Last year we shared a story with you about the risks if you choose a builder on the basis of a short, surprisingly cheap, quote.
We had helped a homeowner who was planning to renovate and extend his home to get his project off the ground. Long story short, he obtained a quote from another builder that was significantly cheaper than our quote. The other builder’s quote was only 2 pages long and it wasn’t clear what was included. We told him that we could not see how any builder could do the works (with a good quality finish and within a reasonable timeframe) for that price. The homeowner couldn’t resist and appointed the cheap builder… and what could go wrong – the builder was recommended by his architect.
We were interested in how his project had gone, so we got in touch last year. The homeowner told us that “...so far its been everything you predicted – unreliable builder who is never here and constantly invents variations to blow out the costs.”
Recently, we bumped into him and asked how it had panned out in the end. The works were finally finished but:
- it ended up costing him MORE than our original fixed price quote (for the same scope of work),
- the works took over 12 MONTHS LONGER than they should have; and
- he actually had to finish off some of the works himself.
You can always find someone who will offer a cheaper price. But at the end of the day, are they cheaper? and was it worth sacrificing a stress-free building experience? We don’t think so, so this isn’t how we do business.
To help you make sure you know exactly what is included in your building quote and what isn’t, we have prepared a Building Quote Checklist that includes over 100 things to check when reviewing quotes.
Use it to make sure…..
you know exactly what is included in your building quote and what isn’t when you are comparing building quotes, you are comparing apples with apples
you don’t get hit by unexpected cost blow outs AFTER you have signed your building contract
THE BUILDING QUOTE CHECKLIST
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