It is the goal of every human to own a place to call home. Abraham Maslow, a renowned scholar, even supported this fact when he mentioned it in his theory of the hierarchy of need that every man craves for a shelter. When the opportunity to build a home now comes up, whether it was out of the blue or the process was carefully planned, it is important to give the construction work to those that can build that house of your dream.
Finding a building contractor is not a herculean task if you know the right thing to do. In order to avoid falling into the trap of owning a home that will not stand the test of time before collapsing, or so as not to be part of the victims that could not get their building project completed on schedule, it is important that you seek the right contractor to do the job.
Since choosing among alternative is no longer rocket science, then the art of finding the best building contractor is the skills that you must possess. No crash courses are needed here, all that is required are a combination of questions that must be answered before embarking on your home construction journey.
The question that needs an immediate answer before going for a building contractor is listed as follows:
Do I need a general contractor for this job?
A general contractor is one who as a result of being appointed to construct the home appoints subcontractors who specialize in some of the specific areas of the construction to work on the project. Going with the general contractor can save one the stress of searching for other contractors that will be needed in a different stage of completion of the construction work. Austwestconstruction said that even though this decision will be saving the potential homeowner the cost of searching for contractors, going with this option is still noted to be expensive, as the money of the subcontractors will differ from one another and this will end up raising the cost to be spent on the total building project.
What does the total budget look like?
The next big question is on the amount that you have budgeted for the construction of your home. If your budget looks small and what you intend to build seems to disagree with that range of price, then one might need to rethink the starting time of the project. The biggest mistake people make is to look for a building contractor that will be ready to build their home at a price that is unarguably low. There is a lot of contractor out there who will accept you with your price, but you can imagine the kind of quality that will be delivered already.
So ask yourself if your budget support the kind of standard you want, a few comparisons of your budget to what people have paid in the past will give you a reasonable idea of what the price should be. If you know that your budget is too low, the next best option is either to delay the construction till you get enough money to get your work done properly, or you reduce your standard to the kind of home that will meet your budget. Never be too cost shy to overlook quality.
Should I open the offer or approach a few contractors
This is an option you might want to consider when trying to get the best hand to do the job. Asking yourself this question and answering it properly might depend on your personal experience with building contractors, or what homeowners around you say. Well, here is our opinion; there is no absolute answer to this as the two ends of Yes and No have their own pros and cons.
Opening the offer to allow contractors bid will give you more option to choose, but it might consume a lot of your time due to the many interviews and presentation sessions. Even though some contractors will not go below their standard, this method could also be misleading whenever there is a price war among the contractors, as most are aware that you might also want to consider costs. Approaching a few contractors directly works well if you are referred by other homeowners that have used such contractor in the past.
What are the current customers of the construction company saying?
Putting your ears to the ground will give you the right answer to this question, and most times, this method offers you the best building contractors around. No homeowners will speak well of any contractor except they have done well. So this just caps it!