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Expert Tips - Contractors and Northern Lumber - Contractor's Corner
Visit Pro Hardware's Quick Fixes page for Home Repair Made Easy. You'll find
tips on everything from carpet cleaning to plumbing from
national television's do-it-yourselfer Pat Simpson.
http://www.prohardware.com/Pages/Quickfix/Fixes.htm
Northern Lumber has a long history of working with many of Leelanau County's
best licensed building contractors. The long lasting relationships
which have developed through the years have provided many
beneficial opportunities for our contractors, their customers,
and Northern Lumber.
As a contractor working with Northern Lumber, you will have available to you
the enormous buying power and technological advantages of
one of this nation's top lumber and hardware distributors.
We offer you one of the widest arrays of building materials
and products in the area as well as the information and knowledge
you need to install and use these products successfully.
In addition, we provide you with a complementary copy of
the Contractor Advisory, a publication which aims to keep
you informed about the latest in industry trends and building
materials. If you are a contractor looking to benefit from
a relationship with us, please stop by and ask to become
part of our Contractor Group.
We also provide advantages to home owners by helping them select a building contractor
who works with Northern Lumber. Our employees become familiar
with each job as it progresses, and we look forward to providing
you the assistance you need when it comes to selecting building
products, matching colors, or finding unique hardware items.
Both during the construction phase of your project and afterwards,
we are here to support and assist you.
If you are a customer looking to hire a qualified, reliable contractor, let us
know your specific needs and we'll be happy to provide a
recommendation.
Bill Lee is a South Carolina-based consultant and seminar leader who specializes
in the construction industry. We found his article Raise Trust, Reduce Bidding to be very helpful, so we reprint it here.
Soon after my wife and I were married, we decided that it was time to stop paying
rent and build a home. When my co-workers learned that I
was getting ready to build, the first question they asked
was which builder we were going to use.
Early in the process, we met William Cassidy, a builder we really liked. He helped
us make several changes in the plans we had ordered out of
a magazine. He also made several suggestions that we later
realized made the home more functional and saved Lis money
in both material and construction costs. So I told my buddies
at work that we had decided oil William Cassidy.
"How many bids have You gotten'?" one friend Asked. "Just one," I Said. "The one I got from William Cassidy."
"You're crazy, man." my friend said to me. "When you're spending that kind of money, you have to really be careful not to
get gouged. You're stupid if you don't get at least three
bids."
We took my friend's advice and got two more bids. One of them was within a few
hundred dollars of Mr. Cassidy's bid, but one came in approximately
$2,500 less than the other two.
As difficult as it was to tell Mr. Cassidy that we were going with another builder,
we decided to save $2,500. As you might imagine, the construction
process was a nightmare.
The lowest bidder did everything in his power to cheat the job. We had to watch
him like a hawk.
Then after the job was finished and we began to landscape-a job we took on ourselves-we
got even more surprises. For several months we dug up pieces
of gypsum wallboard, polyethylene and several other varieties
of trash that our low bidder buried rather than paying to
have it hauled to the dump, a service he had included in
the price originally quoted us.
I can't tell you how many times we kicked ourselves for not going with our gut
feelings and contracting with William Cassidy.
The moral of the story: It's not necessarily in the homebuyer's best interest
to get three bids. While it appeared we had saved $2,500,
in the long run we paid dearly. What we got was both a "cheap" bid and a "cheap" home.
Many times we wished that William Cassidy had been a better salesman and had
taken the time to convince us that quality, value and integrity
were far more important than the lowest price. And if Mr.
Cassidy was anything, he was trustworthy.
We learned the hard way that bidding the home out to "keep the builder honest" is not always the best way to approach the building process. If we hadn't trusted
William Cassidy, why were we talking to him in the first
place?
Here's some logic we might have listened to if Mr. Cassidy had taken the time
to Counsel us. You Might try to Use these thoughts to reason
with your prospects who feel they must put the job out to
bid.
- Builders must be competitive. They can't stay in business if they aren't. And
we've been in business for 27 years. Quality builders who
know what they're doing are going to be pretty close to
each other when they bid a home. Nine times out of ten.
something is fishy when one builder's bid comes in substantially
lower. When something looks too good to be true, it usually
is.
- If you do get Multiple bids and one of them turns out to be substantially less
than ours, allow me to do an apples-to-apples comparison.
If I can't give you a reasonable explanation for the difference,
I'll recommend that you go with the low bidder. My goal
for you is to receive the best value you possibly can as
a return on your investment.
- How much do you know about the builders you've selected to bid? What steps have
you taken to check them out? Have you checked their financial
stability? Have you talked to any of their former clients?
- Price is how much you pay for the home at closing. Cost is how much You'll pay
for the home while you live there. Make sure you understand
the cost of your home.
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