This 3 quote misconception is responsible for more dissatisfaction within the renovating and building industry than any other factor.
Why?
Building Misconception "You should always get three quotes"
If your objective is to get a quality job at a fair price, simply comparing it to another estimate only based on price is often very misleading. There aren’t any “standard” prices or “standard” specifications for renovation projects. Each quote or estimate you receive is a reflection of what’s included in the actual job that a particular contractor is planning on completing for you.
Given that you are buying something that does not yet exist (as opposed to a car that you can test drive, for example) it’s impossible to tell how similar (or far apart) one contractor’s proposed job is from the next. Even if you think everything is the same or “similar enough,” it rarely is and you may not discover this until the job is underway or worse yet, completely finished. This is after you’ve invested some or all of your money. Most likely this will amount to thousands of dollars!
In the case of buying a car and comparing prices from one dealer to another, you are much more likely comparing the EXACT same car – built by the same manufacturer. But, you’re not buying a car! In fact, what you are buying is not even built yet. You can’t “try it out”. You can’t “test drive” it. You can’t even see it! This is true whether the renovation project is basic or complex. Even with a job as basic as a timber deck, one contractor’s methods and materials can be (and often are) vastly different from the next. Even building codes and standards don’t adequately protect you from these variances.
When you compare prices in this business it’s far too easy to be fooled or mislead by not fully understanding what each renovator is planning on doing nor how each one plans to do it. Most builders are not very good at communicating exactly what it is that they plan on doing, nor are they good at explaining how they may differ from the other builders that you may be considering.
Therefore, if you get different “prices”, without doing much due diligence, you may believe all of the renovators you’ve called are much more similar than they really are. This may very well tempt you into justifying one of the lower priced contractors. In this business, taking an approach like this can be very dangerous and oftentimes…VERY EXPENSIVE!
If you’re concerned about getting a “good deal”, consider relying on a builder that has an excellent reputation. I believe it’s very rare to find a contractor that has earned an outstanding reputation of quality and service that charges too much for the work they provide.
In fact, if they didn’t do exceptional work or charged too much, they wouldn’t have a good reputation nor a substantial list of satisfied clients. They simply couldn’t fool a large number of people into believing that they were good if they weren’t indeed good.
Many people who consider the method of getting multiple quotes simply believe they are well served to solicit three bids, then, throw out the high and the low and take the one from the middle, purely based on price alone.
Believe me, the last thing you want after the renovation has begun on your home is to have that sinking feeling of having made a terrible mistake and wanting him gone. Bad experiences usually accompany low price. Do your homework. Do not be influenced by a low price.
Not getting three quotes may go against “conventional wisdom” but I honestly believe you will be far happier as a result.
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