HOW TO HIRE A CONTRACTOR - Why Using The Lowest Bidder is NOT Economical

Home building is a stressful process but there's nothing worse than crazy contractors. I know there are some amazing contractors out there - as a matter of fact, we used one for some portions of our projects - all of which turned out BEAUTIFULLY and were completed in a TIMELY FASHION and when we look at it - we have that "AHHHHH!" moment where we are so completely satisfied with their work and the LOW STRESS THRESHOLD they provided. Then there are other contractors. The first came with good recommendations and his pricing was significantly lower than the next contractor - enough we couldn't justify using the PROFESSIONAL contractor. So this fly-by-night guy came in to build OUR FOUNDATION...

Now, if there's anything that even I know as an amateur - foundation is HUGE when building a house. A proper foundation is necessary and what every homeowner anticipates when contracting someone to build it. My amazing husband is a researcher deluxe. The guy will stay up all night and research something to the "nth" degree and determine the route he wants to take. When he says he wants to build an ICF basement - I know he's found it to be the best foundation for the house that he could find and that it would be wonderful! The contractor bid the job as a full ICF basement. When he built it however, he did a partial ICF...partial wood on the exposed walkout and put in cinderblocks at the base of the ICF walls - for no apparent reason other than the fact that he wanted to and didn't care what my husband wanted. I have never seen my Fit Farmer so frustrated. We also contracted him to provide a 3 foot foundation base for our mudroom so that we could install in-floor heat panels. He had our excavation contractor dig a SEVEN FOOT HOLE - proceeded to build cinderblock walls - and then made the guy fill the hole back in. WHY???? If I had known I would have put in a root celler for goodness sake!

To add to the pain of all this he was having a hard time reading the blue prints - so his measurements were off - which meant things didn't come together as they should and this particular contractor has been the "gift" that keeps on giving. Starting with his being $30,000 over budget - charging us for a basement that wasn't built to our specifications at a higher rate for 1/3 of it being STICK BUILT rather than ICF. Sticking us with the additional charges for the contractor who excavated then filled the mudroom hole. Having to pay another contractor to come in and reinforce the stemwall because he didn't finish that out properly either. Having to pay double for the mudroom construction because the specs didn't match what was installed so the contractor had to "retrofit" the mudroom. Having our garage wind up several degrees off because he laid out the house foundation incorrectly (not according to the plans.) The list goes on. In reality he didn't just cost us the added $30,000 but another $20,000 plus in adjustments!

When we were checking into the appraisal for transferring the  mortgage - we found out we had to complete the mudroom and 60% of the basement. This was not in the plans and all the extra money we had to pay out to our overbudget fly-by-night contractor and all the additional adjustments - well that was the money we were planning to use to finish this stuff off with. We brought in a contractor on someone's recommendation again. This guy...well...he's good at some stuff - but he is NOT a finish carpenter by any means and can't keep a crew because he's not so good at managing his finances. That meant the majority of the time he worked alone. Every tried to hang drywall - ALONE? He did well until he found himself strapped financially, then things went down hill fast. He was constantly asking for more money even though he hadn't quite finished the work yet. I finally drew up contracts and payment plans for the guy so he knew when he would be paid and how much - contingent upon COMPLETION of the project. It worked...SORT OF. Then he subcontracted someone and that went south when he didn't pay them. When someone shows up at your home and they're disgruntled about not being paid and they threaten a lein on your loan...oy...that get's a little scary and a lot of stressful. To add to that - what this guy said he could do in 4 weeks has stretched out into four months - and that's just NOT COOL.

SO...long story short. The lowest BID is NOT the most economical route because they always - I mean ALWAYS go OVER BUDGET...they don't get things done in a timely fashion. When they lose interest because they can't get any more money out of you, they start doing shoddy work. And you may be left cleaning up after them down the road.

So - What should you do?

1.  RESEARCH - check better business bureau, get recommendations and CALL THEM. 
2. DRAW UP CONTRACTS - make it official, know the rates, timelines and payment plan ahead of time and stick with it. 
3. HAVE AN OUT - if something is just not feeling right or things just aren't going well - make sure your contract has an OUT so that you can bring in someone who will do the job right. 
4. SIGN LEIN RELEASES - as you pay them - make sure they sign off on the lein release noting they have been paid and cannot put a lein on your loan. 

AND if you live near Stanley, North Dakota - you can hire 

NORTH COUNTRY EXCAVATING & CONSTRUCTION

 (701) 628-6232

These are the people we SHOULD HAVE HIRED in the first place. Their bid seemed high - but they ALWAYS stay ON BUDGET, they get things done ON TIME and they do QUALITY WORK! 

3 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU START TO BUILD A HOUSE

We have been through the ringer with this house building thing. We aren't even past the early stages and we are already experiencing some major pain in the home building arena.

When we started this process we were excited to finally see some movement towards our goal after about 2 1/2 years of planning. Or so we thought. What we found out is that we had been doing about 2 1/2 years of dreaming and had not touched on the planning yet. What we found out is that we were behind the ball on many things and ahead of the game in others. But what we found that hurt the most was that our dreamers, our wanters had taken over our bodies and we were no longer functioning within our budgetary guidelines. As a matter of fact, we were so far beyond them that we forgot what they were!

This being the case, I want to save some people some of the pain that we are currently experiencing. Here are three things you should do BEFORE you start to build a house.

1) KNOW YOUR BUDGET - one of my goals has always been to own my house and not have my house own me. This is fairly easy to accomplish when you rent, when you buy a house that's pre-owned - well, that's another story for another day, but suffice it to say - SET YOUR DOLLAR LIMIT and STAY WITHIN IT. Do NOT -- no really...DO NOT blow your budget!

2) RESEARCH YOUR BUILDER - we thought we'd done our research but what we had been doing was simply dreaming - when it came to understanding who the builder was, we were clueless. WHY? Because we went with a broker. We purchased a modular home built by the broker's company of choice. How do they choose - well, they sign on to sell certain builder's homes - in our case, they had three levels of builders - the pre-fab home style builders whose houses look like mobile homes, the middle market builder whose houses look great until you pull out the level and the magnifying glass, and of course there is their top of the line builder that only a select few can afford. In our case - we fell within the category of their middle market builder. What we didn't know were some of the key elements we wanted were sacrificed - not because they couldn't do it and do it well, but because we chose to compromise our budget and stretch some things thin while other items we went top of the line with.

Once you narrow down your builder - CHECK THEM OUT. Visit their factory, see how they do things. If we had known, we likely would have gone a different route, but we didn't. Don't get me wrong - we have a beautiful home - there were just a few things that looked a bit slapped together or weren't up to the standard we thought they would be - but they are all minor cosmetic issues we can manage ourselves. As far as structure and soundness - it is fantastic.

3) UNDERSTAND EXTENUATING COSTS - for us, we built from scratch - literally from the ground up. Undeveloped land that we had to pull power, cable, drill a well, excavate out of the side hill...SO - the house was reasonable and well within our budget - but when you added the development of the land, septic tank installation, excavation and cement work, cost of build out for the basement and garage and throw in a 500 sf mudroom - you have a recipe for going WAY.OVER.BUDGET. We have tried to maintain - but we have constantly been getting slapped with misquotes and whoopses. You need to get your quotes in advance - lock the contractor in and incorporate those charges into your budget. This must be included in the cost of building your home so that you aren't thrown a huge curveball!

We are still in the process of building our home. Our appraisal is now our nemesis. There were some items added to the appraisal in order to obtain the value of the home that now have to be completed in order to convert our construction loan to a mortgage - but I can honestly say - what I am seeing - when we finish our house (top to bottom) and all is complete, THIS HOUSE - this amazing piece of exquisite real estate will be worth double that appraisal value - guaranteed! Now, here's hoping we live long enough to see it completed! lol! My poor husband has poured his heart and soul into this place! Hours upon hours of work to get this home built! I will say this...it is already breathtaking! I never dreamt of living in a home as grande as our farmhouse on the prairie! In that respect - God is good and we are very happy! I don't mean for the points above to sound negative but they are IMPORTANT considerations - so please, if you're building, keep these three things in mind BEFOREHAND!

This story is our story - it doesn't reflect every situation or every person's building experience - so please know that I am sharing from our personal experience and nothing more.