Negotiating with contractors?

[wanderingback]

We have a row home and the front wall bricks are damaged, insurance won’t pay for it and it looks like the whole front needs to be fixed. We now have the money for it and we got a quote from a very responsive contractor for $45,000. My partner is pretty much handling everything, but I wanted to ask, is there anyway to negotiate the price? Do we just ask for a few thousand off? Or is that a no no? Any specific advice?

Thanks!

[purplepenguin7]

My best negotiating experiences were just offering to pay cash. It's probably not on the true up and up but it saved us several thousand across a few home repair projects the past few months. That's a lot more money than we spent though so I might want to use a wire or check for that much money. It's worth a shot at least asking if that's their best price they can offer.

[scm1011]

That's a tough one. Honestly, I'd probably tred lightly if you like this person and want them to do the job. Contractors are incredibly in-demand and are in no way hurting for business. I might ask if there was a discount for paying in cash like PP mentioned, but IME check requests are already part of the proposal. We just finished up a $50k project front porch project and the contractor wouldn't take credit cards.

[ny96]

We are in the process of hiring a contractor now. We’ve met with 4 of them, all very reputable, and their bids have varied greatly due to the steps that they believe are necessary for the project. A couple of them want us to pull permits and are looking at the job through an engineering lens and a few believe that we can get away with a lot less. I would get a few other bids if I were you, and that might help you make an informed decision about what you need and what could potentially be overkill.

[wanderingback]

Thanks for the input so far!
We are paying with cash and not credit.

[tacokick]

I think the only way to get a better price is to find someone to do it cheaper. Some contractors have cash discounts but they normally say that up front. Same with giving you a discount for having their sign out front saying they did the work.

If you had a second project he could do then often they’d be willing to give you a break to do both. In that vein—I don’t know what caused the damage and I’m assuming it’s a row house here—does a neighboring house need the same work done? Often a contractor will give a break for that. My neighbors got their roofs and driveways done at the same time and got a discount. This was during the pandemic so they must have been busy.

Really, I don’t think there is much negotiating with contractors unless you are supplying the items they are using yourself, doing the demo yourself or getting a ton of work done. You could say you’ve had better offers but I bet they’d say just use them then.

[tacokick]

Feb 28, 2022 14:36:17 GMT -5 purplepenguin7 said:

My best negotiating experiences were just offering to pay cash. It's probably not on the true up and up but it saved us several thousand across a few home repair projects the past few months. That's a lot more money than we spent though so I might want to use a wire or check for that much money. It's worth a shot at least asking if that's their best price they can offer.

I think cash discounts can be on the up and up. Processing fees for credit and debit cards are pretty high and businesses are pretty resentful and mindful of that. That’s why I try to pay cash at smaller, locally owned business. I wouldn’t expect a big discount though and of course would still want the regular detailed contract and all that.

[mlkgls]

I have zero negotiating advice, but I would recommend getting multiple bids if feasible to help you gauge if the cost is within norms. Contractors and materials are in such incredibly high demand there may not be much wiggle room. When I was researching contractors recently I noticed several had discounts listed on Angie’s List/HomeAdvisor. I also had one contractor offer a 5% discount if I signed the contract the same day as the bid.

[ellipses84]

The best way you can negotiate is by having competitor leverage, so if you got 3 quotes but felt the low company wasn’t the best company, you can see if one of the other companies will match the low estimate. Sometimes it’s difficult and time consuming to get three quotes for a small job or specialty trade (and most residential jobs are considered small). I’ve heard a lot of stories of contractors just ghosting or walking away from jobs, materials are taking longer to get and costs are higher. Sometimes the estimate difference is for a reason, which a good contractor could explain (like the low contractor excludes things and will try to add them and charge you later). Paying cash is another option. If there’s no discount for cash, you can see if there’s no fee for using a credit card and use that to at least get points.