Five red flags to consider when talking to contractors for your home renovation/remodelling project!
We spoke with 12-15 contractors for our 660 SqFt extension project:
1. One of the contractors we spoke with was ready to lower his original quote by 25% to match another competing quote and also offered us freebies if we decided to work with him. That was it! We knew we didn’t want to work with him. He would make up the cost during the course of the project through a slew of change orders or cutting corners.
2. We wanted each and every detail listed out in the estimate to understand everything that is included in the cost estimate. Out of the 10 contractors we spoke with 5 of them were not willing to do so.
3. Spoke to a very experienced and highly recommended contractor. But our first meeting was not as we expected. It was very intimidating and overwhelming. We are in our mid thirties and doing this scale of a project for the first time. We barely spoke during the 1 hour conversation. He just kept on telling us he knows best and will take care of everything without even listening to what we had to say. That was a huge deterrent for us!
4. A contractor was only willing to show us his work and provide references if we signed the contract first.
5. My husband and I were very particular about getting all the work done following the building codes and permit process.
