A Modest Proposal

OK, so you’re finally so sick of that old bathroom that you decide to actually do something about it. Smart consumer that you are, you ask friends for referrals, maybe check Angie’s List or, my favorite, go to the National Association of the Remodeling Industry’s local chapter website: www.narimetrodc.org and start your search for reputable folks to come in and make everything shiny and new.

After you’ve talked with a few people, you’ll begin to get some pricing back. Some are higher and some lower. Some are pretty detailed, and others might be handwritten on a one page NEBS form. You might even get a number scrawled on the back of a business card.

What do you make of these different approaches? Do you have questions after reading through them all? Are you satisfied that the contractor understood what you wanted, and that he or she has put together a proposal that reflects what you actually would like built? How do you know?

I believe in more information, not less. When a potential client reads one of my proposals, I want them to say “Wow! This guy is DETAILED! He must really know what he’s doing!” Judging from the reaction of many people to whom I’ve given proposals, this IS what they think. That pleases me, because that is how I want to be perceived.

For as much as I might be seen as detailed and knowledgeable though, it doesn’t always follow that I’ll get the job. Price is important, and looking into projects as closely as I like to means that I’m not always the least expensive guy out there. Shocker, I know, but I don’t actually end up working for most of the people whose projects I look at. That doesn’t cause me to question what I do though, since I don’t want EVERYONE to buy what I’m offering.

My ideal client (personality traits aside!) is someone who has good taste, a sufficient budget for the work and, most importantly, values the detail I put into not only the proposal I give, but the work that comes after. So, what does a detailed proposal mean?

A detailed proposal means that your potential contractor has taken the time to look at your project, go back to his or her office and actually THINK about it. This thinking, before the first spade of earth has been turned, means that your contractor won’t have to reinvent the wheel on the fly while the job is underway. He or she will know how things are going to go, because that’s the way they’ve planned them. Put another way, thought beforehand pays dividends later on.

In the end, I believe the goal of a thorough proposal is to leave little doubt as to what will be done, how long it will take, what materials will be used, what it will cost and what it will look like. Have a look at a typical proposal of ours, and I think you’ll see what I mean.

Sample Proposal

The meaning of .33

Last week, I ran into an architect for whom I have bid a few jobs over the last several years. I haven’t gotten any of those jobs, but that’s another story, I suppose. Anyway, we chatted briefly, and I asked him what had ever happened to the most recent project I had bid for him, a year and a half or so ago.

The project, a pretty substantial interior remodeling, had been bid out to two established firms; mine and another. When the prices had come in, we were both pretty close to one another; mine being a little bit higher, but both in the neighborhood of $375k. The client, however, was unhappy, as both prices were well north of what he wanted to spend.

When we last communicated, the client told me that, since the numbers just weren’t working for him, he would likely sell the house, and buy something that worked as it was. In any event, he said, I was unlikely to do the work if it went forward, as mine was the higher of the two bids. So, there I left it, and moved on.

Maybe that was just a sop to me, but, apparently, after a little more thought, the homeowner decided that HE could act as the general contractor, hire out the various skilled labor sets, oversee and schedule their work, provide the materials, and save himself a goodly sum of money. Apparently he did save some money (at least up front) and, according to the architect, managed to contract nearly the same scope of work for something like 2/3 of what I and the other bidder had proposed.

So I asked the architect how the project had turned out in the end, and he said not so well. He said further that it looked like a lawsuit was in the works….not against him, but by the homeowner against some or various of those whom he had hired to build his project….many of whom, evidently, were not at the top of their respective crafts, but a lot less expensive.

It‘s not surprising to me that things turned out as they did. The knowledge that an experienced general contractor brings to the management of a project of that size is considerable. Also considerable is the temptation to believe that all of that knowledge is not worth nearly what is being charged and that with a little homework, any reasonably intelligent person should be able to do that job.

I’m not here to toot my own horn; only to say that it just ain’t so. There was a guest on NPR not long ago, who was talking about super memory, and who used as examples, people who are so proficient at what they do, that they are able to bypass certain portions of their brain, and do what they do almost intuitively.

We’ve all seen people like that, right? People like Tiger Woods bouncing a golf ball on the end of a club, or in a more mundane way, the accountant who can figure out your taxes in a few minutes, while you would be stumped for hours. It’s not effortless on their part, but they’ve done it enough that they no longer have to think about the basics. It's automatic.

My profession is no different. Over almost 25 years of doing what I do, I can see a job schedule before the job starts. I can see problems that will arise when one material is used improperly with another. I can look at finished work and know, almost instantly, whether it was done properly, and how it was done. I can listen to a sub or a vendor (or even a client or architect) feed me some line and know whether it’s BS or not. I can see the finished job in my head, before it’s built.

Do these abilities make me superhuman, you might be tempted to ask? Uh…..no, sadly. They do, however, make me experienced and so, by extension, valuable. When you hire me or another experienced contractor to coordinate, build and oversee your project, you are NOT just hiring the individual components of what we bring to the job….the carpenters, the masons, the drywallers, the tile setters, the painters and so on. What you ARE hiring is a team, of which the general contractor is the leader.

This high functioning team did not just spring into being. It was built over many years of working with the same people, over and over; adding and culling members until what is left is a group of people who do what they do quite well, who work happily together and who look out for one another; producing high quality projects in a timely and efficient manner….a team that minds the details from the first shovelful of dirt to tightening the last screw (aligned vertically, by the way….a little OCD, I know) on a switch plate.

Is THAT worth 1/3 of $375k? I’m not the homeowner, so I’d leave him to answer that question. Living in a screwed up house with not a straight wall in sight, an HVAC system that doesn’t properly heat or cool and moving forward with a lawsuit that is bound to cost another good bit of money though, I’d have to think his answer might be different now than it was a year and a half ago.

I can poke out my eye with a stick….but I wouldn’t call it surgery.