Selecting the Best Contractor for a Home Improvement Project to Increase the Value of Your Home!

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Whenever selecting a contractor for a home improvement project, ask first for word-of-mouth recommendations by family, friends, neighbors, or business associates.

This is the acid test. Great contractors know that personal recommendations are the absolute best method of gaining new business and will work hard to make sure their reputation is sterling.

By the same token, poor contractors or scam artists hate word-of-mouth because it exposes their incompetence and lack of ethics.

If personal recommendations aren’t available, ask the contractors for references and then check out three or four of them.

Again, great contractors will be eager to provide you with these contacts because it means more business. On the other hand, poor contractors or scam artists will either refuse to give references to you or play down their importance.

But, don’t stop at checking references! Also, check out the contractor’s personality. Can you work easily with him or her? You want a person who will listen to your suggestions and do their best to incorporate them into the job. If the contractor is abrasive or dismisses your suggestions, choose another one!

Here’s another suggestion: If a contractor tries to bully you into signing with him or her with a big price drop at the last minute, simply tell them, “I’m going to get other bids and compare them, so just give me your best price now without the price drop.” If they don’t agree to your suggestion, tell them to take a hike.
By the same token, don’t work with a window, siding, etc. contractor who tries to get you to change what you want to put into your home.

Often, this means that they’re only comfortable installing the product they normally deal with and want the easiest job possible. Again, it’s your money and you’re the boss, so insist on the product you want.
Finally, don’t let contractors make misleading product comparisons. They should be able give you an informed opinion on, say, the difference between the performance of old siding and new siding and the difference in costs between the two.

However, those comparisons should never lead to a product that more expensive than your budget will allows or isn’t really appropriate for your home.

The bottom line – with contractors, you should get straight-forward honest bids with no surprises! To learn more about how to deal with contractors, contact me today, and we can talk dollars and “sense!”