Red Flags and Out of State Clients
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Recently a woman contacted me about doing some remodeling on some buildings. Over the course of several days via text, telephone and email she gave me three different job locations one of which was out of state and two different names she went by. When I told them I had concerns and was going to pass on the project I was told I was “unprofessional” because they had a website, and their email matched it.
She is entitled to her opinion, and she may be a legit business. But even if they are when you gut says it’s not a good fit listen. I’ve done this so many years that I’ve learned the hard way. But I also so an opportunity to share some tips on how you can work well with your out of state contractor.
Here are FIVE tips to make your out of state contracting experience a positive one.
The decision maker and the contractor need to have communication. If I am your contractor then the people making the decisions and paying the bills need to speak with me at the beginning at least. If you have an assistant who is to be my point of contact, they will need to be on the initial consultation as well.
I am not responsible for any miscommunication between you and your representatives. Because of that if there are more than 2 decision makers like a designer, a homeowner, and a project manager I insist that I only deal with 2 people. And I have it built into my contracts that I will not pay for their lack of communication.
Make sure you and your builder are good enough at technology to give and receive text photos of progress, itemized bills, and where you can do virtual progress video calls through Facetime or Zoom. I had some people that lived out of state that couldn’t even text. Every question was a call that could have been a text or email. It consumed so much of my most precious resource my time and attention. And life would have been less stressful for them if they’d had these skills as well.
Plan to make visits during scheduled times so that the builder knows to wait on you to look at it before going to the next phase. This gives everyone the opportunity to make strategic changes or catch anything that might have been missed.
This one is the most important. Especially if you are an out of state client. When we start your plans need to be exactly what you want already on paper. That doesn’t mean we can’t make changes through it. But we should all be on the same page from the beginning.
I hope these are helpful and if you are an out of state client maybe we can work together to create a wonderful home for you in such a way that’s the least stressful experience.