5 Rules for Hiring a Contractor
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- Опубліковано 19 лип 2019
- Knowing How to Properly Enter a Contract and setting up a healthy work relationship is the key to a successful renovation! Learn from the pro How to Sign the Bottom Line with Confidence. Cheers!
- Навчання та стиль
I've been both successful and unsuccessful hiring people to do work. So, I've learned the hard way that even small contracts make a difference. For instance, I was too busy to do my lawn when I was getting ready to sell my house. I had several people give me prices and the work was not performed to my expectations. So, after listening to you early on in your videos, I made line items that I had the landscaper fill in line by line on cost. In RFP, I noted that if an item was not completed the cost would also be deleted on that line and they would not be paid. I DID have to omit pay for what the last company said they were going to do but didn't. They offered to return to complete it, but I declined and did it myself. I figured if you can't read it the first time, there is no need to come back and do it again.
But, contracts as a whole are tricky. I had an engineer design my septic system based on a verbal quote which, when billed, was more than three times the original verbal quote. I was in such debt with this home, taking literally years to sell the house (I was under water based on the extreme cost of the septic system). I didn't have the energy to fight him. I did get the advice of an attorney who said I did not owe him anything. I tried to hire another designer, but companies were hesitant to work with me based on my having to pay two designers in the end at the sale. So, I bit the bullet, used his terrible design which was worked and reworked until someone could do it for
great advice on the verbal quote. Cheers!
"The best courses to take is on UA-cam Home Renovision Diy" I totally agree!! Jeff you are a great and honest teacher man. I learned to do my first laminate floor off this channel. THANK YOU!
I’ve learned a few things from my several renovations:
- If you find a good contractor, hold on to him/her because they are rare.
- Include trash and construction material removal in your contract.
- I had a kitchen renovated once and the contractor destroyed the basement in the process of installing pipes, electrical, heat... I had to hire another contractor to fix the basement. Make sure your contrat covers unintended damages to adjacent rooms or property.
- I paid $8000 for window replacement and never saw or heard of contractor again. Taking him to small claims court and winning is great... collecting is impossible.
very valuable life lessons. Cheers!
Off subsect. My Dad worked a lot when I was a kid. He was a little bit of a procrastinator when it came to home improvements (I don't blame him). We had to make settlement selling our house on a Saturday. When I was 12 (50 now), I helped my Dad ( who is not a contractor or in the trades) completely renovate a tiny bathroom over night. Everything except the feed plumbing and bathtub, literally overnight. A new tub surround and fixtures, new toilet, new vanity/sink/fixtures, replaced in-wall medicine cabinet, a vinyl sheet floor, trim, and a little paint, new light/fan in ceiling, and wall light and mirror above the vanity. I learned a lot from him then and over the years. Thanks Dad.
Thank God for -- you! This was a great video, full of really important info. It’s going to save me lots of lost sleep and $$$ Loved it!
This is great knowledge, Jeff. Thanks, mate. It's a bugger that you aren't an Aussie. You always make sense. Cheers. Yes, a quick job means cutting corners which is never good.
I could definitely do my best to acclimatize to the Aussie lifestyle.
I have a test for anyone who is going to work on my property. I ask them "how many 1/16's are in an inch?", "draw and label me an inch."
You would not believe how many people fail, sad.
Looks like you "Did it yourself and don't own tools" ! That's a good one. Made me laugh.
Cheers Em!
Good point on the being your own contractor for building first house.
Homeowners look at it as they think they can save money.
Even additions can have tons of issues.
start with a shed and work your way up i say!
Great video here, thank you for sharing
Great live Jeff!!!
Thanks dude, we are going to work out the bugs for audio and live guest stream for the next session. Would you like to join us? Let's chat next week./ Cheers...BTW I love the networking video you put up today. Cheers!
Great show!
this is an excellent video
I like how passionate you are about your work. You obviously value quality and I'm one who do not mind paying for quality.
Please come to Georgia, Atlanta. I need you to Reno my house.
Thanks Natalie, I would love to visit Atlanta, but I am only available to give lectures on how to be your own G.C. and perhaps a tools workshop. Cheers!
Excellent points. You are very smart and a very good entertainer!
Cheers Gutiersa, thanks for watching this show. Any suggestions for future talks would be welcome?
Fantastic im new to your channel and really like the information and how you present it.
Do you recommend any software or tool out there to help when planning/designing a new project like a deck or finishing a basement?
this was great! thanks.
Cheers!
That is true about homeowner reviews. It’s like with Lyft the driver can also rate the riders and leave comments about what kind of rider they are 😂
Now why did I assume you had not already covered this topic when I challenged you to do this during the c-19 vacation? Pausing while I comment, so I don't miss anything. There are a lot of good comments in your playback of your live session.
Making notes to self to see if you cover it:
- DIY, DIY assist, DIY rescue? I didn't hear it explicitly covered, but it seems like calling in a rescue or assist puts the customer into your "servant" category immediately.
- Advances. When is it reasonable? How much? OK, you answered this well. 10% for pure services, and cost of materials delivered to my site (maybe).
- Demo - should I do it? What problems can that cause me? I didn't hear this covered either, but I guess the customer is opening themselves to being the failing party.
- Scope creep?
- Hidden problems - how to negotiate them into the existing contract? (for example, should a roofer expect to replace "x" linear feet of trim/fascia, etc. whether or not he or she notes it in the estimate? Should a bathroom guy write in a certain amount for remediating water damage (what bathroom reno does not encounter some degree of water damage?
Your first category we call the "pickup contractor" down south of you. These are often the 50% advance guys, and the pay-me-daily guys.
Your second category often hires a lot of day laborers. Back when I had a 2500 series diesel pickup, I could not stop at the 7-11 for a coffee without 6 guys asking me (often in another language) if I had any work. So a guy with a small crew may be hiring day laborers of questionable talent. The one thing I did notice was these non-English speaking workers worked hard! With proper supervision, their work ethic easily made up for lack of polished skills.
Good, fast, cheap - pick two. I think that comes from the project management triangle.
Are there resources for contract templates a homeowner could use to help protect themselves? I know you're not a lawyer, but is this a thing a lawyer might have at a reasonable price? Nevermind, one of your live viewers suggested the AIA. They have customer focused forms, but they are not free (you get what you pay for). At 52:50 or so you talk about a sample contract.
Not sure if this is a thing in Canada also, but I've heard of subs getting stiffed by the prime, then the homeowner being held liable. I guess this goes back to the contract.
So a thing I'm hearing 19 minutes in is that you assume the contractor is a person of reasonable business acumen. Ability to hang and finish drywall well does not guarantee the person has any business intelligence.
I like that you responded to the "woman" thing with an actual analysis of the situation. One of my male colleagues was charged $700 for a dryer vent replacement that should have been a $150 plus materials job. He is a very intelligent guy in his field, but a babe in the woods when it comes to "man skills".
A very good message I heard was to clearly define the job you want done. You don't explicitly say it, but you need to address the what-ifs. What if the contractor pulls up the carpet to find a rotten floorboard, and a rotten floor joist under it? What if a contractor finds clear code violations? How do you remediate those? Do you write in you have a week or two to remediate?
It's very generous of you to put out so much customer facing knowledge given that you do this for a living.
All very valid red flags. We recently fell victim to “Chuck on a truck” and lost 65k. We’re trying to figure out a way now to get our money back. Thankfully, he just bought a home in our area so we know he’s not on the run somewhere. 😢
Been watching your videos for the last 6 months preparing for this. We closed on our first house last Friday and first project is to remove the early 90s wallpaper in one room. The room was an addition and never painted just wallpaper floor to ceiling on top of drywall and the going is slow because if I go fast I damage the drywall. Should I just keep going as is with the foot per hour gains or just drywall the whole room after watching your drywall video?
The absolute most important way for a customer to protect themselves is to have a detailed contracted etc, and never be the General contractor yourself, never pull the permit and bond your self, you lose all protection , and are assuming responsibility for the job, when the contractor gets the license, permits and bond, that bond will save you a world of trouble, he is totally overlooking this vital rule
John Bailey does this thought apply to Canada? Thanks in advance I’m considering being my own gc
@@TheJonny2200 You can be your own gc in Canada but the question you need to ask yourself is whether or not you have the knowledge to determine what a suitable contractor in each trade would be- you likely don't; hire a gc. Iv'e been on 100 million dollar projects with imbeciles at either end.
If you don’t have the tools, and you don’t know the rules, hire a professional
"High 5, amen!"
So many amazing tips in here. Bring your own contract... blew my mind. Makes so much sense yet seems so atypical in the process most people experience.
A BIG question i didn't hear covered. How do you find candidates? Don't trust paid sites like HomeAdvisor or AngiesList where contractors can just pay to appear at the top. Some projects I've had difficulty finding one contractor, let alone multiple, and options obviously will yield the best result. Any tips for finding more options?
Great topic... great advice.... love that added TV in the background. I’m assuming some PowerPoint presentation highlighting points etc. is in the future? Like the spinning logo, but a bit distracting when your talking... it’s just too cool to look at you when it’s in motion... 😉. Also auto hide that taskbar. You guys are great..
Hi Richard, we are always working on getting better. During the members only show we put up pics from the members to discuss problems and help with advice. Our tech skills will get better in time as well for sure. Cheers!
I'm about to buy my first house at 25 by myself in an "as is" condition. Your videos are great, thank you. I'm ready for all of it.
How's it going three years later?
Can anyone recommend a good Contractor to do hard wire smokes and possibly a fire alarm system for a 4plex here in Rhode Island?
Would Helical piles Vs concrete foundation for a home extension be acceptable
I got a question?
Can you apply polyurethane on engineered wood or laminate flooring?
This was amazingly informative, thank you! I'm a widow about to hire for hardwoods, a complete renovation of two bathrooms and a kitchen and I've not had the best luck in the past. I recently had a new roof put on. I specified in writing to my contractor the brand of shingle I wanted. As agreed, he used that brand of shingle. All other parts of the roof he used the brand I specifically said I did not want, and because they were two different brands, they did not completely match. I accept my responsibility in that I only asked for that brand of "shingle" not "shingle and anything else you might use made of the same substance". lol I did not know to ask for ridge vents, etc to be same brand. How does a lay person educate themselves well enough to even know to ask these levels of questions?
Experience. Or find someone that does know.
Sad but true.
Just like life.. we learn as we go.
keep watching. is all I can say. cheers! Have them specify and then research the items.
I hope you see this: You mentioned the financial consequences we should put in our contract when the contractor violates it. Could you clarify or list some examples of how much should be charged in those instances? Thank you! -Tara
As a licensed Architect in California, wondering what your take is on an Owner hiring an Architect to be their advocate - especially with new construction or at least using an Architect in an advisory role as a consultant. Could be very beneficial to the homeowner since the Architect is tasked with acting in your best interest as your agent.
Lol, the gas line one.
Don't touch if you have to ask. Lol
seems like good advice for any mechanical question.
Well, I called in when you were helping Texas. I needed a roof. I went through a City program who screens the contractors. You pick from 3. My first pick was fired after putting indoor birch on my roof. That is after removing all shingles and underlayment . My roof sheathing wasn’t covered properly. It’s January. Rain. Second contractor ripped off half of roof of some kind of underlayment and installed new. Again. Not put down correctly. My roof was soaked, attic, insulation, drywall, ceiling, light switches shorted out! Not only that I believe they forged my name to get paid. Contractor was a “project manager” not listed with L &I. He used business license so company was licensed and bonded. Sooo. Here comes the lawyer! And this was the contractor who only works on “high end homes”. My home is ruined!
I'm thinking a white board would help you out when cover some subject. Great content as usual
Powerpoint works wonders... tv already mounted.
Please do a video on all then legal things.
Hi,
I'm very grateful for you & your excellent UA-cam channel. I'm planning on a $100,000 home renovation, would you please tell me where or how can I get a custome made legal contract especially that I can't be on site more than once every 3 weeks?
Thank you
Besides gas lines, what ele do we have to ck for and where do we call?
Any man that pulls out a JP quote is all right by me.
Cheers Jack!
I recently hired a handyman to do some painting at the house. He did a great job! then I had a water disaster and ended up with lots of drywall damage to my ceiling. I gave him a call cuz I didn't want to do the ceiling... I have learned to do drywall, thanks to you, but I didn't want to do the ceiling. He gave me a fair price... X for two days...then hourly after that..basically he thought 2 days would be his max, but if he needed to come back and touch up or something on another day, it would be at an hourly rate. He was pretty confident he'd get it done in 2 days. Well, day one he cleaned up the damaged area and put up one sheet of sheetrock. Day two he put up a second, after messing up where the hole was for the electrical box (I suggested how you do it but he did it his own way first!) ... He talked a lot and was distracted often by his phone going off. Then he took a weekend off to work on another project. The last piece of drywall was complicated...for a bay window area, plus a vent opening...and I wasn't paying him $50 an hour for his mistakes and confusion... so I cut and put the last sheet up by myself... (again, thank you for your excellent videos!!) He arrived the next day and thanked me for doing that last piece... said he'd never done a large drywall project..just little patches...and had lost his confidence for that last sheet when he'd messed up the electrical box hole previously. He ended up taking waaaay longer than he estimated... 16 extra hours at $50 each. I offered him $200 over the 2-day estimate and he accepted that. Next time I'll do it by contract and not just a verbal bid. It was a mistake on my part to assume he could do it...but then again, he was confident in his skills. Next time I'll just do it myself. Thank you so much for this video!!
great life lesson. if you offer a guy a job he will take it. In most cases even if he does not know what he is doing. Cheers!
8:50 - On the contrary! If I'm forced to work in freezing weather, my price goes WAY up! After the experiences this past winter (wiring two new houses), I've decided I am NOT doing such a project in the winter ever again! Also, forget about service upgrades. In the first place, they take 8 hours to complete, and there is simply not enough daylight hours in the winter -- cold or not. Secondly, much of the work is outdoors - installing grounding rods, meter base installation, etc. The ground is frozen, so it is difficult to get a rod into it. From now on, I will tell customers to either wait until spring or hire someone else.
Thanks for that insight jeff, however most remodeling is done inside. Cheers!
Wow Jeff you seem like a class act, can't wait to hire you for a job... not
I got to thinking about this. Just because a person's truck is clean an organized doesn't mean they're going to be efficient. That vehicle could be just for show. Or company maintained.
Very true, however....It is just a glimpse into their life not a novel! Cheers!
Home Depot used to do workshops but idk anymore thanks to COVID 😥
When do you go live, how much is your membership and what does it include?
I have old cabinets. Some of the drawers have broken guides and the new plastic guides don't fit. The guides run above the drawer not the sides. Is there any way to repair?
anything made form wood can be repaired. Cheers!
Amen high five
Cheers Randy
Which city are you in? I thought i heard you say something about Ottawa in another post.
I just had a company that serves as the middle man between customer and contractor. It’s a one-stop shop from building, procurement, and design services. The estimate was $28K and they wanted $17K down! I said no….only 10% as i understand as the minimum the contractor’s board of california requires.
Adjust to screen timeout settings to prevent HDMI issue
Hi Peter, we are all learning as we go here. enjoy the growth curve. Cheers for the advice!
Would love legal advise on signing a contract
Do you plan on having another live show upcoming where we can ask questions? Thanks
Yes Andrew, you just missed the last one. we will update the homepage soon for more details. Cheers!
This was GREAT!
Accessory Dwelling Units (granny flats) for income advice? pros? cons? Im in San Francisco Bay Area
I am sure anything you build in that area will pay for itself in no time let alone the increase in the asset. Be sure to build it to code and get permits so that you retain the value!
So what do you consider yourself ? how many employees do you have?
Do you have a wallpaper video? Where is list of your videos?
I’m a member but don’t see the email link, and I can’t access any of the members only videos. I can’t contact you to correct this. Please reach out to me.
Should have gotten a contract!
I found a local plumber at my local plumming suppier who is helping me with my bathroom renovation , no contract guided me to size pan liner to get , he came on father's day to look things over , my wife ordered a simmons complicated. shower faucet. . he came and installed the most detailed part, sodered it. doing it all without a contract. told him no rush all going smoothly. he is a bathroom remolder another , best friend is a finisher he helped with framing the tub....tub came damaged, waiting for new one Home depot will drop off new pick up damaged one at half price...wife happy about that! I'm at point I could finish alone if I had to. but choose not to. told Plummer no rush cause waiting for new whirlpool tub will only cost over $200 .00 cool lol. he is to come today to finish shower faucet and mud pan .... maybe he won't come ...its about 100 degrees !!!
simply read the community posts found on the homepage.
D you have any thoughts on community clleges offering associates in Construction Technology? And the usefulness of such a degree.
If you are planning on getting into project management then cool!
Disappointed i missed the stream, was replacing a bathroom fan before it got too hot so I can air seal (well, try to seal) my split-level attic tomorrow :P
Great information! I’m near Washington DC so hiring for any work is hard to find decent quality, never-mind speed or cost (i’d take just one of the 3 at this point). A new roof and electrical panel will have to come soon though so I’m looking forward to the contract template!
Cheers Austin!
A friend had a $30K bathroom renovation done. After almost a year, the large walk in shower had been leaking and the subfloor of that entire corner of the house had rotted. The whole thing had to be gutted and redone but the contractor had gone out of business. Friend's insurance is refusing help. How do you protect yourself against this?
Hire a contractor who is certified by the product he is installing for one. secondly don't hire a guy to do work on that scale. hire a company that is large enough that it will be around for legal action. cheers!
Had a contractor come out yesterday about fixing some rotted boards under 1900 porch columns. Very nice and gave 3 references but then said they charge by the hour $40 per worker and three workers for our job. He has three crews that work for him.
Two weeks for the job. Says he doesn't do contracts but will stand by his work for one year. Was here 3 hours. Another coming Wed. morning. Sigh...
When you talk about creating your own contract and issuing penalties, what are examples of these penalties your taking about? What should a homeowner be asking for if let's say the contractor is not showing up on time or with too few employees, or maybe the timeline is being extended?
if the contractor makes a promise to be done by a certain date then you should charge a penalty for being late. negotiate. if the contractor won't agree then he has no intention of finishing inside a certain time frame, why hire them!
sound advise thanks! you have the same great morals as our Martin Lewis his web site moneysavingexpert will show you!
How do we mess his contract and mine?
What sort of items should be in homeowner contract
Everything you fell is important!
0:35 - "I know this is a DIY channel, but there are just some things that you can't DIY"... like.. ELECTRICAL! I am a licensed electrician, and I am SO sick and tired of dealing with DIY electrical hack work. Apparently, no one can do anything right, so I end up having to do more work than planned, which means more time spent, and renegotiating prices with homeowners for unforeseen work. Most DIY electrical is dangerous and not Code-compliant because DIY'ers can't possibly know all applicable code regulations to make a safe installation.
I couldn't disagree more about diy electrical. most residential wiring is quite simple. That is like having a mechanic change a tail light.
What is a good example of a consequence if a contractor does not fulfill a deadline? What should I have in my contract?
penalties are nice but I don't know many contractors who would do that job in this current market
Can you post a link to your workshops?
REAL SOON. waiting for the hurricane to die so my web guy can finish the page. cheers!
I wish I'd watched this recently...before...
Im surprised you even made this video because as a contractor my experience has been that homeowners know EVERYTHING. And doesn’t every homeowner have a brother in law who is a contractor and doesn’t need advice because their brother in law is an expert in EVERY trade?
The point of the video is to help make these working relationships healthier. your comment shows the bias that you walk into the room with. I don't think that leads to a successful endeavor in most cases. Cheers! If both parties in a contract have bias and don't negotiate a course of action then you are heading for trouble.
Home RenoVision DIY Im just a bit jaded I guess from getting screwed over by customers who try to find any way they can to get out of paying their bill both legally and illegally. Im a good contractor and we do good work but I’m always amazed by how creative customers can be when trying to get free labor out of contractors.
I had a guy in Bellevue, WA rip us off $3,500 because when we were almost done with the job he just decided to kick us out and had his lawyer on speed dial with “9,500 in damages” Needless to say I gave up on trying to collect on that job and then he went and gave me 1 star reviews on all my social media accounts. My experience has been it’s not the homeowners who are getting screwed as much as it is the contractors getting screwed by homeowners. Most homeowners who have enough money to afford to hire someone to work in their house are typically higher income and they consist of lawyers, doctors, politicians, multi level marketing con artists and they are VERY good at taking advantage of contractors. Every time I have a customer complain at me about a contractor I think to myself “I wonder how much free labor you were trying to get out of him”. It’s the old “hey while you’re here can you take care of X,Y,Z but I don’t expect to pay for it and I of course FORGOT to mention it when we did estimate....”. I know their are some shady contractors but there are just as many if not MORE shady homeowners who try to take advantage of honest tradesmen
@@charlesgraney7494 Don't worry, I won't hire someone that has that low of a view of homeowners like you, I wouldn't want a bitter jaded contractor working in my home just because he got burned on a few bad apples coming in with a bad attitude from the get go. If you think ALL homeowners are that bad, then maybe you should find a different trade, or learn how to negotiate better.
I'm going to win the lottery, then move to Ottawa and let that Home RenoVision guy do all the work for me! I might even learn to drink a beer and put my feet up on the railing of my newly built deck! That's my plan!! In the meantime, I better stop dreaming and get back to work.
LOL, better make it quick the wife and I are looking to move around a little. Cheers!
@@HomeRenoVisionDIY By the time I win the lottery, you two will be retired and enjoying the grandchildren! You might as well get that moving done now!! Your plan is more probable than my plan!!! Ha ha! Thanks, Jeff.
Great episode. Would be better with a lav mic.
You def need a mic
That is the next step for sure. Cheers!
cheers!
were are you located bro ?
Liked for referencing Jordan Peterson
Referrals.. how to know if it's lagit their work?
Agreed.. everyone has a different idea of quality.
gotta see it to know for sure. If they use subs then you want to know if the guy that did the last job is going to be on your site!
Where’s the video of 11:05 for members only?
Hi Ian the members only video link is in the community post. You need to go to the home page to click on the community tab to find it. Cheers!
I can’t hear his questions
There’s nothing wrong with a customer being involved and hands on, especially on a big project,, but in no way should the customer serve as the general contractor or pull the permits themselves, ever
If horrible contractor, how can we get out?
With all fairness we should do shows about how to pick your customers, because a good contractor is likely to have hundreds of customers, if not already, eventually, but how many times is the average customer going to hire a contractor? once or twice in a lifetime perhaps....
I Strongly believe that there needs to be more education on how a customer should behave with the contractor than the other way around, even though I understand that there has been some shoddy contractors out there that have done some crap work. I get it.
Getting a decent customer is like picking a raffle at a fair, You never know what you're prize it's going to be....
I guess I just think there should be more videos about this because there are many more shitty arrogant, rude, undecided, uneducated , uninformed, power trip happy , customers than there are bad contractors.
It's easy to pick on the contractor and there's tons of videos out there about that, I just think that if we were to give a fair balanced perspective of what happens in people's houses that there should be more videos about shitty customers. If it was a more popular thing to speak about shady customers on UA-cam and other places people would be more Reserved ( I guess) when it comes to the way they treat what is technically an invited guest to their house, which is the contractor and his crew.
Again I am not defending a bad contractor, bad contractors shouldn't be out there taking people's money and either running with it or just not knowing what their doing and messing up people's houses.
From my experience a good customer makes a good contractor, and the contractor will always go above and beyond with several little extras for a good person.
When you have a shitty customer you just want to get in and get out as soon as possible, and the longer the job is you may even get depressed halfway through because you have to go into that person's house and deal with the people from the house... nothing to do with the job itself, but most of the time the hardest part of the job is the customer.
On the other hand just to wrap this up there are also great customers that almost make you forget about all the crappy ones Where you could literally spend a week or more doing little extra things and not even realise it because the environment was so pleasant.
What do you think is a good customer vs bad customer? I'm about to have a MAJOR remodel. I don't to be a bad customer.
@@tgp-rq2wi respect.
On a surface sense... he a decent human..do simple things.. ask if they're thirsty.. offer beverage. Make them feel comfortable.. they are in your home and are hyper aware . My friend told me that a client just opened the door asked: you know where you're going and what to do? And stood there. He said yes ma'am.. and proceeded. He had an awful stomach ache.. but made himself stay physically uncomfortable bc he didn't know, maybe she was having a bad day. He didn't want to bother her she seemed bothered to begin with. He was scared to ask her where the bathroom was.. that he could use. Anyway, she was pleased with his work and wanted to hire him for a bigger job... guess what... he said it wasn't worth the money
@@ftumi I hope I show that anyway.
My problem is, I can get the contractors, then they don't show up. They don't even call. We seem to communicate well, everyone seems to be at ease, then...nothing.
Several have said workers have quit, or can't get materials, or I don't hear from them at all.
I sincerely don't know if it's them or me.
Thanks for the input.
What is contractor bonding? BTW, MOST contractors and the boards who regulate them are dishonest. Mexicans always say they are insured, but when you tell them you need to check their insurance, they suddenly have to get back to you on that. That’s a red flag.
higher a "friend" hahahahahahah
Good afternoon Sir, could you please, pretty please work with me or help me out to find a good and honest contractor to renovate my basement and attic? I'm a single mother working two jobs to taking care of my family , but I'm afraid of getting someone to renovate my basement and don't do a great job. And to tell you the truth, I don't really have much to spend 😒 please help 🙏
Great advice! I wish this channel was around five years ago, when I started totally renovating my current home. I had to learn a lot of this stuff the hard way. One trick I use when evaluating people bidding for my work: check out the vehicle they drive. If it's a brand new pickup (or maybe a BMW!) with all the bells and whistles, this person is probably going to charge you too much; if it's a banged-up POS in lousy condition, this person probably doesn't take any better care of his or her other tools, or your job. A well-used, but decent condition vehicle usually indicates to me somebody who works hard for the money, and takes pride in what they do. Love the advice about checking the references' job sites. In my (limited) experience, you can tell a good trade/contractor by the way they leave the jobsite at the end of each day. The good ones take time to clean up and leave things neat and organized. Thanks for this great content, keep it coming! Looking forward to your traveling seminars; I'd take a class from you any day.
Ted DePalma as a contractor i find it funny that you said what you just said. So if I pull up in a taco truck what would be your assessment...that I’m ilegal? 😂😂😂
the truth is all generalization can lead you into trouble if you don't negotiate and have a clear working relationship established from the beginning. Looking forward to seeing you in class. cheers!
What if you show up in a white van with no windows!
Home RenoVision DIY I just found your logic (Ted) really entertaining because i have a very clear example of why that logic is flawed in a big way...
I typically do sales/estimating in my boring blue Ford Fusion BECAUSE it gets 40mpg unlike my BAD ASS work truck that gets like 15 mpg. I decided to take my work truck instead of my fusion one day to do estimates (cause I like my truck) and the guy verbatim tells me “boy I’m glad to see you drive up in a work truck with ladders...cause if you had driven up in a little sedan I would’ve told you to get lost...”. 😂😂😂. I remember just standing there looking at him like.”what the hell is wrong with you?” But hey judging by someones rig is a GREAT way to judge their work right Ted???
I would suggest follow Home Renovisions advice and go out and look at their work NOT their car. Ha ha. What a joke.
I consider not blowing up a good idea.
Right! Cheers!
Om shanti k good day please
Pretty sure most plaxes, big or small, would laugh at us if we handed them a contract.
It is not a whole contract just an amendment to outline your concerns. Cheers!
If you tell your contractor that drug testing is mandatory for you to hire him and he asks you if it's going to be buffet style you should find somebody else. ;-)
LOL, NicE!
And you pay for the drug testing right?
Sad I cannot join because of $$
Again you are blatantly mis informing customers, A. About them being the general contractor, if the customer is the GC, they are required to pull the permits etc, if they pull permits they get no help from the building dept, to settle any problem, such as the work not being complete, the roof leaking and the roofer won’t respond,, they are taking responsibility for the work, if you make sure the contractor pulls the permits and bonds himself the he is responsible, not the customer, the building dept will then step in and use the contractors bond to hire an already licensed contractor to fix or complete the job, using the bond to pay for it, in this case you don’t need a lawyer and all you do is call the building dept, give them the permit number and your problem is solved at no additional expense to you,,, It’s amazing that your mis informing these viewers like this,,, they listen to you because your a nice guy , so they trust that you know what your talking about,,, in this scenario you dont
Couldn't read your poorly formatted paragraph, and therefore, couldn't take you seriously.
shin888 well you are a dim wit
@@johnbailey2024 A true dim wit will form a poorly formatted paragraph
I have watched your videos for a while now and you know your stuff and love your channel, but on this i disagree because it sets so many people to fail if they take this advise, I have saved home owners tons of money and am honest to fault, I just believe UA-cam advise takes so much of the real world aspect out and sets people up for failure. I have not meet and believe I will not meet a contractor who will sign a paper saying he will show up everyday or how many hours a week he will work or if he misses a meeting there will some sort of repercussion, 99% of contractors who run a successful business have multiple clients you won’t survive keeping your schedule open for just 1 client would mean you either overcharge for your services or are just not that good, you do have deadlines on jobs but that close supervision of a client above the contractor would most probably never work as most clients follow the contractors lead on big jobs which means tons of changes and complications. Once you get into stuff like that the whole job will go down the tubes just imagine a delay that is not the contractors fault happens and the home owner does not agree, it would be mental to deal with that situation. I am a general contractor in Los Angeles 1 of the biggest markets for residential remodels and remodeled 100’s of homes, contracted million dollar builds with 5 stars on yelp , google , Angie’s list and home advisor, we offer pure quality builds, but if a client wants to have my schedule down like that I will politely decline the job as we would not be a good fit! That person has watched too many diy videos and would be extremely difficult and unrealistic to work with. I would be shocked but humbled if even 5% of people who take this advise would have a successful project or build. Just my two cents after 20 plus years of general contracting and having clients from every back ground and dealing with real world situations. Love your channel though you have a lot of knowledge :) cheers!
It is fine to have multiple clients as long as they all agree to get part time help on the jobsite. In my experience the problem arises when contractors promise a timeline with no intention to deliver it , because the law gives you 30 days past any agreed upon date to complete. Promising to deliver while looking for labor is not an acceptable business model! I think a client should be able to be compensated for delays in order to keep the contractor accountable. That is why I promote negotiating. Your clients are all servants to your timeline once you begin and that is wrong.You are serving your needs and not your clients.
You are on a different level alex, HRVDIY is a small, maybe medium sized Ottawa outfit ( no disrespect) but unlikely he has ever had a contract of your size.
@alexp818 I don't believe you, no way someone who can't guarantee a decent time frame will get million dollar contracts. As someone who works for one of the big 3 automotive industries. If my plant hires outside contractors, they are required to provide a decent time frame. Because we lose out on literally 30 grand per minute that the line is down. If contractors start dragging ass, my company wouldn't be calling you ever again. If you are as good as you say, you should have NO problem assessing the job, and being able to provide an adequate timeframe. And I don't know too many contractors that are spinning multiple plates at once. They do a job, get the job done, and move on to the next job. They don't do an hour here, and an hour over here, and another hour at another site back and forth, that makes no sense and wastes a lot of time.
Is a contractor going to give you a reference that was unhappy with the project outcome? Of course not. Why bother with references.
your show is painful to watch....plan your show agenda, go through the topics according to the agenda, and then deal with questions afterwards....jumping around between your agenda and incoming comments makes for a frustrating video that people will turn off - like I did after 15 minutes.
Thanks for the input. we are working on the format and style still since we are new at this. Cheers!
your DIY videos are excellent, btw....we subscribe and have followed your guidance for 2-3 major projects around here.....call-in shows or podcasts with q/a are always a challenge to keep from free-wheeling away from intended topic...keep up good work!
Did my fav UA-cam renovation guy just shout out Jordan Peterson? 😣. Such ick.....maybe it's some OTHER Jordan Peterson, one that isn't an blatantly ignorant and racist right wing bigot 🙏.