Selecting Your Contractor
Selecting your contractor is like picking your mate, your doctor, your banker or your insurance person because you are going to be living with what they do for you for a long long time.
Look to your local HBA for lists of criteria for selection process.
Once you have picked your contractor your homework has only just begun.
Why is it important?
- To consider your builders Honesty, Integrity, and Reputation before you sign anything.
- To know what kind of windows you are buying.
- To know what kind of insulation will be installed and where.
- To know who are their subcontractors and major suppliers.
- To know past customers from 1 year ago, 2 years, 3 years.
- To know beforehand what appliances you can buy with your allowances.
- To have a contract spelling out total cost, terms, completion date, retainage, punch list, warranties, mediation.
- To get a basic knowledge about construction or have someone who does help you with this.
- To know that if someone is telling you something that sounds too good to be true it probably is.
- To know that you can not make the call on every aspect of quality, quantity, and price. You can only have two of the three and your contractor, if they are any good, will be happy to take the one that is left.
- To know realtors sell houses they don't build them.