Again, you prove that you are not well informed. There are “a ton” of great carpenters who build fantastic measuring cabinets? I don`t think so. Maybe you have a lower expectation or you just want to justify not paying a real professional for their work. All I can say is the following. I feel sorry for the person who works for you. You seem not to be happy until the entrepreneur bleeds from his eyes. Being the cheapest is not a function of quality, professional work, but of the ability to subtract. Those who take you seriously expect a disappointing experience. So before you call an entrepreneur, give yourself five minutes of meditation or breathing exercises or whatever it takes to calm down when you`re feeling anxious. When you call the contractor, speak slowly and casually.

Explain the scope of work accurately but flexibly. I basically disagree that it would be “easy” to get your money back from a contractor, even if there is a contract or agreement. The legal process of recovering lost funds from a professional services contract can take years, especially if the contractor is no longer in business. Before you sign on the dotted line, you are in a position of power and entrepreneurs want to win your business. To make the sale, they offer their credentials and documentation. B electronic copies of their contractor`s licence, insurance deposit and customer references. Hi Chris and thank you for your message. It seems that all entrepreneurs are starting to hate us! Seriously, you need to understand our point of view and know where we come from; namely, a family that has a deep understanding of most of the work related to the maintenance, renovation and maintenance of a home. Our family experts are carpenters (carpentry, shell and finishing), plumbers (commercial and residential), electricians (commercial and residential), masons, landscapers (commercial and residential), asphalt and concrete builders, painters, etc.

In return, we understand markup, labor prices, material costs, etc. Our advice is quite aggressive and we stick to what we recommend. In particular, at your point about your more than 18 years of experience and “professional” is to be very careful to make assumptions about what you should charge and what the market will pay. As one of my uncles said some time ago, all artisans (no matter how good they are and how much experience they have) play in a commodity-based field (that is, they don`t offer a unique service in an essential way). So if a client does their research and spends time examining contractors, they will definitely be able to find someone willing to work on most of the terms documented in the article above (especially if they live in a large subway area). Humbly, we don`t think our article is misinformed (and so are most of our readers). Best wishes. A better tip when dealing with a contractor is to do your homework, get recommendations, and be honest. Forget about these games and try to make the entrepreneur smart. Brutal honesty down to the price and what you can afford, which is the key. If you tell the entrepreneur that you can`t afford it and he sees that you`re not lying, believe me, you`ll get the best deal when he sees that you`re really not able to close the deal financially.

“Negotiate fiercely and let the contractor say you`re not in a hurry to get the job done?” Every quality contractor has left you there. You take the time and money from this man`s essence while you assume you can push him because “you don`t need that.” Keep in mind that it works both ways, a good entrepreneur “doesn`t need your job.” A terrible hobbyist (whom you warned about in #1) will definitely appreciate when your house collapses. Vince seems to believe that all entrepreneurs are there to reach consumers. To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to be profitable or it will be a very short-lived career (the average profit margin in my industry is 5.6%). Vince gives advice when in reality he needs to learn what he is talking about and how he misleads many consumers who know as little about life as he does. This guy has NO IDEA and leads his readers to the bottom of the barrel of entrepreneurs. Also, do you want to float the nomenclatures and the workers? You are already driving the overhead and have no investment in the property being worked on! Again, profit margins are not up to them to put money out of their pockets on every property. Vince, you look like a total shower.

With your methods, you only get the most desperate entrepreneurs, certainly no quality if you think it`s okay to haggle over prices, I`d like to tell you to do it yourself if you`ve pulled that out. You look like a problem customer, all the way. As an entrepreneur, you know the distribution of your price structures. You can provide this breakdown to the customer if you wish. As a customer, however, I don`t care about the amount of material and work. It is also unlikely that I will pay you individually for their breakdown. As a consumer, I will receive several estimates and compare the work, history and reputation of entrepreneurs with their estimates. I`m not going to look at material costs versus labor costs, etc. That being said, I don`t pay for the materials. It`s you. I pay for the work.

You will get back your money you spent on materials by charging me for the work. In addition, it is more than likely that the contractor will receive a discount for the purchase of wholesale materials (or has a contract or other agreement with a supplier) and will add a markup to benefit from the materials as well. Having paid a few dollars before the start of the work is fair and SHOULD be done, but only after the materials have been delivered and can be inspected by the customer.. .