Читать книгу Building Your Custom Home For Dummies - Peter Economy - Страница 40

If you didn’t start the custom-home process with a contractor in mind, you’ll probably give your plans and specifications (or specs) to a few different contractors to get an estimate. This process is called putting your plans out to bid.

Finding contractors to bid on your project is as easy as asking friends and your architect for referrals. If they don’t have any suggestions, you can do a Google search or drive through the neighborhood and look for construction signs on houses being built. If the building market is busy, you may have to work a little harder to find contractors who can bid in your time frame. You want at least three contractors to bid on your project, if possible. The goal is to be able to compare the bids to each other.

The best way to compare the bids is by making sure your plans are as complete as possible. In Chapter 5, we discuss doing all your design work and material selection before the bid process. This extra work can delay your project early on but is crucial for comparing truly accurate bids. For example, you want to compare prices on the same kitchen sink model numbers to see which contractor is charging a higher profit margin. Also, make sure the contractor has included their fees in their estimate. The contractor may or may not break out their margin as a separate line item, but you need to know there won’t be any surprise additions to the costs down the line.

Many contractors substitute an allowance for unspecified materials. So, for example, if you haven’t picked your bathroom fixtures, one contractor may offer you a $10,000 allowance. This amount may seem cheaper than a different contractor’s $15,000 estimate, but you have no way of knowing if the quality is comparable or who is taking a higher margin. Also, availability and the difficulty of installing certain materials can impact the time and, subsequently, the cost of the project. The best way to make sure that all bids are assuming the same materials and labor necessary is to specify all the materials required for the project before you put the plans and specs out to bid. Having all these decisions clearly made in the beginning helps to avoid ugly misunderstandings and surprises later in the project. (Turn to Chapter 5 for more information on allowances and their perils.)