April 26, 2026 • 30 mins
Dean continues his ten-step guide to hiring the right contractor, recapping key steps and emphasizing crew size and site care. He recommends asking about C.M.S. (construction management software), explains how the app works and what you can track, and urges clients to buy their own materials and expect transparent, no-markup pricing. Dean stresses jobsite courtesy (porta-potties, property protection) and closes with a rapid recap of the ten steps to finding the perfect contractor.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app today.
On the show, if you're just joining us, you've missed
a lot, but that's okay, that's all right, you can
still catch up. Today on the show, we are talking
about ten steps to finding the right contractor So if
(00:21):
you're just joining us now, then you're going to want
to go back on the podcast and re listen to
the first part of the show because we are on
let me see here, we are going to start step
six right now, right so we've got five leading up
to it. First, don't look for a contractor get a
good designer. That's number one. Number two, find three or
(00:44):
more prospects that you'll actually be taking bids from. That's
not just finding three to start find ending up with
three solid options to take bids from. Number three, check
their legals. Make sure they're license they're bonded, they're insured.
You can check that on local your state's licensing board
website in California at CSLB dot gov. Number four, you
(01:09):
have your meet and greet, and that's what we're in
the middle of right now. The first step of the
meet and Greek was the understanding that this is their
job interview with you. You're the boss, and there are
subjective things that you want to be aware of. The
second part of the meet and greet, you're going to
review your designs. You're not going to be asking your
contractor to design. You're going to be reviewing the designs
(01:32):
you already have. This is what's going to keep everybody's
bidding apples and apples, and it's also going to be
maximizing the focus of your project on the experience that
you want. And it's also going to be avoiding design
by contractor, which is not the best design out there,
to say the least. I'm not going to revisit those.
(01:52):
You can go back and hear my comments at the
beginning of the show on the podcast. All right, So
now we're up to that part of our initial meet
and this first time that we're meeting with this contractor,
and now we're at the critical questions that should be asked. Okay,
so are you ready for this? If you're writing these down,
get ready, and these are important? How big is your crew?
(02:17):
Why do we want to know this well, because there
can be big differences on timing on a job. If
a contractor saying, you know, I'm I'm committing fifteen people
to your house for the next three weeks, okay, all right.
If a contractor says it's just me, I'm going to
be doing everything, that's all well and good too. And
(02:38):
I'm not saying that there's a right or wrong. What
I'm saying is that you need to know. You need
to have your anticipation, your expectations set properly. I love
the idea of a contractor who's just out there doing
their own stuff. Maybe they've got an assistant and their
hands on is on everything as they move through. But
(02:58):
typically that project, it's a little slower than if we've
got a lot of people crawl on all over the house,
all at once. Understood, there you go. So how big
is the crew? Do you use subcontractors or your own
in house people. That's a big difference between the two. Again,
there's not a right and a wrong about it. There
(03:20):
is an understanding of how this goes down. Most of
the time you're gonna find that. I mean, I here's
the situation I like to see. I like to see
a contractor who's going to use mostly his own people,
but will occasionally have to subcontract something else to another company. Okay.
In fact, we had last week we had Jim Zenovich
(03:42):
from new Lux Baths on the program, Fantastic Fantastic bathroom
remodeling contractor for all of San Diego County. Jim, by
the way, and New Lux is over at the del
Mar Home and Garden Show right now, So that's happening.
It happened yesterday and today. If you to check out
New Lux, go down there and see their booth and
(04:04):
talk to them about bathroom remodeling. But anyway, had Jim
on the show last week and asked him this very question. Jim,
all of his people are in house, which means that
he's got complete control over his schedule. Right, He's not
going to get a call from a critical component subcontractor
saying I know, Jim, I was supposed to be there
(04:25):
for you on Tuesday, but this other job that I'm
on got fouled up and I got to stay here
for two more days. So that sets Jim's schedule off,
which means it sets your project's schedule off. And you
can see how that works. Now, that doesn't mean that's
subcontractors bad. It just simply means that's the situation that
we're in. Okay. Typically I asked Jim this question, He's like,
(04:48):
they're all in house. But but Jim doesn't have his
own tempered glass foundry, so he says, yeah, we have
to sub out. Obviously, we sub out the glass doors
that go on people's shower. If they're custom swinging doors,
if they're sliding doors, we don't have to sub them out.
We can. We can buy them ahead of time. Because
it doesn't it's not really inch critical as far as
(05:11):
how the bathroom ends up, how the shower with ends up.
He's but in his case, because they're good at what
they do, they wait until they've put in the new
shower walls and then they measure for that glass and
then they send the order out. So he makes his
clients fully aware that that part of the process is
(05:34):
slightly out of his hands. Now, he uses a supplier
that he uses all the time and they rush his
orders for him and they're very reliable. But they are
technically a subcontractor who's also doing work on the project.
So there you go. Do you use subcontractors or your
own in house people. I want to know how personally
(05:56):
hands on. Will you you, my friend sitting across the
table from me, be with our project. This is also
alludes to something I mentioned earlier. Are you actually talking
to the builder or one of their salespeople? Okay? And
if you're talking to the builder, is the builder going
to be the superintendent and the supervisor on your project
(06:17):
or is it going to be sending somebody else. If
somebody else is going to be, Victor is going to
be in charge of your project. If we do your project,
it'll be Victor who's in charge. It's like, well, I
would like to meet Victor or really, yeah, yes I would.
I would very much like to meet Victor as well
before we make a decision on this. Another question, how
often will you be on site? You and or whoever
(06:39):
is supervising you, Victor, whoever the case may be, okay?
How often is the person in charge and organizing my
project going to be on site daily? That's what I
like to hear. And what time of day is there
a time I can count on? And so on? How
often and how will you you be communicating with us? Now?
(07:02):
This is a huge issue in this interview, and it
begs for a little bit more time we're up against
a break, so I'm going to pick this up on
the other side, Communication and the setting of expectations is
in so many ways the difference between a quality contractor
(07:24):
an average or a poor contractor. Communication. Properly set expectations
and that can make all the difference in the world
when it comes to your stress level on your project.
Let's talk about it on the other side, your Home
with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
We are talking today about ten steps toward finding yourself
a great contractor. Where are we on the list? Well,
we are asking critical questions in that initial meet and
grip step six along the way here, what are we
up to? I said, we left off? Oh communication, How
(08:08):
often are you going to be communicating with us on
this project? I want to hear back from a contractor
that I'm going to be hearing from them every day,
every day, every day that they're on the project, every
day they're not on the project. I want to hear
from you every day and from day one until this
project is done. Touch base with me and you know
(08:30):
your choice. How you want to do that whether it's oh,
I'm going to be here every afternoon around three o'clock
from three to five. Maybe that doesn't even work with
your schedule, emails, text messages. However, the case may be.
What you want is this sense that it's easy to
get a hold of your contractor. Your contractor is going
to be proactively getting a hold of you, you know,
(08:53):
chasing them down every day to figure out what's going on,
and that their communication skills are at the top of
their list of priorities with you, setting, anticipating things properly, expectations,
and so on. Along that line. Here's another question to
ask a contractor. Do you use CMS? Now you're thinking,
(09:16):
what is CMS? Well, they know what CMS is. Well,
it's a good question. CMS is construction management software, Because
you know, we are living in the twenty first century.
Construction management software is a wonderful, wonderful boon to a
project because well, number one, a good quality contractor, Well,
(09:39):
you don't find shoddy contractors using construction management software. Let
me just put it that way. It doesn't mean that
because your contractor doesn't use it doesn't mean that they
won't be easy to communicate with. It's just another layer
and you'd like to know. Because construction management software basically
is a portal. You would download a free app onto
your phone and you would have an account portal there
(10:01):
for your project. And what you'd be able to do
with that is all of your communication can move through
that portal. You can text messages through there and get
answers to questions, and it all becomes part of the
record of the project. The contractor can upload photos in
the middle of the day saying okay, we have a
little issue here, here's this and that, and the next thing.
(10:24):
You get home at the end of the day and
find something out of whack, or you walk through the
job site and have a question about a thing, so
you take a quick pick and upload it and say
I saw this and I was wondering what this thing
is and what's going on here. It's a great, great
way of communicating back and forth with your contractor and client.
(10:46):
It's really all about that. Now there are areas of
CMS that are on the back end that the contractor
just uses. Good construction management software can make time cards
for his employees. It can do all sorts of stuff
on the organizing side in the back again for him.
But the part you're interested in is again another portal
of effective communication, so that you are staying in the loop.
(11:09):
There you go, Okay, will you be itemizing your estimate
for me? Itemized estimates are, you know, a step toward transparency,
and transparency is what I want on a job site
for me. Okay. I don't need a contractor to itemize
every nail and staple and block of wood, but I
(11:33):
much prefer a broken out itemized contract than just a
block number at the bottom of we will do your
job for X, okay, because that doesn't tell me much
about how you're doing it. I also ask contractors right
up front, and this is a really important question for you,
ask what is your fee or your percentage? In other words,
let's just be honest with each other. If you're worth it,
(11:55):
I'm willing to pay your fee. I do this as
a designer, okay. In the design community, especially in the
decorator community, I should say, architects don't really work this way,
but to decorators and home designer or house designers, interior
designers tend to do this. They charge a fee up front,
(12:17):
and then they also, unbeknownst to you, make a lot
of money on markups on furniture and stuff that they
buy for you. Okay, they're going to go out and
actually get a designer's discount, maybe fifteen percent, maybe twenty
percent discount, and then they're going to hand on to
you a ten percent discount on that same stuff, which
(12:37):
means they're pocketing some of it along the way. You know,
I'm not saying that that that's unethical. It's just foggy,
and I think it introduces some vested interest in certain
materials over others. As a designer myself, I just here's
my fee, and you know what, if anything about my
(12:57):
licensing can get you cheaper materials, I'm happy to pass
that on to you. That's what I like to hear,
and the same from your contractor. All right, more of
these critical questions when we return your Home with Dean
Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Thanks for joining us on the program. We are talking
through our ten steps to finding the right contractor for you,
and we're making good progress through the list. Let's get
back to it. We're right in the middle of critical
questions during that initial meet and greet with your contractor.
I'm going to finish these off and get on to
the rest of our points.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Here.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Are you going to be itemizing your estimate that when
we just covered what is your fee or percentage? It
is entirely appropriate and legitimate and wise to ask your
contractor where their fees are and what their percentages are,
straight up front and so. And I'll tell you right
now that typically, and it can vary depending on project,
(14:00):
but typical home renovation contractor fee these days ranges somewhere
between ten twenty plus percent of the total project costs,
depending on the side of the project, the complexity of
the project. And that's going to be a combination of
and you're gonna want to ask them to differentiate between
overhead and profit and their actual well between overhead and profit.
(14:23):
So that would be general conditions. On one side, that's
the stuff that covers their costs, their insurance costs, their
office staff cost, all of that kind of stuff. And
then on top of that their actual profit margin. You know,
there's no reason to hide it. There's no reason to
hide it unless somebody is pushing too far. And so
(14:45):
we have found, Tina and I have found that we
enjoy the relationships that we have most with the contractors
who are just straight up front, like Dean, I'm making
fifteen percent off of anything I do for you, and like,
all right, I think you're worth it, and so I'm
happy about that, and I'm very upfront with our costs
as designers. And again Keena and I have chosen and
(15:06):
it has only worked out well for us that we
do not We don't mark up materials ever. In fact,
we do just the opposite. We will encourage our clients
to buy their own materials directly. We're happy to facilitate
the purchases and handle all that, but we want you
to buy your own materials directly. And what I'm going
(15:28):
to do is if if my if I've got a
contractor's discount or a designer's discount or an architectural discount,
that will get that material for you for less, I
will use it for your benefit and pass that savings
onto you. And the only reason I can do that
is because I don't rely on those markups to be
part of my fee. I come to you upfront and
say this is what I'm going to charge you to
(15:51):
do this project, and you will find that I'm either
worth it or not based on that information, and then
we go from there. No vested interests, no nothing hiding
along the way. That's what you want from your contracting situation. Okay,
can we use your discount to purchase materials directly from suppliers.
(16:12):
There's the question how will my home be left at
the end of every day? I want a commitment that
it's clean, safe, organized. I'm not going to come home
to a disaster, you know. I mean it is a
work site, so things aren't going to be normal, But
(16:32):
I don't want dust through the rest of my house.
How are you going to take care of the rest
of my house because you're in my home. Where's your
crew going to park? Where will your crew use the restroom?
A very important question, you know, are you going to
be using one of my bathrooms? Are we agreed upon
that or are you going to get a portable porta
(16:52):
potty rental? Is that thing going to be serviced regularly
so that my neighbors aren't complaining that there's a new aroma?
And so I want to know these details. These are
the details where you know kind of the rubber hit
hits the road as it were, are you going to
have issues taking direction from our designer because you have
a designer, because you made the right move up front,
(17:14):
and you want to be clear in fact when you
actually get down to the last couple of vettings before
you make a final decision. I would invite your designer
to be a part of that meeting so that everybody
knows all the players involved. What level of residential craftsmanship
are you most accustomed to? In other words, you know,
(17:35):
just like restaurants, and I like to compare contractors to
restaurant tours. They have about the same success rate, and
the good ones are you know, infamously great. So the
point is this, there are different levels of doing construction.
There are there are just like there are restaurants out
(17:58):
there that are fast food restaurants, and there are restaurants
out there that are gastro pubs, and restaurants that are
cafes and restaurants that are hote cuisine high end stuff.
You want to know what level of craftsmanship are you
most accustomed to? What you are you a fast food
contractor or are you a hote cuisine contractor? Am I
(18:18):
going to get a silk napkin laid in my lap?
When you show up or you know, is it going
to be a straw? And you know in styrofoam boxes
that everything comes in. It's not a right or wrong answer.
It's about what you're looking for and what you want
for your project. And you need to ask that question
and they should be able to answer you to you okay.
(18:40):
And how do you handle changes and change orders? That's
another big thing. In other words, something shifts, now we're
going to make a change. How are we going to
handle those change orders? These are just a few of
the questions that we ask during those meet and greets.
You can come up with a ton more, but these
are essential ones that I want you to not skip over.
(19:02):
Item seven. During the meet and greet before this is over,
ask for a gut estimate. A gut estimate. Now ensure
them it's not gonna win them the job, lose them
the job. You're just asking their perspective. You're not judging
them based on their estimate. This is what formally in
the business is called a rom room, a rough order
(19:24):
of magnitude, a rom And if you want to throw
that term out, they'll be very impressed. And if they
don't know that term, you should be very unimpressed. Okay,
so you say, hey, could you shoot me a ram
just from the hip here, It's not gonna matter one
way or the other. I'm just trying to get an idea. Now,
why am I having you do that? Well, I'm having
you do that for not because of the contractor, And
(19:47):
it really doesn't have anything to do with hiring them
or not hiring them. It has to do with this.
If if you ask for that rough guestimate from every
one of these three plus contractors that you actually interview
in your home, then you'll have a sense of where
this project is going. If the averages of all those
(20:08):
gut estimates are shooting way above your budget, then that's
a warning sign right now that it's time to pump
the brakes and either a find more money because what
you want to do is going to be more expensive
than you thought, or b back to the drawing board,
as it were, literally, in other words, go back to
your design and make alterations in the design. I insist
(20:32):
that my clients go through this process because I refuse
to hand them a design that they cannot afford to build, okay,
and so I want them to know, at least in
the rough estimate phase. You know what, Yeah, I mean
it's we had always talked about setting aside this amount
of money, and it would appear as though it's going
(20:53):
to basically fall right in that range. Okay, we're good,
We're good with the design. Let's proceed ahead and get
the best estimate and value possible from these contractors. But
if everybody's overshooting where you thought it was gonna be,
it's time to pump the brakes and go back to
step one again and make sure that the design is
one that will produce a project you can afford. Okay,
(21:18):
then we're done with that interview and away they go.
You take in your notes and you're gonna do that
three times with three different contractors in your home minimum
that you've already vetted and then it vetted in terms
of legals and stuff like that. Now you have a
strong sense that you know what I really like contractor B.
(21:41):
I just got a really good vibe from them. Let's
investigate further. Now we're gonna check references, especially their most
recent references. Okay. That means you're gonna call clients that
they're working with currently, clients that they just finished, just finished,
recent recent references. You're gonna ask them how did it
go okay? And then ask to see their work firsthand.
(22:04):
And when everything is done Step ten, when the plans
are complete, you're going to request finally the formal estimates
from your short list of contractors. That is the list.
I'm going to elucidate a couple of points more for
you today, but we'll do it right on the other
side of this break. You are Home with Dean Sharp
(22:24):
the house whisper.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Thanks for joining us on the program today. Here we
are the final segment of our show. I want to
do a quick recap and then I've got some final
thoughts for you today, so don't go anywhere. Thanks for
joining us on the show. If you missed any part
of the show today was an important one to a
lot of people. It's the ten steps of how to
find yourself the right contractor. And so just to recap
(22:54):
very quickly what those ten steps are without explanation. First,
don't look for a contractor get a good designer. Step one. Second,
find three or more prospects that you will actually take
official bids from. You may have to search through many
more than that in order to come down to the
final three, but three or more is what you're looking for.
(23:16):
Number three, check their legals. Make sure they're licensed, they're bonded,
they're insured. You can do that on your state's licensing website.
In California it's CSLB dot gov, Thecontractor State License Board
dot gov. Then comes the meet and greet, the initial
job interview. That's step four, all right, and there are
(23:36):
a lot of things to be looking at when that happens.
Step five. During that meet and greet, review your designs.
Don't ask your contractor to design it for you. Review
the designs that you already have from your designer. It's
a time to listen, to be listened to. Step six
is during the meet and greet, a whole list of
critical questions that we went through one by one, very
(23:58):
very important questions, from the theoretical to the practical to
the you know, where is your crew going to park
and go to the bathroom when they're working on my site?
All the way from that to how much money are
you making? And he you know, do you use subcontractors
or your own in house people? And all sorts of
stuff in between. Step seven, still in that initial interview,
(24:21):
ask for a gut estimate or what's called in the
business a rom a rough order of magnitude. That's so
that you can collect those rough estimates from the three
contractors that you're interviewing and know whether your whole project
is overshooting your budget or whether you're on target. And
if it's overshooting, then you go back to the design
(24:43):
and make changes so you can bring it within control
of your budget. Step eight you check references, recent references.
It's fine if somebody is proud of work that they
did ten years ago, that's great. That can be on
the list. But I want to talk to the people
that you are currently working with and that you just
finished their project and find out from them how are
(25:05):
things going right now in twenty twenty six. Then you
ask to see their finished work firsthand, not just photos.
You can get a chance to walk into one of
those sites, and when the plans are complete, you finally
request formal estimates from your short list of contractors. And
now you know you're going to get apples and apples,
(25:26):
and you'll be able to sit down and compare it
with your designer and help them help you understand what's
in line, what's out of line, and you're going to
arrive at that one person who you're going to want
to pull the trigger with. That's how it works, all right.
That's enough of that for today. It's been a while
since I've left you a closing thought, and so I
(25:49):
had one that been kind of toying with for a
little while here. I thought i'd share it with you today.
It's kind of the reason we do all of this
our home, and that is to live in it. And
so I'm gonna leave you with this thought today. I
don't know about you, but I honestly am frightened about
how short life is. Not because I fear what comes next,
(26:12):
whatever is next, but I'm frightened that there won't be
more here. Yeah, don't misunderstand me. I love my life.
I'm deeply grateful for every moment I've been giving given.
And then that's kind of the point. What I don't
love is how easy it is to distract me from
the more that I'm always looking for. The thing I
(26:35):
like least about being human is how easy it is
for us to treat life cheaply. Life is worrisome. It
can be difficult and sad it can break your heart.
But far worse than suffering through life is just missing
so much of it while it's happening. So many moments
(26:57):
slip through our fingers, as if there are an endless
apply of moments, but there is not. And I wonder,
are we doomed to take this life for granted while
we have it and only appreciate it when it's gone?
Will we always be that clumsy, that out of step
in this awkward dance? Are we doomed to distraction and
(27:17):
destined to grow death to the music that's all around us?
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Now?
Speaker 1 (27:22):
I enjoy design. One of the reasons is because design
is all about intention. It's my intention, my dream, my hope.
Maybe it's a fantasy, but I want to believe that
the right place and the right space can so overwhelm us,
so meet us where we are, that it can help
us hear the music better, help transport us, and hold
(27:45):
us in life's moments as they're actually happening, so that
we don't miss them, so that we live them fully
and in doing so fully live And for me, the
old clock in the living room keeps ticking, trying to
get my at trying to help me find my rhythm,
get me back into the dance floor. And every day
(28:05):
around here the magic is there, the quiet morning air
in crickets and frogs, crowing roosters and rustling leaves and
birds song and buzzing bees, in the sound of baseball games,
and the smell of fresh bread and the feel of
cotton and flannel and leather, and steam rising off coffee
(28:26):
and mist rising off the water, and owls that hoot
Who who? Who? Will stop to listen and start begin
to live again? I know I just don't have the
attention I need to fully live each moment. But I
keep designing my life as best that I know how,
(28:47):
because it's my intent to get better at being here
before I'm not here at all. And the hard truth is,
I'm too small to fully absorb this life. I'm too numb,
I'm too dumb. I'm too blind, I'm too shallow. But
there are moments when I can hear and see and
feel and taste and run and dance, moments when I
(29:07):
actually notice the life all around me and the life
I'm living, and when the two come together. There are
moments when I happily fall out of step with the
traffic and the chaos and back into step with me.
And it's beautiful. And I want more moments. And I
know I won't get more moments, but if I can
just live more of the moments that I actually usually waste,
(29:31):
then perhaps that will be enough to build myself a
beautiful life. And I hope that is for you too,
So let's all strive to do that this week, and
I will see you right back here next weekend. This
has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune
into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every
Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and every
(29:53):
Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime
on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app today.
On the show, if you're just joining us, you've missed
a lot, but that's okay, that's all right, you can
still catch up. Today on the show, we are talking
about ten steps to finding the right contractor So if
(00:21):
you're just joining us now, then you're going to want
to go back on the podcast and re listen to
the first part of the show because we are on
let me see here, we are going to start step
six right now, right so we've got five leading up
to it. First, don't look for a contractor get a
good designer. That's number one. Number two, find three or
(00:44):
more prospects that you'll actually be taking bids from. That's
not just finding three to start find ending up with
three solid options to take bids from. Number three, check
their legals. Make sure they're license they're bonded, they're insured.
You can check that on local your state's licensing board
website in California at CSLB dot gov. Number four, you
(01:09):
have your meet and greet, and that's what we're in
the middle of right now. The first step of the
meet and Greek was the understanding that this is their
job interview with you. You're the boss, and there are
subjective things that you want to be aware of. The
second part of the meet and greet, you're going to
review your designs. You're not going to be asking your
contractor to design. You're going to be reviewing the designs
(01:32):
you already have. This is what's going to keep everybody's
bidding apples and apples, and it's also going to be
maximizing the focus of your project on the experience that
you want. And it's also going to be avoiding design
by contractor, which is not the best design out there,
to say the least. I'm not going to revisit those.
(01:52):
You can go back and hear my comments at the
beginning of the show on the podcast. All right, So
now we're up to that part of our initial meet
and this first time that we're meeting with this contractor,
and now we're at the critical questions that should be asked. Okay,
so are you ready for this? If you're writing these down,
get ready, and these are important? How big is your crew?
(02:17):
Why do we want to know this well, because there
can be big differences on timing on a job. If
a contractor saying, you know, I'm I'm committing fifteen people
to your house for the next three weeks, okay, all right.
If a contractor says it's just me, I'm going to
be doing everything, that's all well and good too. And
(02:38):
I'm not saying that there's a right or wrong. What
I'm saying is that you need to know. You need
to have your anticipation, your expectations set properly. I love
the idea of a contractor who's just out there doing
their own stuff. Maybe they've got an assistant and their
hands on is on everything as they move through. But
(02:58):
typically that project, it's a little slower than if we've
got a lot of people crawl on all over the house,
all at once. Understood, there you go. So how big
is the crew? Do you use subcontractors or your own
in house people. That's a big difference between the two. Again,
there's not a right and a wrong about it. There
(03:20):
is an understanding of how this goes down. Most of
the time you're gonna find that. I mean, I here's
the situation I like to see. I like to see
a contractor who's going to use mostly his own people,
but will occasionally have to subcontract something else to another company. Okay.
In fact, we had last week we had Jim Zenovich
(03:42):
from new Lux Baths on the program, Fantastic Fantastic bathroom
remodeling contractor for all of San Diego County. Jim, by
the way, and New Lux is over at the del
Mar Home and Garden Show right now, So that's happening.
It happened yesterday and today. If you to check out
New Lux, go down there and see their booth and
(04:04):
talk to them about bathroom remodeling. But anyway, had Jim
on the show last week and asked him this very question. Jim,
all of his people are in house, which means that
he's got complete control over his schedule. Right, He's not
going to get a call from a critical component subcontractor
saying I know, Jim, I was supposed to be there
(04:25):
for you on Tuesday, but this other job that I'm
on got fouled up and I got to stay here
for two more days. So that sets Jim's schedule off,
which means it sets your project's schedule off. And you
can see how that works. Now, that doesn't mean that's
subcontractors bad. It just simply means that's the situation that
we're in. Okay. Typically I asked Jim this question, He's like,
(04:48):
they're all in house. But but Jim doesn't have his
own tempered glass foundry, so he says, yeah, we have
to sub out. Obviously, we sub out the glass doors
that go on people's shower. If they're custom swinging doors,
if they're sliding doors, we don't have to sub them out.
We can. We can buy them ahead of time. Because
it doesn't it's not really inch critical as far as
(05:11):
how the bathroom ends up, how the shower with ends up.
He's but in his case, because they're good at what
they do, they wait until they've put in the new
shower walls and then they measure for that glass and
then they send the order out. So he makes his
clients fully aware that that part of the process is
(05:34):
slightly out of his hands. Now, he uses a supplier
that he uses all the time and they rush his
orders for him and they're very reliable. But they are
technically a subcontractor who's also doing work on the project.
So there you go. Do you use subcontractors or your
own in house people. I want to know how personally
(05:56):
hands on. Will you you, my friend sitting across the
table from me, be with our project. This is also
alludes to something I mentioned earlier. Are you actually talking
to the builder or one of their salespeople? Okay? And
if you're talking to the builder, is the builder going
to be the superintendent and the supervisor on your project
(06:17):
or is it going to be sending somebody else. If
somebody else is going to be, Victor is going to
be in charge of your project. If we do your project,
it'll be Victor who's in charge. It's like, well, I
would like to meet Victor or really, yeah, yes I would.
I would very much like to meet Victor as well
before we make a decision on this. Another question, how
often will you be on site? You and or whoever
(06:39):
is supervising you, Victor, whoever the case may be, okay?
How often is the person in charge and organizing my
project going to be on site daily? That's what I
like to hear. And what time of day is there
a time I can count on? And so on? How
often and how will you you be communicating with us? Now?
(07:02):
This is a huge issue in this interview, and it
begs for a little bit more time we're up against
a break, so I'm going to pick this up on
the other side, Communication and the setting of expectations is
in so many ways the difference between a quality contractor
(07:24):
an average or a poor contractor. Communication. Properly set expectations
and that can make all the difference in the world
when it comes to your stress level on your project.
Let's talk about it on the other side, your Home
with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
We are talking today about ten steps toward finding yourself
a great contractor. Where are we on the list? Well,
we are asking critical questions in that initial meet and
grip step six along the way here, what are we
up to? I said, we left off? Oh communication, How
(08:08):
often are you going to be communicating with us on
this project? I want to hear back from a contractor
that I'm going to be hearing from them every day,
every day, every day that they're on the project, every
day they're not on the project. I want to hear
from you every day and from day one until this
project is done. Touch base with me and you know
(08:30):
your choice. How you want to do that whether it's oh,
I'm going to be here every afternoon around three o'clock
from three to five. Maybe that doesn't even work with
your schedule, emails, text messages. However, the case may be.
What you want is this sense that it's easy to
get a hold of your contractor. Your contractor is going
to be proactively getting a hold of you, you know,
(08:53):
chasing them down every day to figure out what's going on,
and that their communication skills are at the top of
their list of priorities with you, setting, anticipating things properly, expectations,
and so on. Along that line. Here's another question to
ask a contractor. Do you use CMS? Now you're thinking,
(09:16):
what is CMS? Well, they know what CMS is. Well,
it's a good question. CMS is construction management software, Because
you know, we are living in the twenty first century.
Construction management software is a wonderful, wonderful boon to a
project because well, number one, a good quality contractor, Well,
(09:39):
you don't find shoddy contractors using construction management software. Let
me just put it that way. It doesn't mean that
because your contractor doesn't use it doesn't mean that they
won't be easy to communicate with. It's just another layer
and you'd like to know. Because construction management software basically
is a portal. You would download a free app onto
your phone and you would have an account portal there
(10:01):
for your project. And what you'd be able to do
with that is all of your communication can move through
that portal. You can text messages through there and get
answers to questions, and it all becomes part of the
record of the project. The contractor can upload photos in
the middle of the day saying okay, we have a
little issue here, here's this and that, and the next thing.
(10:24):
You get home at the end of the day and
find something out of whack, or you walk through the
job site and have a question about a thing, so
you take a quick pick and upload it and say
I saw this and I was wondering what this thing
is and what's going on here. It's a great, great
way of communicating back and forth with your contractor and client.
(10:46):
It's really all about that. Now there are areas of
CMS that are on the back end that the contractor
just uses. Good construction management software can make time cards
for his employees. It can do all sorts of stuff
on the organizing side in the back again for him.
But the part you're interested in is again another portal
of effective communication, so that you are staying in the loop.
(11:09):
There you go, Okay, will you be itemizing your estimate
for me? Itemized estimates are, you know, a step toward transparency,
and transparency is what I want on a job site
for me. Okay. I don't need a contractor to itemize
every nail and staple and block of wood, but I
(11:33):
much prefer a broken out itemized contract than just a
block number at the bottom of we will do your
job for X, okay, because that doesn't tell me much
about how you're doing it. I also ask contractors right
up front, and this is a really important question for you,
ask what is your fee or your percentage? In other words,
let's just be honest with each other. If you're worth it,
(11:55):
I'm willing to pay your fee. I do this as
a designer, okay. In the design community, especially in the
decorator community, I should say, architects don't really work this way,
but to decorators and home designer or house designers, interior
designers tend to do this. They charge a fee up front,
(12:17):
and then they also, unbeknownst to you, make a lot
of money on markups on furniture and stuff that they
buy for you. Okay, they're going to go out and
actually get a designer's discount, maybe fifteen percent, maybe twenty
percent discount, and then they're going to hand on to
you a ten percent discount on that same stuff, which
(12:37):
means they're pocketing some of it along the way. You know,
I'm not saying that that that's unethical. It's just foggy,
and I think it introduces some vested interest in certain
materials over others. As a designer myself, I just here's
my fee, and you know what, if anything about my
(12:57):
licensing can get you cheaper materials, I'm happy to pass
that on to you. That's what I like to hear,
and the same from your contractor. All right, more of
these critical questions when we return your Home with Dean
Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Thanks for joining us on the program. We are talking
through our ten steps to finding the right contractor for you,
and we're making good progress through the list. Let's get
back to it. We're right in the middle of critical
questions during that initial meet and greet with your contractor.
I'm going to finish these off and get on to
the rest of our points.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Here.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Are you going to be itemizing your estimate that when
we just covered what is your fee or percentage? It
is entirely appropriate and legitimate and wise to ask your
contractor where their fees are and what their percentages are,
straight up front and so. And I'll tell you right
now that typically, and it can vary depending on project,
(14:00):
but typical home renovation contractor fee these days ranges somewhere
between ten twenty plus percent of the total project costs,
depending on the side of the project, the complexity of
the project. And that's going to be a combination of
and you're gonna want to ask them to differentiate between
overhead and profit and their actual well between overhead and profit.
(14:23):
So that would be general conditions. On one side, that's
the stuff that covers their costs, their insurance costs, their
office staff cost, all of that kind of stuff. And
then on top of that their actual profit margin. You know,
there's no reason to hide it. There's no reason to
hide it unless somebody is pushing too far. And so
(14:45):
we have found, Tina and I have found that we
enjoy the relationships that we have most with the contractors
who are just straight up front, like Dean, I'm making
fifteen percent off of anything I do for you, and like,
all right, I think you're worth it, and so I'm
happy about that, and I'm very upfront with our costs
as designers. And again Keena and I have chosen and
(15:06):
it has only worked out well for us that we
do not We don't mark up materials ever. In fact,
we do just the opposite. We will encourage our clients
to buy their own materials directly. We're happy to facilitate
the purchases and handle all that, but we want you
to buy your own materials directly. And what I'm going
(15:28):
to do is if if my if I've got a
contractor's discount or a designer's discount or an architectural discount,
that will get that material for you for less, I
will use it for your benefit and pass that savings
onto you. And the only reason I can do that
is because I don't rely on those markups to be
part of my fee. I come to you upfront and
say this is what I'm going to charge you to
(15:51):
do this project, and you will find that I'm either
worth it or not based on that information, and then
we go from there. No vested interests, no nothing hiding
along the way. That's what you want from your contracting situation. Okay,
can we use your discount to purchase materials directly from suppliers.
(16:12):
There's the question how will my home be left at
the end of every day? I want a commitment that
it's clean, safe, organized. I'm not going to come home
to a disaster, you know. I mean it is a
work site, so things aren't going to be normal, But
(16:32):
I don't want dust through the rest of my house.
How are you going to take care of the rest
of my house because you're in my home. Where's your
crew going to park? Where will your crew use the restroom?
A very important question, you know, are you going to
be using one of my bathrooms? Are we agreed upon
that or are you going to get a portable porta
(16:52):
potty rental? Is that thing going to be serviced regularly
so that my neighbors aren't complaining that there's a new aroma?
And so I want to know these details. These are
the details where you know kind of the rubber hit
hits the road as it were, are you going to
have issues taking direction from our designer because you have
a designer, because you made the right move up front,
(17:14):
and you want to be clear in fact when you
actually get down to the last couple of vettings before
you make a final decision. I would invite your designer
to be a part of that meeting so that everybody
knows all the players involved. What level of residential craftsmanship
are you most accustomed to? In other words, you know,
(17:35):
just like restaurants, and I like to compare contractors to
restaurant tours. They have about the same success rate, and
the good ones are you know, infamously great. So the
point is this, there are different levels of doing construction.
There are there are just like there are restaurants out
(17:58):
there that are fast food restaurants, and there are restaurants
out there that are gastro pubs, and restaurants that are
cafes and restaurants that are hote cuisine high end stuff.
You want to know what level of craftsmanship are you
most accustomed to? What you are you a fast food
contractor or are you a hote cuisine contractor? Am I
(18:18):
going to get a silk napkin laid in my lap?
When you show up or you know, is it going
to be a straw? And you know in styrofoam boxes
that everything comes in. It's not a right or wrong answer.
It's about what you're looking for and what you want
for your project. And you need to ask that question
and they should be able to answer you to you okay.
(18:40):
And how do you handle changes and change orders? That's
another big thing. In other words, something shifts, now we're
going to make a change. How are we going to
handle those change orders? These are just a few of
the questions that we ask during those meet and greets.
You can come up with a ton more, but these
are essential ones that I want you to not skip over.
(19:02):
Item seven. During the meet and greet before this is over,
ask for a gut estimate. A gut estimate. Now ensure
them it's not gonna win them the job, lose them
the job. You're just asking their perspective. You're not judging
them based on their estimate. This is what formally in
the business is called a rom room, a rough order
(19:24):
of magnitude, a rom And if you want to throw
that term out, they'll be very impressed. And if they
don't know that term, you should be very unimpressed. Okay,
so you say, hey, could you shoot me a ram
just from the hip here, It's not gonna matter one
way or the other. I'm just trying to get an idea. Now,
why am I having you do that? Well, I'm having
you do that for not because of the contractor, And
(19:47):
it really doesn't have anything to do with hiring them
or not hiring them. It has to do with this.
If if you ask for that rough guestimate from every
one of these three plus contractors that you actually interview
in your home, then you'll have a sense of where
this project is going. If the averages of all those
(20:08):
gut estimates are shooting way above your budget, then that's
a warning sign right now that it's time to pump
the brakes and either a find more money because what
you want to do is going to be more expensive
than you thought, or b back to the drawing board,
as it were, literally, in other words, go back to
your design and make alterations in the design. I insist
(20:32):
that my clients go through this process because I refuse
to hand them a design that they cannot afford to build, okay,
and so I want them to know, at least in
the rough estimate phase. You know what, Yeah, I mean
it's we had always talked about setting aside this amount
of money, and it would appear as though it's going
(20:53):
to basically fall right in that range. Okay, we're good,
We're good with the design. Let's proceed ahead and get
the best estimate and value possible from these contractors. But
if everybody's overshooting where you thought it was gonna be,
it's time to pump the brakes and go back to
step one again and make sure that the design is
one that will produce a project you can afford. Okay,
(21:18):
then we're done with that interview and away they go.
You take in your notes and you're gonna do that
three times with three different contractors in your home minimum
that you've already vetted and then it vetted in terms
of legals and stuff like that. Now you have a
strong sense that you know what I really like contractor B.
(21:41):
I just got a really good vibe from them. Let's
investigate further. Now we're gonna check references, especially their most
recent references. Okay. That means you're gonna call clients that
they're working with currently, clients that they just finished, just finished,
recent recent references. You're gonna ask them how did it
go okay? And then ask to see their work firsthand.
(22:04):
And when everything is done Step ten, when the plans
are complete, you're going to request finally the formal estimates
from your short list of contractors. That is the list.
I'm going to elucidate a couple of points more for
you today, but we'll do it right on the other
side of this break. You are Home with Dean Sharp
(22:24):
the house whisper.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Thanks for joining us on the program today. Here we
are the final segment of our show. I want to
do a quick recap and then I've got some final
thoughts for you today, so don't go anywhere. Thanks for
joining us on the show. If you missed any part
of the show today was an important one to a
lot of people. It's the ten steps of how to
find yourself the right contractor. And so just to recap
(22:54):
very quickly what those ten steps are without explanation. First,
don't look for a contractor get a good designer. Step one. Second,
find three or more prospects that you will actually take
official bids from. You may have to search through many
more than that in order to come down to the
final three, but three or more is what you're looking for.
(23:16):
Number three, check their legals. Make sure they're licensed, they're bonded,
they're insured. You can do that on your state's licensing website.
In California it's CSLB dot gov, Thecontractor State License Board
dot gov. Then comes the meet and greet, the initial
job interview. That's step four, all right, and there are
(23:36):
a lot of things to be looking at when that happens.
Step five. During that meet and greet, review your designs.
Don't ask your contractor to design it for you. Review
the designs that you already have from your designer. It's
a time to listen, to be listened to. Step six
is during the meet and greet, a whole list of
critical questions that we went through one by one, very
(23:58):
very important questions, from the theoretical to the practical to
the you know, where is your crew going to park
and go to the bathroom when they're working on my site?
All the way from that to how much money are
you making? And he you know, do you use subcontractors
or your own in house people? And all sorts of
stuff in between. Step seven, still in that initial interview,
(24:21):
ask for a gut estimate or what's called in the
business a rom a rough order of magnitude. That's so
that you can collect those rough estimates from the three
contractors that you're interviewing and know whether your whole project
is overshooting your budget or whether you're on target. And
if it's overshooting, then you go back to the design
(24:43):
and make changes so you can bring it within control
of your budget. Step eight you check references, recent references.
It's fine if somebody is proud of work that they
did ten years ago, that's great. That can be on
the list. But I want to talk to the people
that you are currently working with and that you just
finished their project and find out from them how are
(25:05):
things going right now in twenty twenty six. Then you
ask to see their finished work firsthand, not just photos.
You can get a chance to walk into one of
those sites, and when the plans are complete, you finally
request formal estimates from your short list of contractors. And
now you know you're going to get apples and apples,
(25:26):
and you'll be able to sit down and compare it
with your designer and help them help you understand what's
in line, what's out of line, and you're going to
arrive at that one person who you're going to want
to pull the trigger with. That's how it works, all right.
That's enough of that for today. It's been a while
since I've left you a closing thought, and so I
(25:49):
had one that been kind of toying with for a
little while here. I thought i'd share it with you today.
It's kind of the reason we do all of this
our home, and that is to live in it. And
so I'm gonna leave you with this thought today. I
don't know about you, but I honestly am frightened about
how short life is. Not because I fear what comes next,
(26:12):
whatever is next, but I'm frightened that there won't be
more here. Yeah, don't misunderstand me. I love my life.
I'm deeply grateful for every moment I've been giving given.
And then that's kind of the point. What I don't
love is how easy it is to distract me from
the more that I'm always looking for. The thing I
(26:35):
like least about being human is how easy it is
for us to treat life cheaply. Life is worrisome. It
can be difficult and sad it can break your heart.
But far worse than suffering through life is just missing
so much of it while it's happening. So many moments
(26:57):
slip through our fingers, as if there are an endless
apply of moments, but there is not. And I wonder,
are we doomed to take this life for granted while
we have it and only appreciate it when it's gone?
Will we always be that clumsy, that out of step
in this awkward dance? Are we doomed to distraction and
(27:17):
destined to grow death to the music that's all around us?
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Now?
Speaker 1 (27:22):
I enjoy design. One of the reasons is because design
is all about intention. It's my intention, my dream, my hope.
Maybe it's a fantasy, but I want to believe that
the right place and the right space can so overwhelm us,
so meet us where we are, that it can help
us hear the music better, help transport us, and hold
(27:45):
us in life's moments as they're actually happening, so that
we don't miss them, so that we live them fully
and in doing so fully live And for me, the
old clock in the living room keeps ticking, trying to
get my at trying to help me find my rhythm,
get me back into the dance floor. And every day
(28:05):
around here the magic is there, the quiet morning air
in crickets and frogs, crowing roosters and rustling leaves and
birds song and buzzing bees, in the sound of baseball games,
and the smell of fresh bread and the feel of
cotton and flannel and leather, and steam rising off coffee
(28:26):
and mist rising off the water, and owls that hoot
Who who? Who? Will stop to listen and start begin
to live again? I know I just don't have the
attention I need to fully live each moment. But I
keep designing my life as best that I know how,
(28:47):
because it's my intent to get better at being here
before I'm not here at all. And the hard truth is,
I'm too small to fully absorb this life. I'm too numb,
I'm too dumb. I'm too blind, I'm too shallow. But
there are moments when I can hear and see and
feel and taste and run and dance, moments when I
(29:07):
actually notice the life all around me and the life
I'm living, and when the two come together. There are
moments when I happily fall out of step with the
traffic and the chaos and back into step with me.
And it's beautiful. And I want more moments. And I
know I won't get more moments, but if I can
just live more of the moments that I actually usually waste,
(29:31):
then perhaps that will be enough to build myself a
beautiful life. And I hope that is for you too,
So let's all strive to do that this week, and
I will see you right back here next weekend. This
has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune
into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every
Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and every
(29:53):
Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime
on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Home with Dean Sharp News
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Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.