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Hi TMNT
I have recently had to coordinate a minor renovation from a distance. To cut a long story short, my IP had tenant and water damage, and needed carpets replaced, walls and doors painted, doors re-hung, cupboards re-fitted, landscaping etc.
Having been told by the managing agent, after the property had sat idly for 17 days, that they couldn't just generate instant quotes, and 'these things take time', I decided to coordinate it myself.
I have to say, I used hipages.com.au and was very impressed with the speed at which I was able to obtain quotes and get work done. I week - multiple quotes and all work completed. I received multiple quotes on most jobs, and found that the tradies that respond to requests are available for the times you nominate, or they don't respond and don't get the job. Regardless of their qualifications, experience etc, all tradies experience down time between jobs, and you have the opportunity to pick up on this and get some speedy results. The ones that responded to my ads were extremely prompt and reliable, which gave me an indication of their availability and professionalism. Generally, they were very professional operators, who went out of their way to assist.
I now have a new tenant in place and ready to move in. I am very happy with the result, and would definitely recommend the tradies to others.
Cheers
Jen
hey jen congrats on your jobs,
one thing for me which might be different to the way you operate, is that assuming you are doing a basic bathroom for example, lets say for an cheap IP or a reno and flip for a cheap property, I find that the moment you say complete new bathroom, the quotes start at about $4k and work from up there,
when I do my bathrooms, I usually work on about $2000for a new entire bathroom except for tiles, so new toilet, bath, shower screen, vanity,, tap heads, etc. etc.
maybe $1000 if I do it all myself,
if I got a quote from service seeking or hi pages, it would surely be $4k+
if I was doing a remote reno, then obviously youd have to pay the extra,
this is the reason why I dont get quotes for entire jobs as I find that understandedly, they have to add in the risk factor,
hence why if Im working with them a per hour arrangement is better for me
so I dont use these services too often
We find out tonight he has pushed us back five days, which stuffs all the other trades tentatively lined up.
Welcome to building.
Thanks, TMNT.
I agree, breaking jobs down can work well. I used a per hour arrangement with tradies on the reno I mentioned above, and paid for the materials myself online and over the phone. I think if you ask for a complete new bathroom, you would get quotes based on re-doing all the plumbing, waterproofing etc, which is probably not quite right in your case.
Cheers
Jen
LOL. I've been "building" for over 30 years, but this is our son's first purchase and at $650 per week repayments to sit twiddling his thumbs, it just isn't going to happen. He needs a tradie that will do the job when he promises.
true, the other thing which im very sceptical is doing a per hour job if im not there, sure they arent going to do one hour and bill for 8, however, I think its encouraging them to be slack,
for the most of the time, the agent managed tradies wont do that,
a friend of mine, who is very successful in construction (large scale) said to me "you should always know what amount the invoice is, before you get it" which I think is the way to go, I hate getting invoices and thinking "oh krap" because either ive misunderstood, underestimated, or blatently got ripped off
so jen, did you just say to your plumber for example, ok $x per hour, the materials can be picked up from here, can you retile, install this, install that, and let them go off on their own accord? that would scare the the bejesus out me!
Lack of understanding = expecting someone to show up for a decent week's work, and do a decent job, without being surprised when it happens.Pro-tip - If you have used a lot of trades in your time and still find there are no good ones that meet your expectations, the issue is probably not the trade, and rather a lack of understanding about the construction industry.
Same in our industry.Re quoting, it can be difficult - there can be lots of unknowns and usually trades will build in some level of buffer for "what ifs". Trades don't want to lose money on a job so that buffer can be considerable depending on the type/size of the job.
They are usually their own boss, and have no overheads other than vehicle and Pub Liab insurance, mostly.My question is; is therr any other industry that you can be so repeatedly unreliable and not go bankrupt
It's not so much the problem of not coming when they say they will; it's the problem of simply not showing up with no communication to say they won't, and the "I couldn't give-a-sheet" attitude that goes with it.I understand people get annoyed, but if you book in everyone one after the other on 100% set dates, you are destined for failure or frustration. .
If tradies did a fair dinkum 40 hour week for 48 weeks a year, houses would take half the time to build.
LOL.I well and truly now stand by my statement of a lack of understanding of the building industry.