Clean and neat and wouldn't make anyone question your mental fitness.Also, on the suit: good materials and proper fit. 100% wool suit.

I gave him an estimate for certain things, for example we put $5,000 kitchen and he went and spent $4,500 on kitchen materials (not exact numbers) and our profit was gone, the whole job was picked apart like that and we lost money trying to keep the friendship and working relationship going and the job didn't turn out like it should have. 

I'm a couple of thousand miles away, but per Home Depot's Web site, at the South Philadelphia store (1651 S Columbus Blvd)...Veranda Linden 6 ft tall x 8 ft long fence panel, 16 @ $69.74 = $1,115.84Veranda Linden line post, 17 @ $31.57 = $536.69Total for those two: $1,652.53 before tax; probably about $1,800 after taxAdd in: bags of concrete to set the posts in, a gate if you need one, a manual post hole digger (or renting a power one)... maybe $2,100 in materials, +/-.Based on the bids you've been getting, that leaves around $2,400 to $3,400 for labor. 

New construction, Homeowner paid for all flooring and bath and kitchen tile materials up front 32k to flooring company, then paid 8k for labor to flooring company when half done, tile in showers 95% complete,flooring company now wants 6k to pay laborers, wood floors have not been ordered by flooring company or      installed ( were paid for up front included in 32k over 2 months ago) don’t know whether to pay the 6k or wait until wood floors complete and we are satisfied, does it sound normal that floor company needs us to pay his laborers, also floor company has taken back all tile that was leftover that I paid for in full up front, without asking me if I wanted to keep it or get refund, Thank you

Often those sued don't show up.Note that if you did the stem wall it may be necessary to cut a keyway into the cement floor for the entire length of the stem wall and insert waterproofing material in the keyway to insure water can not seep through where the new stem rests on the existing concrete floor. 

It's only a stepping stone to break free.While you are slaving, eat ramen, roommate up or live in trailer, avoid Starbucks and tuck every dollar you can squeeze out into a bank account. need 20% down and money for materials. so for 80K home (trashed), you will want 35K banked to get started, just a rough idea.Then, get pre-approved.

A $10.000 job requires more of everything and by the time it is finished I may have 5 days of labor, more material, 5 days of company overhead and lose two or three $5,000 jobs because I cannot get to them.

For a couple thousand bucks you could make this place look pretty nice: clean the mold/mildew or whatever the black stuff is under the eaves and on the base of the front porch post, touch up the paint, get rid of the mismatched cabinets with missing drawers, the faux brick, the wood paneling, the beat up and dirty dark flooring and replace all that with updated but inexpensive builder-grade materials, put a real handrail on the front porch instead of the ugly 2x6...

The cost for wiring a HW heater in materials is less than $50 depending on the distance from the panel.

Everything now is expensive (land, labor, materials) for new builds.If you own the property or control the property then you can approach developers within a certain radius of the area and tell you what they think of the project.