Why You’ll Never Find a Good Contractor

You are expecting your contractors to be perfect at everything, to tick every box you’re looking for and that’s just not possible. But that’s also why it’s important to have more than one on your list so that you always have someone for all of your needs.

You always take the lowest bid

The conventional wisdom is to get a minimum of three bids then take the lowest one. Some people say the more bids the better. The problem is that contracting is a service, so you get what you pay for. Sometimes saving money means losing quality. That’s why it’s so important to know the difference between price and cost.

You don’t understand overhead quotes

The majority of good contractors will never give itemized quotes—especially because the vast majority of people don’t understand business basics, such as overhead expenses. Also, there is a massive falsehood that says a “fair” contractor markup is 15%–20%. That’s not true.

Every contractor inevitably underbids one part of a project and overbids on another. There are just too many unknowns and variables to account for when bidding. This results in the entire project getting underbid, and the contractor is guaranteed to lose money.

Your goals don’t align

Most contractors want to provide quality work that they can be proud of, along with fair wages to support themselves, their family, and their employees. Quality and good wages are both subjective, so it’s easy for your interests to not align. But this is why it’s so important to go through the process of finding the right contractors for your needs so that everyone is on the same page.