What is contractor consulting fee for house hunting?

11/5/2015 at 8:43:42 AM

HI there,

In general, a contractor should not charge a fee. Our company provides a free quote submission, many times accompanying the client prior to purchase to give the client an idea of what the renovation will cost. Once the house is purchased, we then go in and complete the renovation. I have done this many times in the past as it makes the purchase and renovation much easier on the client as well as myself.

Contractors looking for money just for doing a quote are ones to be cautious with.

Thanks,

Rav

11/5/2015 at 8:48:36 AM

First you need to talk to more than just 1 contractor. You must get a good feel for who you are going to work with and he or she needs to have the same read on you. That beeping said I would think $75.00 per hour would be more than fair to have the contractor run around looking at places with you. Then if there is work to come out of the job he should eat some of the cost of the hourly rate as long as there is work for him at the end. Hope this helps.

Happy house hunting.

11/5/2015 at 9:27:42 AM

I would draw up a contract, amenable to both parties, spelling out exactly what is needed. then there is no confusion on wasted time on something that's never going to happen. If you are going to take the consultants info and shop it, it is fair the consultant gets paid for his time and work, whatever that may be.

I hope that helps you in your quest.

11/10/2015 at 12:09:22 AM

I run a very busy General contracting firm and quite often have clients who request this for producing to their loans officer, to add renovation dollars to their loan, unfortunately 90% usually never act on the renovation estimate which each one is min half a days work usually, so we have changed to offer it as a service for $75 per hour then if they choose to renovate and go with us, we offer it back as credit on the estimate. this way our costs are covered and it weeds out the serious from not so serious clients.