Expect professionalism from your contractor, but expect to pay for it

Sun., Aug. 22, 2004

David Bauer Spokane Home Builders Association

There is a trend today among professional contractors toward charging a reasonable fee for their advice, estimation and bidding services. This is a good trend that sends a positive message to the consumer. The message is that the professional contractor values his or her time and respects the client’s time. The client who balks at paying a reasonable fee for services rendered sends a warning signal to the professional that she (the professional) may be about to waste her valuable time. The contractor who is too willing to render service without compensation sends a warning to the client that he (the client) may be about to get what he has paid for, probably nothing.

Can you imagine yourself picking a doctor’s name out of the directory, calling and saying, “I think there may be something wrong with me and I’d like to discuss matters with you? And by the way, I am very busy so could you meet me at my house this evening?” Can you imagine that, after hearing this doctor’s remarks that evening, then saying “thanks, I’d like to think this over a bit, I’ll call you?” And you did all of this without any expectation of having to pay the doctor!

Assuming such an unlikely scenario would take place, what impression would you have about this doctor? How high would your confidence be in his or her ability? As ridiculous as it may seem, this sort of scenario is too often encountered by building contractors. Granted your health is more important than your house, but if you are considering spending tens of thousands of dollars to remodel your home wouldn’t you want to have the highest confidence in your contractor? You would not make a visit to your doctor without expecting to pay for the service so why should you treat the professional contractor any differently?

Like many other professions today, contractors are faced with escalating insurance costs. This year saw the implementation of the new International Building Code and builders have to attend educational seminars to keep up with the many changes required by the new code. Good builders belong to a professional association. How much confidence would you have in a doctor who didn’t take any continuing education courses or didn’t belong to a professional association because he didn’t want to pay a few hundred dollars in dues?

This is not to suggest that paying for consultation services guarantees the job will be done correctly. Nor does it mean that contractors who do not charge for consultation services are incapable of doing a job correctly. But it is one positive indication about the professional contractor.

Paying for consultation services will be more acceptable if you have done your homework in a few important ways:

•Ask your friends for a recommendation to a contractor. Use the same networking resources you would rely upon to find a good doctor, dentist, lawyer, or even a great restaurant.

•Choose up to three to call and interview them for their qualifications. Do they belong to a professional association? When was the last continuing education course they took?

•Get references from them. Most importantly, call those references and ask questions. Did they show up when scheduled? Did they stick to the costs they quoted for the project? Did they finish the project in a timely fashion? Did they attend to questions and concerns?

•Armed with this kind of information you will have confidence in the professional giving you advice. Paying a reasonable fee for that confidence is well worthwhile.

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