Welcome to My Home Additions Blog
How to get him to pull the trigger
(For Wives only)
I have just finished explaining to the husband & his wife how I can give
them a new addition on their home that will satisfy their every need. The size is right the flooring, windows,
cathedral ceiling, skylights, heating, electric are in place & the price is within their
budget.
We have spent a few hours going over every detail of a beautiful addition that they both
desperately want & need for themselves & their family. I say "Mr. Jones, we have discussed
all the details, everything is in place. I have written a contract detailing all the work we will
perform & all the cost entailed. Let's get this going & I will start work in about 6 weeks. That
will give me enough time to get your permits & organize your construction".
Mr. Jones has beads of perspiration breaking out on his forehead. His hands start to
tremble, his eyes start to glaze, his face is turning beet red. The moment of truth has arrived. Months of thought
& planning have come to a successful conclusion. He & his wife have talked about this for
years & now it is presented to them just as they envisioned.
"I've got to think this over." Suppose I lose my job, suppose the interest rates go lower,
suppose the neighborhood burns down, suppose I get transferred to Kansas City, suppose we have an earthquake. What
if war breaks out inTimbuktu or the Arabs won't sell us any more oil. No, not now. I've got to give this more
thought."
I look over at his wife. She's on the verge of tears. Things look hopeless. Months of
planning for an addition they want & can afford is going down the drain. It's over & she thinks there
isn't much she can do.
Unfortunately I have seen this scenario all too often. This person cannot pull the
trigger. He can't bring himself to make the decision.
The Solution:
The only way to make him go ahead with the remodel is for the wife to
intervene. Say something like this. "Harry, you have done enough thinking. It's time to do
something & I've seen & heard enough. Bill, (that's me) Give me the pen & after I sign
give it to Harry. Harry will sign, won't you Harry?
Harry will sign. All he needs is a little push. I give you my personal
guarantee.
He thinks I am irresponsible
I recently responded to a letter in my letters page (where else would I put it?) that is
titled "Is it typical for a contractor to charge a design fee?
"In sum I said, no. A contractor wrote me and took me to task for my answer. & I ask
that you read his letter & my reply. I have purposely erased his name & company affiliation but
left the rest of the letter intact.
Dear Mr. Harbrecht, I just finished exploring your website and must say you have some
interesting commentary. I do however, take exception to some of your advise. It is irresponsible for you to tell
your readers that $800.00 is an exorbitant amount of money to design a remodeling project. Also, I have never been
able to sit at my computer for a "few minutes" and produce an estimate for a complex Remodeling Project. In order
for my company to produce a concise and accurate estimate, it can take long hours and sometimes weeks, and after we
produce that estimate we have to live by it and still make a profit. Some of your advise sounds as if you are
telling readers that it is bad if a Contractor makes a profit. If you were a successful Remodeling Contractor, I
would assume you made a fair profit after wages and overhead, insurance and expenses. In my local area, all
applications for a building permit must be submitted with multiple sets of Construction Documents sealed by an
Architect and, or a Professional Engineer, that includes any structural modification to a residential building. An
eight hundred dollar fee would only cover the review process of the documents for the seal and not the work of
drawing the documents or even the cost of printing. Possibly in the rural area's, a contractor could get by without
a sealed set of documents, but then he takes the full responsibility if a structural problem arises. I am an active
member of the National Association of Home Builders, The Remodelers Council, my local Home Builders Association and
a member of a Remodelers 20 Club. I also hold a CGR and a CAPS Designation, both of which are nationally sponsored
by NAHB and NARI. You are providing a service to consumers that have little knowledge about the services a
Professional Remodeler offers. In order for you to better serve your readers and clients alike, you would be wise
to seek out additional educational materials for the guidance you are offering. As a Professional Contractor, it is
your obligation to be responsible with the information you deliver.
My Response:
Thank you for your letter. I appreciate what you say about giving the public responsible
advice&; that is what I try to do. I will try to defend what I wrote with the following:
Maybe I did not make myself clear enough. Let me expand on what I said. The letter in
question said that the contractor wanted $800 to design the remodel. Most of the people I dealt with lived in
modest homes anywhere from 800' to 1500' square feet in size. I suspect that might represent at least a majority of
homes in the USA & a vast majority of homes owned by my readers. These are the people who need additional
room for themselves & their families. (People with3000', 5000' or larger homes usually have little need to
expand.)The choices are limited by not only by money & property boundaries but also by the existing
configuration of the house. Those choices are further limited by existing siding type, existing roof design,
existing foundation height etc.
So, what's to design? How much time & effort does it take to figure out that a
house with a hip roof should build an addition with a hip roof? How much time & effort does it take to choose
window types & sizes, siding choice, roofing material & color etc? How much time &
effort does it take to layout wall outlets, switches & necessary heating demands? The answer is, not
much.
We are not talking about adding to the Taj Mahal or the White House. Not many homeowners
asked me to add two story round turrets to their home. (That would take a little more time) They were looking for
space at a cost they could afford & at the same time they wanted the addition to add value to their home.
In my experience over the years I found myself doing preliminary sketches of the same additions over &
over & over. They were different wall dimensions, different windows, different window locations, different
roof designs etc but they were all basically same. The people were different, the address was different, the lot
size was different but the remodel was the same as the one I did next store. Whether I built a 10' dormer, 20'
dormer or 30' dormer or a 14X16 extension they each were the same basic construction. It was merely a question of
size & details & giving limited choices & advice to the customer.
After a few minutes conversation it became obvious what the customer wanted to build. All
I had to do was help fill in the details. It was the same as hundreds of others with different variations. I think
anyone with a modicum of experience could design a dormer, second story addition or first floor addition all with
room layouts in a short period of time. (The books I sell tell them how to do what I did & then buy it at
the right price.) I would use a small drafting tool to do a rough sketch for the homeowners in a few minutes. Fill
in windows, partitions, closets, electric, heating, bath or kitchen fixtures etc & the customer had a
preliminary design in about 30 minutes. I still don't think that a design is worth $800. I know it isn't because I
did it (as did my salespeople) for & so did all of my competition & their salespeople.
As far as I know they still do. Many a customer presented me with an architects set of
drawings on my arrival. The plans cost them a few thousand dollars & after they found out what there model
would cost they dropped the idea & put the plans in the closet. I would have done it for free &
they wasted a few thousand dollars. Sorry to say there were no pc computers then but we still were able to estimate
almost any addition in a few minutes. If you don't know how much it cost you to build a square foot of wall or roof
or foundation or a 30'dormer after you have done it a few hundred times then I suggest you might want to try a
different method of estimating.
To sum up, I was not suggesting that a set of building plans & permit fee are not
worth $800. I am saying that the design was not worth $800. I am a former president of a chapter of NARI &
very cognizant of what it took to be a professional contractor. To this day I recommend that my readers look for
contractors in their area who are NARI members. They are generally a notch or two above the others.
Lastly let me say that I do not in any way intend to infer that contractors should not
make a fair profit. On the contrary I keep insisting that people know what they are paying for so they can buy not
the cheapest price but get the best value for their money. Profit is what keeps the world going around. (It also
put my kids through school.)
Again, thank you for your letter & your comments.
Regards, Bill Harbrecht
"It's All About Money"
(No it isn't)
A lady wrote about some addition ideas for their home & asked me to suggest what
I thought was the best solution. It was a very well thought out, descriptive letter laying out options that they
had to add to their home. (Whether to expand out or up) An excerpt from the letter follows:"We need more bedrooms
for our grandchildren, and workspace so we want to add a master suite, lots of storage space, and at least one
study. We'd actually like a studio/library too, with perhaps a half bath -- my husband works from home much of the
time. What we do will finally depend on cost, and the relationship between the old and the new. We have a number of
options."....
My reply:
Nice letter. You are doing some clear thinking & planning before acting. Before I tell
you what I think you should do, I want to comment on one of your thoughts. "What we finally do will depend on
cost"
In my humble opinion that is the last thing your decision should depend upon. I suspect
you are not part of the Bill Gates fortune & you only have so much money that you can afford to invest. (Room
additions are investments not an expense) Whatever that amount is should be used to build whatever will please you
the most. (Whatever fits your everyday living habits & wants.)After making that decision then decide how
much you can do on the budget already formulated.
Does it make any sense to build an addition, spend a large sum of money & then
not have exactly what fits your needs? Spend as much as you can afford on what you want, not on what will give you
the most square footage for the least amount of money. Whatever you spend will be returned to you with a huge
profit when sell time comes around, plus you will have the enjoyment of use for years to come.
Sounds like you have a great piece of beautiful property & plenty of room to
build. Consider building a one or two story addition as large as you can afford. Add large high quality casement
windows 5'-6' high to capture the view of your surroundings. The second story ideas present too many structural
problems. In addition you mention grandchildren which means you both are not kids anymore & stairs may
present a problem later on (if not now). If you read my "Room Addition" book you will learn, among other
things, that additional footage is cheap if you know how to buy it. Hope this helps
Regards,
Bill Harbrecht
How many times prospective customers said to me "It's all about cost" Sorry, I don't
agree. It's all about living better. Don't look at the trees, look at the forest.
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