Choosing your Contractor
There are so many Contractors, home improvement specialist and other various titled remodeling companies out there it boggles the mind. How in the world can you make a good choice?
First, let me start by saying most of us are hard working honest folks that want to do a great job for you. There is always a horror story from a neighbor about a job gone wrong, but this is a small percentage of the total remodeling market.
Doing your due diligence is essential and I can list a few actions that should be consistent:
From very first meeting, pay attention to the experience offered by the representative particularly if it is not the owner. The job needs to be handled with expertise from the start.
Does the business have a professional presence online? i.e. a website with contact info and addresses etc.
Is The Contractor licensed thru the state and does he have a good standing with the governing commission?
Can he offer you referrals, testimonials on a website are good, but actually speaking to a couple of clients is best!
Does he offer you a professional contract?
These are basic items that every legitimate contractor should offer. If they do not offer all, does not mean they are going to do sub-standard work, but perhaps digging a bit deeper on the other items would be wise. We buy products and services from people we trust and offer us a competitive price. If you are shopping for price alone, that can often be frustrating if you contact professional companies, as they pay overhead to maintain their business and charge an appropriate mark up to pay for this.
There are many ways to look at online reviews, pay attention to these, if there are 19 great reviews and 1 poor review, often, this was likely a one off. We all have a job that challenges us from time to time! I will say that if the bad reviews go on and on, more questions should be asked.
All in all, as with anything, if we do our homework, ask for referrals and are working with a seasoned contractor you will likely be in safe hands.