When people ask us to give them a bid we sometimes correct them and say that we call it a “proposal”. The idea of “bidding” feels like one of those cheesy TV shows like “The Bachelor” where women compete to be chosen for a marriage proposal. Usually people getting bids look for the lowest price first & foremost. So we usually respond that we won’t be the lowest in price for faux finishing their home. But if someone is looking for value for their money, we can give them plenty of reasons why we should do the job.
We have seen some of the nightmares people have gone through because they chose the lowest price bid. We’ve had to go in a fix some of those jobs too. The job then ends up costing more because we have to undo the mistakes of the low bid faux finish & then start fresh and do the job right.
And now we are on the other side of the fence as we rehab our new place in Kansas City. We are almost ready to hang the sheetrock. We’re not going to do it ourselves this time, so we’re talking to drywall contractors. We are also working with a tight budget, so price is important. We’ve received 2 proposals and are waiting on 2 more. The second proposal we received was double the cost of the first. This would have been a concern for us, but the lower proposal came from a referral. The second proposal came from a social media contact–one step above picking a name out of the Yellow Pages.
I asked questions about the lower priced contractor from my referral source. What quality of work do they do? Do they work quickly? Are they messy? The higher priced contractor didn’t have that kind of referral, but then again, he didn’t try to sell me on his value either. In fact, some of the things he said about the job put Brenda off even before we knew the price. We weren’t likely to use him even if he had the lower proposal.
The two other contractors we’re talking to are also from referrals. We shall see where they come in on the price vs. value scale. We will make our decision the way that we ask our clients to decide if we can create a faux finish for them–who will give us quality workmanship and get the job done with the least amount of hassle for us and with the least amount of mess in our home?
