It’s easy to miss the ‘tells’ if you don’t know what to look for.

When you’re renovating or building a home – the proposal process is your first taste for how a contractor plays the ‘game of work’. Do they pay attention to detail or do they speak in estimates so they won’t get hemmed in? Are they happy to share several references (past home owners, trades people, architects and engineers they’ve worked with) or do they make you ask?

Proposals come in all shapes and sizes – from napkin scribbles to professionally bound documents – but the most important measure of a proposal’s worth is not its page count, it’s the number of unknowns it eliminates.

In the world of trust – transparency is king.

Here are just a few unknowns your contractor’s proposal should eliminate:

• Does the proposal break down costs and material quality so that every dollar is accounted for? (If not they’ve included a buffer.)
• Are the timelines specific and adhered to? (What are trades people, architects and customers saying?)
• Do you know what the contractor is actually making from the job? (It shouldn’t be a secret.)

A proposal is a BIG deal.

BUT it’s easy to miss the ‘tells’ if you’re measuring its value using the wrong benchmarks.

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Greg Cole – President of ColeBuilt
Atlantic Canada’s Home Renovation and Building Specialists
Serving Halifax, Dartmouth & Nova Scotia’s South Shore