company. Simply knowing that another person has had a good experience with a window company prior to calling them lessens your chance of hiring a problem.

• If you have the time, call a few window replacement

companies to look at your job. This will help you determine fair market price. This does not mean you should always go with the lowest price, you should go with the company you feel most comfortable with, who is offering the best products, and who you feel will do the best job. If an individual is offering a real low price you should ask yourself "why?".

• Make sure the company or individual has insurance. As mentioned above there are many fly-by-night window replacement companies that may not be insured. If you skip this part you could be held liable for an uninsured window replacement worker's injury at your house. They should also have liability insurance. If they do something that ruins a major area of your house they should be insured to pay for their mistakes.

• Ask the window replacement company what types of windows they suggest using. If you are looking for an extremely low price, the window replacement company may offer a lower quality window. It is worth the extra money to make sure that your windows are of acceptable quality…otherwise you will pay more money in the long run. Ask about warrantees, energy efficiency, and styles of available products.

• Always get a statement of work performed in writing. Keep this filed away. Make sure the statements clearly lay out what work is to be performed.

• Ask he company if their work and products come with guarantees. Make sure you get these things in writing. These are all factors to weigh when looking at the total estimates left by different window replacement companies. Most window warranties from window companies are only good if the product is installed properly..another reason to make sure you hire a quality pro.

• Some window replacement companies require an upfront payment. If you have hired a smaller window replacement service, and they require money upfront to help pay for materials, make sure you have a refund policy stated in your agreement if they end up not working out. Also, this upfront amount should never be over 30% of the total cost of your job.

• Check in on the window replacement company's progress regularly…try to catch potential problems or misunderstandings before it is too late.

Good luck with your window replacement needs!

More information on this effort can be found at window replacement info in Raleigh-Durham or anywhere.

• Guarantees, quality of materials used, and upkeep packages are all factors to weigh when looking at the total estimates left by different landscaping contractors.

• Some landscaping contractors require an upfront payment. Agree to a payment schedule (which is a written document that clearly states how much and when payments are due). Make sure your payment schedule is discussed and documented on your contract prior to work beginning. Here is some more information on payment schedules.

• Check in on the landscaping contractor's progress regularly…try to catch potential problems or misunderstandings before it is too late.

Good luck with your home landscaping needs!

More information can be found at Finding Landscape Contractors in Raleigh-Durham or anywhere.

• Guarantees, quality of materials used, and upkeep packages are all factors to weigh when looking at the total estimates left by different landscaping contractors.

• Some landscaping contractors require an upfront payment. Agree to a payment schedule (which is a written document that clearly states how much and when payments are due). Make sure your payment schedule is discussed and documented on your contract prior to work beginning. Here is some more information on payment schedules.

• Check in on the landscaping contractor's progress regularly…try to catch potential problems or misunderstandings before it is too late.

Good luck with your home landscaping needs!

More information can be found at Finding Landscape Contractors in Raleigh-Durham or anywhere.

• Try to decide if your work can be accomplished by a handyman. If you are simply laying some tile, painting, and changing some appliances you should feel confident that a skilled handyman (with experience in these tasks) could handle this work. However, if you are talking about gutting and changing the entire kitchen around, then your best chance of success is hiring an experienced general contractor.

• Make sure the company has insurance. There is a chance for injury and for destruction of your house when remodeling a kitchen. As mentioned above, there are many fly-by-night contractors that may not be insured. If you skip this part you could be held liable for an uninsured worker's injury in your kitchen. You could also be left with the bill if an uninsured contractor destroys something in your kitchen.

• Ask if the kitchen remodeling company will be able to handle all of the work you require themselves, or if they will have to sub some of the work out to other companies (such as a plumber). If they are subbing jobs out, make sure that their contract states that the remodeling company is still directly responsible for all work. You want 1 company and 1 contact for all problems.

• If your kitchen remodel requires a general contractor, or you simply decide to hire a company that states that they are general contractors, make sure they have a valid General Contractors License. They should be able to show this document to you.

• Always get a statement of work performed in writing. Keep this filed away. Make sure the statement clearly describes what work is to be performed.

• Ask if the kitchen remodeling work comes with guarantees. These are all factors to weigh when looking at the total estimates left by different contractors.

• Some contractors require an upfront payment. Agree to a payment schedule (which is a written document that clearly states how much and when payments are due). Make sure your payment schedule is discussed and documented on your contract prior to work beginning. More info on this: Paying Your Contractor

• Check in on kitchen remodeling progress regularly- try to catch potential problems or misunderstandings before it is too late.

Good luck with your kitchen and remodeling needs!

More information can be found at Finding Kitchen Remodelers in Raleigh-Durham or anywhere.

The interesting thing is that many times homeowners unknowingly bring the risk of unpleasant contractor experiences on themselves. This is because many times customer hiring decisions are based solely on price. A homeowner is setting themselves up for problems when doing this.

How does making price the only hiring factor lead to contractor horror stories?

Well, first let’s look at what goes into a contractor’s estimate when pricing out your job. The contractor’s price is made up of 4 factors:

a) Labor Cost

b) Material Cost

c) Overhead

d) Profit

By examining each of these factors we can see where too low of a price can lead to customer dissatisfaction.

a) Labor Cost

A contractor’s labor cost is the money he will pay out to his workers to complete the job. As in most industries, more skilled labor goes at a higher price. In other words, employing skilled painters is going to cost the contractor more money than having unskilled or inexperienced workers. Therefore, a paint company that offers a considerably lower price may be using less skilled crews in order to offer that price. Unskilled work leads to poor quality and errors….which causes homeowner dissatisfaction with the end result.

b) Material Cost

A contractor’s material cost is how much the materials, parts, or equipment they use for your job will cost. In general, most contractors will pay about the same amount for the exact same materials. Therefore, contractors that are offering much lower prices are often times using less expensive and lower quality materials in order to offer their lower price. Many times homeowners are not aware that the quoted job materials are lower quality…which causes homeowner dissatisfaction with the end result. Specifiying materials on work orders can avoid any surprises.

c) Overhead

Overhead are the costs that the contractor incurs to run their business. A contractor may need to pay for office and sales staff, insurance, equipment, etc. in order to offer their services. Larger companies may have more overhead than small businesses, and there may be a difference in price quotes because of this. However, a homeowner cannot expect to have the same service from the company with no overhead as it can from the larger professional company. The less expensive company may not have an employee available to answer the homeowner’s phone call or a manager available to visit the job site and make sure the work is satisfactory. Problems arise when homeowners expect these things from the lower priced contractor…but the contractor does not have the overhead cost figured into their work to offer these extra benefits. Again, this can lead to customer dissatisfaction.

Any contractor a homeowner hires should have the proper insurance to do the job. Insurance is a large cost for contractors, so a company offering a real low price may be able to offer this low price because they do not have insurance. Hiring such contractors is very dangerous and can easily leave a homeowner liable or holding a very large bill for a mistake made by unisured contractors.

d) Profit

Profit is the amount that the contractor is expecting to make as income for the job he/she is pricing. This amount can vary depending on the contractor. This is also an area where homeowners feel a contractor can lower their price. However, a real low price may not have enough profit figured into the job for the contractor and can cause major issues and dissatisfaction with the homeowner in the long run. YES, WE DID SAY THAT A PRICE WITH TOO LOW OF A PROFIT FIGURED INTO THE JOB IS A BAD THING FOR HOMEOWNERS. Why? Well, no one wants to work for free. If a contractor starts your job and quickly realizes that he has underestimated his costs he knows that his profit is becoming very small. This situation can lead to 3 outcomes:

1) The contractor will speed through the job, cutting time, quality, and materials to try to increase his dwindling profit.

2) The contractor may not be willing to spend more unpaid time to come back and fix problems that have arisen after he has completed the job.

3) The contractor will stop your job (and leave it unfinished) and move on to another job (at another site) where he can earn more of a profit.

Either way, the homeowner ends up extremely unhappy and unsatisfied, and possibly with unfinished work.

As you can see by the above breakdown of a contractor’s pricing, a real low price will almost always lead to problems. The fact that so many customers base their hiring decisions solely on price can help explain the many horror stories one hears about in the home service industry.

This clouded reputation is unfair for the many quality companies that are out their doing business that pride themselves on customer satisfaction and quality work (and price their jobs to achieve these things!).

This is not to say you should be taken to the cleaners by contractors. You should always obtain a few estimates to determine the fair market price for your job (from a QUALITY professional). Take into account the type of company you are hiring, the quality of labor, what materials are used, guarantees offered, and what your expectations for the customer service will be…. and know that a contractor’s price will often determine the level of quality and professionalism. If you base your decision only on the real low price a company offers you may just be setting yourself up for a bad contractor situation.

More information on hiring contractors can be found at: Pay a Contractor in Raleigh-Durham or anywhere