All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Account Closed Contractors are businesses . They charge what the market will bear . If you get 3 estimates for work you will get 3 different prices .  Prices are also area specific , if you live in an area with a high cost of living , you will pay more . 

There are no magic discounts for "flippers" or "investors" . Especially if you are only doing 1 house .To a contractor its just another job . 

Contractors dont over price , you and the contractor agree on the price for the scope of work , if you dont like the price you find someone else . 

Some contractors are just more expensive than others .

 @Matthew Paul had a great answer. You get to choose your Contractor so you get to choose the price you feel is fair. Generally speaking, the better quality businesses will charge more because they have to...their cost of doing business is higher because they have all of the proper licenses, insurances, bonds, etc.

Never ever ever take the lowest price...that guy is priced low for a really good reason. I recommend getting 5 bids and picking from the top three.

As far as you, personally., estimating rehab costs....forget it for now. It will take you years to get good at it. Years.

Now there are a few things you can do as a customer to be smart....1) make sure that the proposal and SOW are very detailed and nothing is left out. Every little thing that is being done during the project should be right there in writing. Everything. 2) Make sure you have a signed contract that is legal and thorough. 3) keep the progress payments relatively equal to the work being done....example - don't pay for tile when you're still doing framing.

Go get some bids and then come back and talk to us again...

@Account Closed get multiple line item quotes and then ask lots of questions. Ask if the GC has any employees (or dedicated crews). Ask what tasks they handle and what tasks he farms out to other contractors. Compare the lines item pricing across your quotes. If on GC seems significantly higher (or lower) than the others ask why. It may be his pricing or it may be a difference in scope understanding. Whichever GC you decide you want to use, you can always negotiate and see if they’re willing to discount. 

Best thing you can do really is to get quotes from people. Are you talking about subbing it out to all the different trades yourself? That's a little bit Advanced but that's how I started as well. It doesn't take long to get a feel for what the pricing is on stuff. Like putting in flooring is probably 1.50 to $2 a square foot for labor, and you can start to learn all these rules of thumb for all the trades.