Why do homeowners watch a reality TV show featuring home renovations and then hire a contractor for their own project but expect the contractor to build them a cathedral, have it finished in an unreasonable time frame and do all at a cost that is not much more than the cost of their materials?
Yeah, Reality TV Contractors are subsidized by the shows’ producers a lot of the time.
I don’t know why they do, but my position has always been to pack up and leave when you identify them before you go in the red. I try to identify them in the bid phase and then keep on my merry way to the next job. Nobody needs to argue about their profession, earn sub par wages, risk bond claims, consumer complaints, and a tarnished reputation because somebody watched a tv program and suddenly became a master.
Refer them to Craigslsit, where there are plenty of people there willing to do sub par work in short time frames, while tolerating attitudes and misinformation for a few pennies.
Commercial contracting is usually a far more appealing market and much more friendly to contractors without many of the headaches that difficult homeowners bring to the job. Just my $.02
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TV shows or no TV shows, once you meet the customer and detail everything to them based on their requirements, get down to details based on their expectations of the quality of work, most homeowners realize that in real life, prices are not the same as shown in these TV shows.
I have met with a few home owners that bring pictures off of these shows. Once I break down the price using the pictures, their request for the finishes have changed to a more economical finish. You can’t blame the home owners that have no concept of what construction costs once you add up insurance, labor burden, overhead, etc. It comes down to what they want to pay.
Your typical homeowner will usually have no idea about the amount of work their projects will require, and it is up to the contractor to educate the customer about everything their potential project entails. You will find that their only frame of reference will be from magazines and TV shows, which tend to over-simplify the process of any given project, not to mention setting unreasonably low budget expectations.
If you are willing to take a few minutes of your time to go over the build process with potential customers and set the expectations from the start, 4 out of 5 times they will be extremely appreciative and may very well choose to go with you as the contractor for having taken the time to explain the details that they were unaware of.
Because the contractors aren’t being honest. In order to get the job, the contractor tells the homeowner what they want to hear. Once the contract is signed and deposit is given, the contractor starts changing things.
You need to be honest with your client and work with their budget in order to provide what they desire and if it isn’t feasible or within a real budget, be honest.
J.Matos
Matos Group Llc
Complete & Accurate Construction
Very good question!!
We see that often as well. Unfortunately reality TV is not always reality. They do not show all the hard work and hours that go into a successful project.
From the initial design, planning and permitting through the closeout, so much is not shown. The bulk of the hard work is often left unseen.
That on top of inaccurate budget details can cause a lot of issues for us real world contractors.
The best option is to be very clear about the entire project. Outline progress payments and a completition schedule. It must be explained that there could be unforeseen delays.
I strongly believe that if you coach and set your customers expectation from the start, you will not run in to this issues mid project. Take the time to explain that tv shows do not show all the nuts & bolts of the process.
Our duty as contractors is to paint a picture for the customer of how we manage the building process.
In most cases when homeowners have unrealistic expectations it is because they do not understand the industry or the time/cost/men power that goes into renovating a home the way a contractor does. However, the job of the contractor is to make each client understand what is a realistic timeline regardless of the project they have in hand and achieve their style and wants based on that. A little explaining goes a long way in our experience.