Buying a property or a condo unit is not the end of the story but the start of your new life journey. You may want to do partial or full renovation so your stuff will fit in and for you to be comfortable in moving inside the unit. What are the steps you have to take? How will you be able to find the right contractor? The following steps will surely help you:
1. Decide what you want to do with your unit. Do you want a partial renovation, like just adding some cabinets or you want a total renovation including painting of the whole unit, removing the existing flooring to change it with what you wish like wood parquet or homogenous tiles or anything that you want?
- Check your budget. Do you think your budget can finance what you want to do? But how can you check it?
- If you have Engineer friends, you can ask them, or you can request a quotation from contractors. You may have a friend who already did property renovation; they may assist you.
- You can check contractors online and contact them so you will have an idea if your budget will fit what you want to renovate. They will set an appointment with you to see the unit in actual; they will do the exact measurement, ask you what materials you want to use, then they will give you a quotation in one to two days.
- You can have around three to four quotations, and you should have the same standard so you can make the proper comparison of the quotations you received. Those who are with so much funds can hire the top caliber contractor and interior decorator. For the average income earner, they will prefer an average price that they can afford.
2. Having the quotations on hand, check which among those is close to your budget. Some quotations may be too high, and some may be too low. Don’t be attracted right away with so low priced quotation; it might be “too good to be true.” I suggest choosing the median price, not too high and not too low.
- After choosing the contractor, do the checking of their background. Go back again to where you find the name of the company like in ads. Usually, they have a Facebook page or other platforms.
- Try to read all the comments. Mostly, you can see positive feedback. Try to reach those who had experience doing renovation with your chosen contractor. You can privately message them and introduce that you read his comment to this contractor. Tell them that you are planning to hire them also, and you would want to request their honest advice. They will be very much willing to give their pieces of advice based on personal experience.
3. Validate the physical shop of the contractor. Visit it and check their ongoing activities. Usually, their permits are visible in their office. You have to spend time to check for yourself the actual fabrication site.
4. Yes, you decided that this is the contractor you want to deal with based on their average price offer, recommendation, and an actual visit to the site and based on how you communicate with the contractor’s head.
- Next will be the drafting of the contract. Initially, based on your discussion, the contractor will send you a contract draft. You have to be very detailed in every clause. The draft of the contract includes reconfirmation of the types of materials to be used, delivery date, and of course, the contract price and terms of payment.
- There might be some adjustments in the price if there is some amendment to the job order coverage. Don’t pay in cash as much as possible. It is better to pay a check or have the cash deposit in the bank account of the Contractor. After payment, ask for receipt or acknowledgment of your payment. File all the documents related to the Contractor so you will have reference anytime you need it.
Now your renovation project will soon to start. The next in line is how you will be able to get the work done as per your expectation. How you will handle the everyday timeline of the contractor, will you be able to get the best result?
Stay tuned with my next blog posts!!!!