will try and work with them, start with the Need VS the Want, then materials, there may be alternatives out there. We may be able to do it in stages.
Your project should not be solely based on price. if two prices are within a few hundred dollars maybe up to a 1000. in difference and the lowest bid is considerably to the next lowest be very aware.
Bottom line let your contractor know where your budget is, I want you to get what you want and I want to make a profit, because I want to be your go to Contractor.
Freeman Enmeier Enterprises L.L.C.
941 677 8311
www.feellc.us
Compare all your estimates,look at some of the work the contractors have done and talk with customers whom the contractors have done work for.The lowest bid isn’t always the way to go,my company has got many of jobs and were told we weren’t the lowest,I presented myself,my company professionally and my written and verbal bids were explained thoroughly and presented new customers with contacts of past customers.
I suggest you get multiple bids for the same scope of work from at least 3 contractors.
If all three bid prices widely varies in pricing, I suggest discarding the highest and the lowest bids and work with the ones in the middle.
If you can ask the contractors the break down of the material and labor and how they arrived at the pricing, that will help you understand if your set budget is realistic for the scope of work. Some contractors use national pricing standards. Some contractors, in order to win bid, price material at or near cost. In some instances, have the homeowner choose the material they want and the contractor buys it and haul for them. So, it is difficult to evaluate the bids without asking the contractors about their pricing strategies.
After you gain insight into the intricacies of the process, you then can look at your budget and see what’s feasible and what you can do to meet it or revise it.
Hope this helps.