HOW DOES MY NEXT HOME RENO CREATE MY QUOTE?

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First Things First . .

If you’re getting multiple quotes from different contractors (and of course you should be!), likely you will find that no two are the same. That’s because calculating a competative “Gauranteed Maximum Price” for your project is the hardest thing any contractor has to build.

If you think about the complexity of today’s building technology along with the Ontario Building Code standards, it won’t take you long to loosen your collar when you realize that, as the contractor, you have to account for every nail, every stud, every 4×8 peice of plywood (including waste), every tile, each bag of mortar, ect. ect. You have to factor all the materials in or it comes out of your pocket. You can’t overshoot your material costs or you risk driving your quote out of the competitive ring.

What’s more is that Material is only one portion of the grand equasion. As the contractor you still have to factor your time, your kms, and procurement costs. Imagine building a house and breaking down all the steps into line items and allocating a unique “time to complete” number, right down to the nearest 15 minutes. Each house is different, each location is different, and not all crews operate at the same efficiency.

Then you have operation costs. Some of these are fixed and some of them fluctuate based on how many crews you are running at the same time. The bigger a business becomes, the better we can diversify our overhead over multiple cost centers and of course the more competative we become. But imagine the formula you need to design in order to transition from a small busines to a big one and find that “Goldielocks Zone” of operating efficiency. How challenging would it be to allocate overhead to a project, or even 5 projects running at the same time.

Now let’s talk about profit. Every company makes profit (Well, that’s the idea anyways) and we shouldn’t be ashamed of profit. Profit is the safetynet that allows you to provide well for the hardworking people in your team, offer stability and security and, of course, grow to create more jobs. As the homeowner, I know profit can seem like a dirty little thing, especially when you don’t understand how much profit we make. That’s the fine line we walk as contractors. It’s a tight rope between where we were and where we want to be, as a company. The balancing pole we so dearly cling to, is our quote. Beneath us, hundreds of feet down, is the rubble of dreams from many contractors who came before us.

Talk about risk – quoting is a risky business.

Sometimes you will get a quote that just has a price. No material or labour breakdowns and sometimes you won’t even see a scope of work. We beat those guys all the time, because we take the time to do the job in our head first, step by step, as if we were already on site. We take the time to prepare for the job as if we had already won your business. And when it comes time to sign, well, even your specific job related contract is ready to go. And we don’t have to panic at last minute to make a material list, allocate crews, see if we have the right tools, find a spot in the calendar or hash out a plan of attack. We already have the horse infront of the cart.

So in an effort to be fully transparent, let me walk you through the systems and procedures we have in place so you know what to expect from us when you give us the opportunity to bid on YOUR NEXT HOME RENO!

1. You Find Us

Most of our customers find us through Better Business Bureau. This is one of our primary lead generation tools. Reputation is everything in this business. Most people who come to us have had a very bad experience and they are extremely cautious, sometimes even jaded, with the entire industry.

Challenge accepted.

You can visit our Better Business Bureau profile to see that we have been in business for a long time, we intend to be in business for a long time to come. You can rest assured we see this opportunity to work with you as the chance to create a relationship that lasts for a long time. We appreciate that you work hard for your savings and your investment has to be a quality one.

2. You Submit Your Request

The very beginning of the process of getting a quote starts with the “Get a Quote” button on our website. Even if you give us a call, the administrator will open this form and ask these questions. We collect a variety of standard data:

Your Name (First and Last Please)
Your Email Address
Your Cell Number (Calls and texts)
We ask if you are a home owner, client or contractor.
- Home Owner: Select this option if you own the home and the billing address will be the same as the address where the work will be done.
- Client: A client is someone like a property manager or landlord. Select this option if the billing address will be different than the address where the work will be done.
- Contractor: We work with a lot of other contractors. Some “General Contractors” in the city simply sub work to other contractors and then mark up the price.
Address where the work will be done. (If you selected either Client or Contractor above, the form will also prompt you for a billing address.)
If you have architectural drawings we will ask you to upload them. If you want to provide those later that is also fine.
If you already have permits in place. This is good for us to know because we have a better idea of what phase of the building process you’re at.
When you want to start the project. We sometimes have slots available throughout the year. Also we book months or years in advance.
Project description in your own words.
Budget – We know most people don’t want to talk about “how much money they can spend” because they don’t want to be taken advantage of. If the project can be done for $15,000 why would you want to tell us you have $20,000 to spend? That might prompt us to charge you $20,000 since it’s a number you’re already prepaired for right? No. We have speciic formulas we use to calculate your project budget requirements. We also know we are competing with other contractors, so pricing it to win it is our motto. Budget is important though because often clients have unrealistic expectations. Understandable, because renovations are not part of your daily lives. But if you tell us your budget is $10,000 for a bathroom renovation, chances are we will start the conversation there. Typically, a standard bathroom renovation starts around $20,000 at My Next Home Reno.
Site visit schedule option. When is a good day to come see the space and take measurements and discuss your needs? We will solidify this date and time more precisely when we call you.
Where did you hear about is? We need to know where our marketing is paying off so we can analyze our investments at the end of the year and allocate marketing budgets correctly.

3. We Call You

Once you submit your quote request from our website, someone will reach out to you by phone or email.

We will confirm the information we have in the form and go over, in a little more detail, what stage of the renovation process you’re at. We will determine if our schedules and availability for the project align.

We will set expectations regarding the process to come and determine what obsticals we might need to overcome before a site visit is appropriate, such as drawings, permit requirements or other trade requirements.

At this point we will schedule the site visit.

Feel free to give us a call if you just want to ask a few questions about the process. 613-869-2587

4. We Meet You On Site

The site visit is an important part of the quoting process. This is your opportunity to meet with an experienced foreman and discuss what you would like to accomplish with your reno. The site visit will allow our foreman to take measurements, and visualize the scope of work in greater detail. You have a chance to express your vision and our foreman will offer insights on best practices, building materials, and procedural requirements.

The site visit is also our chance to impress you. You will be able to connect with your contractor and get a feel for the stye and approach we have at My Next Home Reno.

5. We Help You Make Your Selections

The options are endless. If you already have a vision in mind this process can be quite easy. But sometimes it’s an evolution and you need a little help. Whichever the case may be we are here to guide you through the selections process to help you balance both budget and style.

After the site visit we will send a form to fill. Often we have a list of suppliers and options to choose from but you have complete control over where your selections come from.

These selections, when complete, will go into the quote as it’s own contingency section. As a contingency, this part of the quote is not static, if you decide later to spend less or more, that is in your control and you will only be billed for the true cost of selections as they evolve.

If you need a designer to work with, we have you covered!

6. You Wait, We Work

Each quote is unique and they go in the queue as first come first serve. Typically a quote will take about 2 weeks from the date we do the site visit depending how quickly the selections process evolves. Of course depending on the scale of the project it could be as long as 6 weeks.

There may be a need to have a second site visit with an electrician or plumber if the foreman sees any indication that the electrical or plumbing work will not be straight forward. If this is the case we will schedule a second site visit with the plumber or electrician.

There may be some email communication throughout this stage so watch your inbox. 🙂

7. You Receive Your Quote

In most cases you will receive an email from us with 3 documents attached. The email will explain what to expect from our quote. For larger projects where investment is more than $100K we will schedule either an in-person or virtual presentation where we can collectively elaborate in greater detail and clarification.

File 01 - The Contract

“01 – Client Name – Project Description – Contract”

The first file you will receive is our Building Contract customized to your specific project. The building contract is a legal document which, as you will see, has many protections built in for both yourself and for us. Building Contracts are a crucial component in entering into any agreement with a stranger. While we hope at this point we have earned your trust we recognize that it’s equally important to be clear about each parties expectations and commitments from a legal perspective. This document has been prepared by legal authorities and is designed with your protection as well as ours.

File 02 - The Quote

“02 – Client Name – Project Description – Quote Summary – Appendix A”

The second file is the Quote Summary (referenced as Appendix A in the contract). The quote file consists of several pages. Depending on the size and scale of your project. The first page is a summary of all the various scopes that comprise the entire renovation as specified in our emails and site visits. The following pages will be detailed breakdowns of each individual scope of work with material and labour costs. We develop our quotes this way so that you can select all or a portion of the projects and move forward without much dissection of the work. Of course if some component of the work is out of budget and you would like to revisit the scope to reduce the budget; we are here to assist you with that.

File 03 - Payment Schedule

“03 – Client Name – Project Description – Progression Payments – Appendix B”

The third file is our Payment Schedule if we agree to move forward with the project as a whole. We apply payment schedules to all projects that we forecast to take longer than 2 weeks. Payment schedules are an important way for both parties to minimize risk and build trust in this new relationship as we partner in delivering your renovation investment.

8. We Win Your Business

There can sometimes be a few extra steps after you get the quote. For example if the quote stretches your budget restrictions then we might have to revisit the scope. Perhaps you would like to revisit selections or have questions about the contract. In any case once we have satisfied all of the minute details the next step is to sign the contract.

A) You Print & Sign

Sometimes there’s no better sense of accomplishment and completion than having the paper in your hand. We get it. If you would like to print and sign a physical copy of your contract you can call us to pick it up. We’re always happy to start the project of with a handshake and good ol fashion face to face, get’r done.

B) We Send You A Digital Signature Request

Most of our clients are quite happy to sign digitally. We will both always have access to the signed document through PDF FILLER which is the software we use to record digital signatures. Once you sign a document you will always have access to that document via the PDF filler portal.

The last step in the quoting process is the deposit. We take your deposit and schedule your project. At this time our procurement team begins ordering materials so that we can be sure we access the same material price as when we quoted the project. Material prices can flucturate rapidly especially in times of global uncertainty so the closer to the quote date that we order materials the more control we have over our fiscal obligations.

And thats it. The next step is demo and the entire construction process.

Looking forward to working with you!

James Loney

James is a partner at My Next Home Reno contributing to Operations, Finance, Marketing and administrative policy. With a primary background in Marketing, Web Design and Finance he has ample experience in building technology having grown up in a family of contractors and trades professionals.