Next Time I'm Going To Get Three Estimates

I'm going to tell you a story and I would like you to pay attention to the details. The story involves getting three estimates for the room addition and whole house remodel that someone I knew, was having done to their home.

These people didn't bother to contact me, they didn't want to bother me or get me involved in their project. I wasn't really close friends with them and wouldn't even have considered myself to be acquaintances. I would've loved to have had an opportunity to bid their work and save them to frustration they were about to encounter.

They had a friend of theirs, who they were planning on using, even though he wasn't a licensed contractor. This man was the superintendent for a large construction company and the homeowners figured that if he could build large buildings, he could easily do a large room addition, with the whole house remodel. The homeowners were even planning on moving out of the house, for the next nine months.

The unlicensed contractor, told them that he could do the job for under $300,000 and that it wouldn't take more than six months, but you never know what is going to happen in the construction business, so he recommended, that the homeowners rent another home, for at least nine months, just in case there were time delays.

I'm not going to go into all the details, but the homeowners, ended up spending 14 months out of their home and spending almost $425,000 on the project. They never even got another bid for their project. It saddens me to hear stories like this, but this stuff happens all the time.

I can't stress this enough, you should always get at least three estimates for any project that your doing. If you're not going to get three, try to at least get two.