Hiring a contractor for a home improvement project in Virginia Beach doesn’t have to be an exercise in pain and frustration. Unfortunately for many homeowners, it is just that.
The key to making a successful home improvement investment lies in the selection of the contractor.
Here in Hampton Roads, we’re a consumer product based society. Most of the products that we buy off of shelves at the department stores, the lot at the dealership or on the internet have already been assembled at the factory. We can hold them in our hands, kick the tires, smell the scent, listen to it work, and read the reviews from other users.
Unlike products that we buy everyday, a home improvement project is merely an idea in the mind of the homeowner and the contractor that they are trying to describe to each other on paper. The chance of unmet expectations, unforeseen additional costs and miscommunications is as high as when we played the “telephone game” in 4th grade.
Most homeowners in Virginia Beach don’t have a lot of experience in making home improvement investments. It’s natural for owners to tend to make buying decisions in the way they’ve been successful with other purchases in the past. How do we usually make buying decisions? We focus our research on the product we are interested in.
But how do you judge the quality of something before it’s made?
It’s been proven, if a Virginia Beach homeowner makes a buying decision on a home improvement project in the same way they shop for normal consumer products, there is a good chance they may have a bad experience.
It’s been my experience that after most homeowners determine the products they’d like, they tend to limit their questions to the contractor to “How much will it cost” and “When can the work be started?”
The secret to having a good home improvement experience is to focus less on product research and much more on contractor research.