October 21, 2023 • 11 mins
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of hiring a contractor for your window door project? Fear not! Your hosts, Jeff Trapanese and Jeremy Wolf are about to simplify the process for you. We go beyond the surface, revealing how to make sense of the ocean of information available on the internet, the real implications of advertising, and the crucial role of word of mouth when vetting potential contractors. We also shine a spotlight on the importance of the Better Business Bureau in the contractor selection process.
We then take a deeper dive, exploring the essential questions that you need to ask potential contractors. From their years in business to their licensing status and insurance coverage - we cover it all. Beware of the red flags we point out, like contractors encouraging homeowners to pull their own permits or those offering to work without permits. Not to forget, we discuss the key role of the Department of Business and Public Professional Regulations in overseeing contractors. This episode is a comprehensive guide to ensure that you make the right choice for your window and door installation needs. Listen in for a stress-free and effective contractor selection experience.
For more information call us: (954)667-3JTM or
Email us: jeff@JTMwindowsanddoors.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the JTM Windows podcast.
Designed to impress, engineeredto endure.
Here's your host, jeffTrappanyese.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hello everyone and welcome to episode number four
of the JTM Windows podcast.
I'm your co-host, Jeremy Wolf.
I'm here with your host, JeffTrappanyese.
Jeff, how's it going, brother?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's going very, very good.
Welcome back everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, thanks everyone for joining.
We've been talking a little bitabout customer prep.
When considering window doorprojects, we went over some of
the budgeting considerationsbefore you even contact the
contractor.
Then you talked a little bitabout style and product
considerations.
Now why don't you share alittle bit about contractor
(00:50):
selection?
When it comes time to actuallyhire someone to help you with
this, what are some things toconsider?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, again, we've done our homework.
We know how much we have tospend, we know what styles and
products we like.
Now we've got to figure out,well, who's going to put it in.
For me that's a daunting,daunting challenge.
How do we find that contractor?
One of the first things thatprobably people are going to do
we're going to go to Google orHome Advisors or Angie or Yelp
(01:17):
or any of those different things.
One of the big situations withthat while they all work very
well is number one.
They're very informal.
You're kind of like throwing adart at a dartboard and hoping
you hit a good contractor atthat point.
What also a lot of customersaren't aware of is when you're
dealing with Home Advisors andAngie's list and Yelp and things
(01:38):
like that is you're dealingwith, on the contractor side,
kind of a pay per lead situationwhere contractors are paying a
certain amount per customerthat's generated to them and
that same lead is getting givento three contractors of that
group.
So, in essence, you callAngie's list hey, I'm looking to
(01:59):
install some windows.
You have a contractor who canrecommend to me.
I sure do.
I'll get your information overto them.
They'll contact you shortly toset up an appointment and then
that lead then goes to threedifferent contractors in their
group and there you go, goes onfrom there.
Again, that's to me that's notnecessarily giving you the best
(02:20):
quality of person or contractorthat you have available to you.
Again, that's a greatadvertising opportunity for many
contractors and there's a lotof quality contractors that use
that absolutely, but to me it'snot the most important.
The second, the second thingthat you look at is advertising.
We look at magazines, we lookat billboards.
We look at you know trucks thatdrive by with you know wraps on
(02:43):
their trucks and things of thatnature, which are, again, are
all great.
A lot of those pictures thatsometimes you see are not, you
know, of actual homes or justgenerated homes.
So we have to take that with agear and assault as well.
The next next two are the of tome the most value when really
(03:03):
kind of making sure I'm findingthe right person.
The next one is, of course,watermouth.
If you've seen a friend,relative, neighbor, it's had
work done, go and ask them hey,who'd you use, how did you like,
how did they take care of yourhome?
And again, now you have areal-world example to see the
work that's being done.
How's the caulking look?
How's the cleanup look?
(03:24):
Is there a bunch of debrisaround the house?
Those types of things where youcan actually see the results of
what's going on there.
And then the third, the fourthoption is, again, you can always
go to the better businessbureau Once you start to dial in
about a particular contractinggroup.
Look at the better businessbureau.
How are they rated?
Are there any complaints?
Those types of things.
So now we've kind of let's saywe've we whittled it down to
(03:46):
maybe two or three contractorsthat we're interested in talking
to.
Now how are we going to vet thequality of those three to make
sure they're the right personand right fit for you?
One of the first kind ofquestions I ask is how long have
you been in business?
Is it something that you juststarted or you've been around
for a number of years?
What's your level of experiencebefore you started your
(04:08):
business?
Are they licensed?
Major, major question to ask Doyou have a license?
It?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
seems rather important.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
People seem to think, oh well, they'll be cheaper if
they don't have a license.
Not necessarily at all.
Again, you're getting with alicense, you're getting
experience, you're gettingcompetency, you're getting
people that are doing the rightprocess to make sure that their
business is running correctly.
To me, you also tend to findmore legitimate businesses that
(04:39):
way, versus kind of fly-by-nightguys.
Contractors in Florida,especially southeast Florida,
have gotten a very, very bad rap.
There was something on the newsa day or two ago about a
homestead contractor taking112,000 dollars from a family in
the Keys and then ghosting them, never talking to them again.
That makes me majorly concernedabout how people are choosing
(05:02):
the contractor.
If that's the case, they reallydo need to be licensed.
If they're asking you to pullyour own permit, that's usually
a red flag.
They need to be able to pulltheir own permit.
If they're saying, oh, we can dothis without a permit, again
that's a red flag For cost.
The building departments arethere to protect you as a
(05:23):
consumer.
They're there to make sure thatthe work that that contractor
is doing is up to standards andup to code and it's being done
correctly.
So don't look at it as anuisance or an extra cost.
It's actually there to makesure things are being done to
what you need your standards tobe Because, again, the code
books are very, very, very thickand it's yeah, you have to have
(05:43):
a Egyptian hieroglyphics degreesometimes to understand them
all but again.
that's why the buildingdepartments are there.
They're not there to be anuisance.
They're not there to bust yourchops.
They're there to protect you asa consumer.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Thank you for saying that, because sometimes as a
homeowner it doesn't feel likethat right.
It feels like it's justbureaucracy and it's just there
for red tape and problems.
But fundamentally what it isfor is to protect the homeowners
and make sure the work is doneproperly.
I think people People forgetthat sometimes.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, no, it's definitely a good point to have.
There's also it's called theDepartment of Business and
Public Professional Regulationsthat is there to oversee
contractors.
You can go onto that website atany time and see if there's any
complaint against thecontractor.
Unlicensed activity, did theynot do what they were supposed
(06:36):
to do?
Yada, yada, yada.
It's important to maybe look atthat option to see again if
there's any negative complaintsagainst them.
If they're in stun, then that'susually a pretty good
contractor.
Are they insured?
Do they have general liability?
Do they have workman's comp?
Again, this is another bigtopic where homeowners don't
understand.
If you bring somebody onto yourproperty and they don't have
(06:57):
general liability or workman'scomp and they get hurt, that
goes against your propertyinsurance.
So it's important to ask.
There's no harm in asking for acertificate to be sent over.
A lot of HOAs also require itto be sent over as well.
If you live in an HOA, there'salso they should have a
corporation or an LLC open aswell.
(07:18):
There's a website calledsunbizorg.
That's the Division ofCorporations for the State of
Florida.
You can go in and put theircompany name in there under
research and it'll tell you ifthey're an active status or an
inactive status.
Be careful if they're aninactive status, that means that
the business is not currentlyrunning.
You can also take theprincipal's name, the president
(07:43):
of the company, and type thatname into the sunbiz and see how
many businesses they've opened.
A lot of times what you'll findis, once a business has gotten
into trouble, they'll just closethat business down and go and
open a new one.
Same bad habits follow them tothat new one.
So it can't hurt to do a littleresearch and look into that.
Do they work with contracts?
(08:04):
Are they having you signcontract, go over the scope of
work, what the terms of paymentare, the timeline, things like
that?
Or are they just saying, oh, wecan do it in this timeframe,
just give me this check Again?
Contracts make contractorslegitimate.
That's the whole point, purposeof being a contractor.
Be also wary of contractorsthat want to pay or are asking
(08:26):
you to pay in all cash.
That's also a major red flag.
A check should be fine.
A check is a record of apayment that you made to that
contractor.
You cannot do that with cash.
I don't care what invoice theygive you, that's paid.
You have no proof that you madethat payment to them.
And then, lastly, how is thatproject going to be managed?
In my particular case, I'm anowner operator, so not only am I
(08:48):
the owner of the company, butI'm in the field, working side
by side with my guys.
A lot of times, with somebigger companies, they can't do
that.
So is there going to be aproject manager?
Who's the main contact personthat you're going to be in
contact with once that projectdoes start?
You don't want to just have acrew show up that you can't
communicate with, or if there'sa problem that starts to arise,
you need to know who that maincontact person is to get
(09:10):
anything resolved right then andthere.
Again, those are just sometopics.
Again, I don't want to makethis sound like, oh, it's a very
, very scary situation.
No, I think if we follow thesetopics, it lets you really
funnel down to what are theright type of people that you
want to have come working inyour home.
If they hit these tick marks,then I think it's a very simple
(09:34):
yes answer to that question.
But if they start to don't,then you need to think about it
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah for sure.
I mean this is really greatstuff because when it comes to
making decisions in life notjust for this type of project,
but for anything any importantdecision it's so important to
have a cohesive framework inplace and, like you said, if you
could just tick off all theseboxes and it makes sense to move
forward, you don't have todwell upon whether or not you
(10:01):
made a good or bad decision.
You just you know everythinglines up and you move forward
with it and more often than notit works out favorably.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yep, yep.
All right, that's all I got forthis topic, but I think it's.
I think again, we've had a lotof great information here that
customers may not be privy to,whether it be again a window and
door project or any contractorat all.
I think it's majorly importantto take that to heart and
understand.
Preparation is the key toeverything.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Absolutely, jeff.
Always a pleasure Everyone.
Thank you for tuning in and wewill catch you on the next
episode.
Everyone, have a great day,take care Bye.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Thank you for listening to the JTM Windows
podcast.
For more information, contact954-667-3JTM that's 954-667-3586
.
Or email us at jeff atJTMwindowsAndDoorscom.
Welcome to the JTM Windows podcast.
Designed to impress, engineeredto endure.
Here's your host, jeffTrappanyese.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hello everyone and welcome to episode number four
of the JTM Windows podcast.
I'm your co-host, Jeremy Wolf.
I'm here with your host, JeffTrappanyese.
Jeff, how's it going, brother?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's going very, very good.
Welcome back everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, thanks everyone for joining.
We've been talking a little bitabout customer prep.
When considering window doorprojects, we went over some of
the budgeting considerationsbefore you even contact the
contractor.
Then you talked a little bitabout style and product
considerations.
Now why don't you share alittle bit about contractor
(00:50):
selection?
When it comes time to actuallyhire someone to help you with
this, what are some things toconsider?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, again, we've done our homework.
We know how much we have tospend, we know what styles and
products we like.
Now we've got to figure out,well, who's going to put it in.
For me that's a daunting,daunting challenge.
How do we find that contractor?
One of the first things thatprobably people are going to do
we're going to go to Google orHome Advisors or Angie or Yelp
(01:17):
or any of those different things.
One of the big situations withthat while they all work very
well is number one.
They're very informal.
You're kind of like throwing adart at a dartboard and hoping
you hit a good contractor atthat point.
What also a lot of customersaren't aware of is when you're
dealing with Home Advisors andAngie's list and Yelp and things
(01:38):
like that is you're dealingwith, on the contractor side,
kind of a pay per lead situationwhere contractors are paying a
certain amount per customerthat's generated to them and
that same lead is getting givento three contractors of that
group.
So, in essence, you callAngie's list hey, I'm looking to
(01:59):
install some windows.
You have a contractor who canrecommend to me.
I sure do.
I'll get your information overto them.
They'll contact you shortly toset up an appointment and then
that lead then goes to threedifferent contractors in their
group and there you go, goes onfrom there.
Again, that's to me that's notnecessarily giving you the best
(02:20):
quality of person or contractorthat you have available to you.
Again, that's a greatadvertising opportunity for many
contractors and there's a lotof quality contractors that use
that absolutely, but to me it'snot the most important.
The second, the second thingthat you look at is advertising.
We look at magazines, we lookat billboards.
We look at you know trucks thatdrive by with you know wraps on
(02:43):
their trucks and things of thatnature, which are, again, are
all great.
A lot of those pictures thatsometimes you see are not, you
know, of actual homes or justgenerated homes.
So we have to take that with agear and assault as well.
The next next two are the of tome the most value when really
(03:03):
kind of making sure I'm findingthe right person.
The next one is, of course,watermouth.
If you've seen a friend,relative, neighbor, it's had
work done, go and ask them hey,who'd you use, how did you like,
how did they take care of yourhome?
And again, now you have areal-world example to see the
work that's being done.
How's the caulking look?
How's the cleanup look?
(03:24):
Is there a bunch of debrisaround the house?
Those types of things where youcan actually see the results of
what's going on there.
And then the third, the fourthoption is, again, you can always
go to the better businessbureau Once you start to dial in
about a particular contractinggroup.
Look at the better businessbureau.
How are they rated?
Are there any complaints?
Those types of things.
So now we've kind of let's saywe've we whittled it down to
(03:46):
maybe two or three contractorsthat we're interested in talking
to.
Now how are we going to vet thequality of those three to make
sure they're the right personand right fit for you?
One of the first kind ofquestions I ask is how long have
you been in business?
Is it something that you juststarted or you've been around
for a number of years?
What's your level of experiencebefore you started your
(04:08):
business?
Are they licensed?
Major, major question to ask Doyou have a license?
It?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
seems rather important.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
People seem to think, oh well, they'll be cheaper if
they don't have a license.
Not necessarily at all.
Again, you're getting with alicense, you're getting
experience, you're gettingcompetency, you're getting
people that are doing the rightprocess to make sure that their
business is running correctly.
To me, you also tend to findmore legitimate businesses that
(04:39):
way, versus kind of fly-by-nightguys.
Contractors in Florida,especially southeast Florida,
have gotten a very, very bad rap.
There was something on the newsa day or two ago about a
homestead contractor taking112,000 dollars from a family in
the Keys and then ghosting them, never talking to them again.
That makes me majorly concernedabout how people are choosing
(05:02):
the contractor.
If that's the case, they reallydo need to be licensed.
If they're asking you to pullyour own permit, that's usually
a red flag.
They need to be able to pulltheir own permit.
If they're saying, oh, we can dothis without a permit, again
that's a red flag For cost.
The building departments arethere to protect you as a
(05:23):
consumer.
They're there to make sure thatthe work that that contractor
is doing is up to standards andup to code and it's being done
correctly.
So don't look at it as anuisance or an extra cost.
It's actually there to makesure things are being done to
what you need your standards tobe Because, again, the code
books are very, very, very thickand it's yeah, you have to have
(05:43):
a Egyptian hieroglyphics degreesometimes to understand them
all but again.
that's why the buildingdepartments are there.
They're not there to be anuisance.
They're not there to bust yourchops.
They're there to protect you asa consumer.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Thank you for saying that, because sometimes as a
homeowner it doesn't feel likethat right.
It feels like it's justbureaucracy and it's just there
for red tape and problems.
But fundamentally what it isfor is to protect the homeowners
and make sure the work is doneproperly.
I think people People forgetthat sometimes.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, no, it's definitely a good point to have.
There's also it's called theDepartment of Business and
Public Professional Regulationsthat is there to oversee
contractors.
You can go onto that website atany time and see if there's any
complaint against thecontractor.
Unlicensed activity, did theynot do what they were supposed
(06:36):
to do?
Yada, yada, yada.
It's important to maybe look atthat option to see again if
there's any negative complaintsagainst them.
If they're in stun, then that'susually a pretty good
contractor.
Are they insured?
Do they have general liability?
Do they have workman's comp?
Again, this is another bigtopic where homeowners don't
understand.
If you bring somebody onto yourproperty and they don't have
(06:57):
general liability or workman'scomp and they get hurt, that
goes against your propertyinsurance.
So it's important to ask.
There's no harm in asking for acertificate to be sent over.
A lot of HOAs also require itto be sent over as well.
If you live in an HOA, there'salso they should have a
corporation or an LLC open aswell.
(07:18):
There's a website calledsunbizorg.
That's the Division ofCorporations for the State of
Florida.
You can go in and put theircompany name in there under
research and it'll tell you ifthey're an active status or an
inactive status.
Be careful if they're aninactive status, that means that
the business is not currentlyrunning.
You can also take theprincipal's name, the president
(07:43):
of the company, and type thatname into the sunbiz and see how
many businesses they've opened.
A lot of times what you'll findis, once a business has gotten
into trouble, they'll just closethat business down and go and
open a new one.
Same bad habits follow them tothat new one.
So it can't hurt to do a littleresearch and look into that.
Do they work with contracts?
(08:04):
Are they having you signcontract, go over the scope of
work, what the terms of paymentare, the timeline, things like
that?
Or are they just saying, oh, wecan do it in this timeframe,
just give me this check Again?
Contracts make contractorslegitimate.
That's the whole point, purposeof being a contractor.
Be also wary of contractorsthat want to pay or are asking
(08:26):
you to pay in all cash.
That's also a major red flag.
A check should be fine.
A check is a record of apayment that you made to that
contractor.
You cannot do that with cash.
I don't care what invoice theygive you, that's paid.
You have no proof that you madethat payment to them.
And then, lastly, how is thatproject going to be managed?
In my particular case, I'm anowner operator, so not only am I
(08:48):
the owner of the company, butI'm in the field, working side
by side with my guys.
A lot of times, with somebigger companies, they can't do
that.
So is there going to be aproject manager?
Who's the main contact personthat you're going to be in
contact with once that projectdoes start?
You don't want to just have acrew show up that you can't
communicate with, or if there'sa problem that starts to arise,
you need to know who that maincontact person is to get
(09:10):
anything resolved right then andthere.
Again, those are just sometopics.
Again, I don't want to makethis sound like, oh, it's a very
, very scary situation.
No, I think if we follow thesetopics, it lets you really
funnel down to what are theright type of people that you
want to have come working inyour home.
If they hit these tick marks,then I think it's a very simple
(09:34):
yes answer to that question.
But if they start to don't,then you need to think about it
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah for sure.
I mean this is really greatstuff because when it comes to
making decisions in life notjust for this type of project,
but for anything any importantdecision it's so important to
have a cohesive framework inplace and, like you said, if you
could just tick off all theseboxes and it makes sense to move
forward, you don't have todwell upon whether or not you
(10:01):
made a good or bad decision.
You just you know everythinglines up and you move forward
with it and more often than notit works out favorably.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yep, yep.
All right, that's all I got forthis topic, but I think it's.
I think again, we've had a lotof great information here that
customers may not be privy to,whether it be again a window and
door project or any contractorat all.
I think it's majorly importantto take that to heart and
understand.
Preparation is the key toeverything.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Absolutely, jeff.
Always a pleasure Everyone.
Thank you for tuning in and wewill catch you on the next
episode.
Everyone, have a great day,take care Bye.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Thank you for listening to the JTM Windows
podcast.
For more information, contact954-667-3JTM that's 954-667-3586
.
Or email us at jeff atJTMwindowsAndDoorscom.
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