One of the most common issues we see in our work is the mess created by owners or renters using the ‘Spaghetti Method’ to get estimates for work done.
Most often we see this start on Social Media with a seemingly benign post, “Who’s the best at painting?” “Who’s able to come change a Water Heater right now?” and so on.
This leads to a big mess of having to sort through text messages, phone calls (notes from the calls if you took them), messages/DM’s, and maybe even emails, AND, all of them are based on what the person giving the quote thinks they saw.
Most often we see this as the catalyst for why we were hired as Owners Representatives, asked to ‘come in and clean up the mess’.
When we come in as the Owners Rep, we use the exact same process as if we had started from the beginning:
We gather all of the details needed to create the Scope of Work, a document that clearly shows and explains:
1) Where we are now,
2) Where we want to be,
3) The minimum needed to complete this Scope, and,
4) The maximum inclusion or quantity of the Scope.
We also gather and include pictures, measurements, and various decision points as needed, ensuring all of the information the tradesman needs is included in that document.
From there, we send that out to qualified vendors; vendors we’ve talked with, worked with, and determined are a good fit for this Scope.
They review the Scope, then reply with an estimate for completing that Scope.
Once we receive a response (Estimate, Not interested, Not Available), we sort through those and compare them ‘Apples to Apples’ so the client can make an informed decision.
The major differences in how we handle this from when we’re ‘brought in to clean up the mess’ is we will go back to the contractors who already gave quotes or responses, review the questions and information provided, and then provide them a clean Scope to estimate from again if they choose. Sometimes they don’t want to estimate again, since they already did it once and it didn’t work out, and sometimes they are willing to estimate again. I find they are much more likely to provide a clean estimate a second time once they find out we’re working on the project and are handling Scope, Project, and Schedule.
How about you? Would you rather spend several hours a day reading random bits and pieces of quotes here and there, getting a lot of text messages or phone calls that you have to sort through, or would you rather just have us come in, gather all the details, and get you estimates that are accurate, simple to understand, and from contractors you can trust?
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