the importance of getting quotes!

LillibetteV · March 2016

We're installing a fence this summer and got three WILDLY different quotes for the exact same thing! Has anyone else had this experience? I nearly laughed in the last guy's face when he wanted to charge me over $4k for less than 50 feet of fence. Woof.

short+sassy · March 2016

I have definitely had that happen for home improvement projects I have gotten bids on. I am absolutely convinced that a dirty little secret in the construction industry is, if a contractor does not want to do your project for some reason...ie they are really busy, maybe it isn't a convenient location, (who knows what reason)...they will purposely give an outrageous estimate, rather than just saying "no, I don't want to bid on this project".

For example, I have a handyman who is just awesome. He was doing a lot of work on a duplex I bought. I needed the interior of the whole 2,000 square foot house painted...plus there was some wall repair. He highly recommended a painting company that he had worked with many times before on other projects. They gave me a quote of $12,000, which was double all the other quotes I got.

Even my handyman was stunned and apologized to me for recommending them. He said the only reason he could think of that they gave such an obviously outrageous price is that they might just be really busy and have to put off other work to have gotten my house done. So it wasn't worth it to them unless they charged a lot.

julieanne912 · March 2016

Yup, H just got done getting window well cover quotes. The first guy he called was the one who did the covers for our neighbor a few doors down, who has the exact same house we have....ie same # of window wells and same sizes. We knew what the neighbor paid, but yet, this guy quoted H $500 more.

Same happened when our sliding door glass cracked, we got quotes ranging from $300 to $1000.

And yes, our other neighbor, who owns a landscaping company, will bid higher on jobs he may not necessarily want to do. He also said he bids higher when the customer is a jerk or seems like they'd be high maintenance.... he calls it the "PITA fee". His business is booming so he can afford to not take every job he bids.

LillibetteV · March 2016

That makes sense - mine is definitely a smaller project (our lot is 3,000 sq ft and the house itself takes up most of it). Last summer we got a landscaping quote for over $20k! and that didn't include the fence! Yea....I'm not paying $20,000 for some grass and plants in a yard that's only about 40 feet by 15 feet. Our town is in the middle of a demographic shift from mainly older blue-collar families to younger, college educated, professional DINKS (such as us) or young families so in talking to some of our townie neighbors I think we're getting a bit of the "oh look rich kids moved to town" quotes. Except....we aren't rich...so I guess we're DIYing a lot more than we planned on!

formerlyGDaisy09 · March 2016

yup, when we did our roof we got quotes from $4000 to $10K+ there was a different type of work involved between the lowest and the highest (placing standing seam over existing asphault shingles versus stripping the shingles off the roof and replacing with new). But there was still a huge difference between quotes for similar work.

NicA617 · March 2016

I agree with PP that sometimes a high quote means: "I don't want this job, but if i do it, I'm going to make a LOT of $$". we just got quotes for a basement renovation ranging from $75k - $90k. We don't want anything fancy, but we live in an OLD house - 1875 old. the basement height isn't up to code, so all the pipes need to be elevated; NOBODY seems anxious to it take on & I think that's why the quotes were so high.

guess who isn't getting a new basement any time soon?

jtmh2012 · March 2016

We wanted to convert an electric range into a gas range. Called 3 different places. We could never get a quote out of the first one, the second one said they wouldn't do the grill, the third one gave us a somewhat reasonable price, but I got into it with their receptionist after what she told me didn't match up with what the estimator said when he showed up.

Needless to say, no range and no grill.

jtmh2012 · March 2016

btw, our neighbor and I use a landscaping guy who does trees, mulch, etc. He took 5 trees out for me for just $1000. I considered that a steal. We recommended him to a neighbor who wanted a large bush taken out and she said his quote was very high. My first neighbor and I suspected that we get low quotes because we tell him to fit us in whenever he can whereas most people want it done on a specific date so he uses us a gap fillers when his guys would otherwise be idle.

jessica490 · March 2016

We got 4 fence estimates as well and they were are fairly similar except for this 1 company that was charging $5K more! But this company is from an uppedy town so I would've expected that....we will NOT be going with them.

short+sassy · March 2016

Oh! And the other dirty little secret I've learned...though it doesn't apply to me, lol. Is many companies will charge more for jobs if the house is in an upscale neighborhood.

@julieanne912, cracking up at "PITA fee". I could totally see that.

Small jobs can be a real issue also. I did an inspection on a house a few months ago that I was considering purchasing (but didn't). My inspector told me the roof, didn't need to be replaced, but it did need some patching. But then he warned me I'd have a hard time finding a company to do it. Simply because the job was too small for most roofing companies to want to be bothered with. He joked, "A lot of those guys won't get out of bed for less than 5 grand."

LillibetteV · March 2016

short+sassy said:

Oh! And the other dirty little secret I've learned...though it doesn't apply to me, lol. Is many companies will charge more for jobs if the house is in an upscale neighborhood.
@julieanne912, cracking up at "PITA fee". I could totally see that.
Small jobs can be a real issue also. I did an inspection on a house a few months ago that I was considering purchasing (but didn't). My inspector told me the roof, didn't need to be replaced, but it did need some patching. But then he warned me I'd have a hard time finding a company to do it. Simply because the job was too small for most roofing companies to want to be bothered with. He joked, "A lot of those guys won't get out of bed for less than 5 grand."

Ugh - that's our biggest problem for our outdoor space, there just isn't a lot of it and we're in a nicer area. Just because I don't have the space and budget of our fancy neighbors doesn't mean I want my house to look like crap! [indeed...the yard most definitely looks like crap at the moment].

the importance of getting quotes!

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