Why Won't Construction Trades Call Me Back?

"I can't get any trades to show up!"

This is something I hear from people all the time, people that have usually taken on a project on their own, either a renovation or a whole house build. They can't understand that when they call someone to come do some work that;

1. They don't come right away.
2. They don't come when they want them.
3. They don't have the right material or products when they arrive.
4. Their bills end up higher then they thought they would be.
5. They don't call them back at all.

There's a reason for this, in this area and in most area's these days trades are extremely busy. Most trades have grown their business in size to the point where they can't grow anymore, not because they don't know how but because they can't find more tradespeople to physically do the work.

There aren't enough trained people out there to fill the roles that are needed to do all the work and training new people trades years.

How does his affect you the homeowner?

Well there is a hierarchy in the trades business. Trades, no matter if they are HVAC, plumbers, electricians, drywallers or painters have enough work that they can stay busy all year round without trying very hard.

How do they choose their clients? Well its not what you would think. It's not a first come first serve bases. Its a little more complicated then that. Who gets top priority?

Repeat customers 

Repeat customers are the bread and butter of the trades. If you have worked with a trade before (and everything went well and you PAID YOUR BILL) then they will go out of their way to help you whether its an emergency repair or something new you require. Trades are always worried about not being paid, it happens so often that they have become dubious about anybody they don't know. Repeat customers are perfect they know they pay, they know that the customer likes the work they do (or they wouldn't have called a second time) and there is a relationship there that allows the work to proceed smoother because the homeowner knows who's going to show up and the trade knows what to expect when they arrive.

People that are well Organized

Trades will give more priority to people that are well organized. If you call a trades and book a furnace installation 2 month in advance then you will be guaranteed to get the date you want. If you have to change it to a different day a month later they will gladly move things around. Because you have taken the time to be organized they take that as a sign that your job will be organized and the job will go very smoothly.

Contractors

Contractors get special treatment from trades. There's a reason, contractors do the first two things that are listed. They are repeat customers and they are organized and book in advance. I have worked with some trades for the last 20 years, every year I bring them work. That means that when I call I get top priority.
Trades also know exactly the way I like to see things done, they know how clean and organized my sites are and they know exactly how long it takes for me to pay the bills.
Contractors get such priority treatment that 50 percent or more of some trades work comes from contractors. That's a lot of guaranteed work for a company.
When a contractor is renovating a home or building a new home they are booking in advance and they stick to a schedule. This schedule works perfect with the trades as the contractor will call several times before the date to update the trade on what is going on and any changes that are required.

The Cold Call

The cold call is someone that a trade has never heard from before. They found their name on google and want a quote or want some work done. These are the kind of calls that trades are most dubious about. Usually the cold call asks a lot about the cost, how to get it cheaper, when can they come and how come it will take so long. 1/2 the time the caller doesn't actually know what they are talking about, they just know they require a new sink, or furnace or hotwater heater and they don't know the size, make or model. This signals to trades that there is a lot of time to be wasted before you can ever get the job or get paid for it. These people get put at the bottom of the list and will be fit in if there is a slow spot in the schedule.

How Does This Affect YOU?

Basically if you haven't hired a contractor to do the work that you need completed then you become pushed in to one of the two other categories of repeat customer or cold call. Since a big renovation or building a new house takes 20 to 30 different sub-trades then chances are that a lot of those trades you have never worked with before. That means that you get pushed into the cold call column. 20 to 30 trades are going to look at you as the cold call and give you the least amount of priority.

Whatever the cost of a contractor to do the work will be saved in time, effort and avoiding costly mistakes. Most people don't believe me when I say this but when people who don't hire their own contractor look back on the nightmare that was their job they usually realize that any money they saved from not hiring a contractor was wasted during the project with mistakes and the job taking twice as long as it should have.

If you want your renovation or new build to run smoothly and you want all those trades to call you back and show up on time and do the proper thing, HIRE A CONTRACTOR.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.

How Not To Go About Hiring A Building Contractor

So you have a project that you want completed, lets say its a garage or addition, in your area like the area that I live in there is a building boom with a real lack of skilled trades.

You have decided that your budget for the project is 100,000 dollars. You've decided this after talking to some of your friends and looking at the internet. You then call around to as many builders as will talk to you and the one thing that you are focused on is what its going to cost, it has to cost you less then your 100,000 dollar budget.

What you hear when you talk to builders via email or on the phone is that it will cost you 150,000 dollars. You want more details from the builders about how it can cost this much and can't they do it cheaper for you?

This is the point where most builders stop talking to you and you continue searching for someone that will do the job for the price you want.

You as the homeowner get frustrated because you don't understand why builders won't spend the time to educate you and also work in your budget cause your important, your special......

Here's the view from the builder;

You call them up and you start asking general questions like how much for a 800 sqft addition on my house, I want it in this style and I want hardwood floors and granite counter tops. I as the builder who gets this call two to three times a week with the same probing questions from people I've never talked to before ask you three questions.

Here are the three questions;

• When do you want to do the project?
• Do you have any plans?
• What's your budget?

Those three questions will tell me mostly what I need to know.

Usually the answers to the questions go like this;

• I was hoping to start in the early spring.
• Not yet.
• 75,000 to 100,000 at the max.

I tell you that basically you don't have any way I can price the job because you don't have any plans and that you are probably gonna need a bigger budget by the square footage size of the addition.

You start to negotiate, that's when I basically I can't help you, until you get some plans.

You start scanning the internet looking for the next builder, frustrated because you can't seem to find anyone that will work with you for free to get your designs and plans and then work cheaper then everyone else.....

 What happens is that eventually get cheap plans completed and you use those to shop for a contractor that will work for your budget. With your set of plans you get all kinds of prices from all kinds of builders and tradesmen. You choose the lowest price guy and your happy, that doesn't last long....

There is a reason for the lowest price (especially if they are claiming that they can stay in your budget that is to small to begin with), they either don't know how to price a job or they missed things or they purposely omitted things to get the job.

What will happen next is that your addition will turn into your nightmare.

Somewhere during the build you as the homeowner will start to realize that the quality isn't what you wanted, the costs seem to be rising as you are being billed for extra's that you assumed were part of the original price.

Eventually you either except that you are going to have pay the builder what he charges you until its finished or you fire them and end up trying to finish the project yourself. Either way its your nightmare.

I have seen this happen not just with additions, but with reno's, complete custom homes and even accessory buildings.

To avoid this you have to listen to the first 10 builders you called, have a realistic budget, find a builder that you can trust and let them tell you what the real cost of your project is going to be.

I you do this, if you find a builder with a good reputation and you listen to them then your project will be more enjoyable and the end product will be exactly what you want.

Rob Abbott

Village Builders Inc.