- Joined
- May 27, 2011
- Messages
- 78
Its a common enough set of lessons but also something that does seem to need to be restated often.
A fellow investor was telling me a couple of months ago of the problem that he was having post renovation, when the water pipes froze as a result of running next to the uninsulated vent for the stove hood. He ended up in quite a difficulty as the contractor would not take responsibility and ended up out of pocket and time to do the repair work himself. My friend is a knowledgeable guy, and did check some references of his guy before hiring him, but the guy had moved from another province and didn't have a local Edmonton reputation or a very large history and price was a larger factor in the decision.
Since I started investing I have had suites built or rebuilt in 5 houses in Edmonton. From the start I made a connection with this year's North Alberta REIN renovator of the year, Jared Hope. Cost was not my biggest determinant, reputation and relationship were. While actual costs are always on the table, I explain frequently to others that I am looking at the long term costs not just the short term so I want to know the reputation is bigger than the last few jobs and I consider building a long term relationship rather than just worrying about short term costs and treating the jobs as one offs. In this case I didn't evaluate just specific project references. I took into consideration what having a long term reputation would mean to him, what that would mean for long term support, and what building a relationship was worth for the longer haul.
Funnily, enough I just hit exactly the same problem with plumbing in one of my post reno houses as my friend did. I went back to my contractor (Jared) and honestly I said "dude WTF?!?". Turns out on checking that plumbing was pre-existing work not his. Where my friend's contractor ran and hid, Jared offered to cover the cost of repairing MY plumbing that was not his responsibility.
I declined the offer but am happy to see how placing my trust and paying what the job is worth is paying off with a solid relationship and someone who stands behind his products for the long haul. And while a free repair is tempting, I am also working to remember the other lesson at play here coming from another set of exemplary REIN businessmen, Nick Derksen and Scott Street. The relationship building is also not about grinding out every last cent.
A fellow investor was telling me a couple of months ago of the problem that he was having post renovation, when the water pipes froze as a result of running next to the uninsulated vent for the stove hood. He ended up in quite a difficulty as the contractor would not take responsibility and ended up out of pocket and time to do the repair work himself. My friend is a knowledgeable guy, and did check some references of his guy before hiring him, but the guy had moved from another province and didn't have a local Edmonton reputation or a very large history and price was a larger factor in the decision.
Since I started investing I have had suites built or rebuilt in 5 houses in Edmonton. From the start I made a connection with this year's North Alberta REIN renovator of the year, Jared Hope. Cost was not my biggest determinant, reputation and relationship were. While actual costs are always on the table, I explain frequently to others that I am looking at the long term costs not just the short term so I want to know the reputation is bigger than the last few jobs and I consider building a long term relationship rather than just worrying about short term costs and treating the jobs as one offs. In this case I didn't evaluate just specific project references. I took into consideration what having a long term reputation would mean to him, what that would mean for long term support, and what building a relationship was worth for the longer haul.
Funnily, enough I just hit exactly the same problem with plumbing in one of my post reno houses as my friend did. I went back to my contractor (Jared) and honestly I said "dude WTF?!?". Turns out on checking that plumbing was pre-existing work not his. Where my friend's contractor ran and hid, Jared offered to cover the cost of repairing MY plumbing that was not his responsibility.
I declined the offer but am happy to see how placing my trust and paying what the job is worth is paying off with a solid relationship and someone who stands behind his products for the long haul. And while a free repair is tempting, I am also working to remember the other lesson at play here coming from another set of exemplary REIN businessmen, Nick Derksen and Scott Street. The relationship building is also not about grinding out every last cent.
