It’s always useful to learn from other people’s mistakes, so we thought we’d share a story with you. A little while ago, we helped a home owner who was planning a renovation and extension to get his project off the ground. We kept in touch while he appointed his architect and obtained planning permission, provided advice along the way and then prepared a comprehensive quote for his works.
Because we’d been involved from the outset, we knew the project well. The build cost came in over budget so we included a detailed list of the potential cost savings we had identified and then prepared a revised quote. But the home owner received a quote from another builder that was cheaper. We told him that we could not see how anyone could do the renovation works (with a good quality finish and within a reasonable timeframe) for that price. The other builder’s quote was only 2 pages long and it wasn’t clear what was and wasn’t included, but the home owner couldn’t resist it and appointed him.
We were interested to know how it panned out, so we got in touch. This was the home owner’s response –
“Long story short, we are two weeks off completing the front phase (refit) of the house and so far its been everything you predicted – unreliable builder who is never here and constantly invents variations to blow out the costs.”
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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