Vetting Beats Vibes
Are you trying to work out which remodeler will actually do what they said they’d do?
Or which questions to ask on a first call that can help you figure out if they’re legitimate?
In this post, you’ll learn what to check before you hire a design-build firm in Northern Baltimore County, why one contract beats the cheapest stack of separate bids, the questions worth asking anyone you interview, how to read a company’s real track record, and what happens once Charleene’s Houses design clients see their plans.
How to Choose a Design-Build Remodeler You Can Trust
There are several actions you can take to choose the right design-build remodeler for your project.
Confirm their license number with the state. It’s best to make sure whoever you’re working with has the right credentials.
Read their reviews. This is where past clients will tell anyone who’ll read what their experience was like when it came to communication, process, people, outcome, and more.
Ask how the price gets built. A one-page contract with allowances will only cause arguments down the road.
Ask who’s on site day to day. There should be at least one person you see or hear from every day.
Look at their past work to see if they can do the type of work you want.
Find out how long they’ve been working with their trade partners. Long-standing relationships mean the trades meet the company’s standards, show up when they’re supposed to, and do the work on time.
The Lowest Bid vs The Best Bid
The lowest separate bid is priced off drawings nobody has tested against your actual house, so the money you saved on paper comes back as change orders once the walls are open.
This comes from taking the standard remodeling path. You hire a designer or an architect, get plans drawn, then shop those plans to builders and take the best number.
But the builder is just bidding on assumptions, not your actual home.
We’re a design-build firm, which means design, engineering, and construction stay under one roof from your first conversation through the final walkthrough, and the price comes after the design instead of before it.
Before we put a number on your scope of work, the subcontractors who will do the work walk your space in person, with the project manager standing there with them.
You get an estimate built around your house, which means you get an actual price instead of a guess.
The Questions Worth Asking Before You Hire Anyone
5 main questions separate a firm with a system from a firm with a truck:
- Are you licensed and insured, and what’s your license number?
- What does the design phase cost, and what do I get for it?
- How and when do I pay?
- Who runs my job day to day, and how do I reach them?
- How did you arrive at my price?
All the questions to ask a remodeler.
How We Answer These Questions
Are you licensed and insured, and what’s your license number?
Our license is MHIC #73526, and here’s where you can confirm it (just enter the numbers, not the hashtag).
What does the design phase cost, and what do I get for it?
The design agreement fee, separate from construction fees, starts at $950 and changes depending on the size and type of job.
It buys you floor plans, elevations, 3D renderings, and a video walkthrough of the finished space.
You also get revisions so you can tweak the plan until it’s right for you.
How and when do I pay?
Payment runs on a 6-draw schedule.
The first draw covers your selections so we can start ordering.
After that are 4 equal payments tied to the start of the job, mechanicals, drywall, and trim.
The final $1,065 draw is held until your punch list is done.
Who runs my job day to day, and how do I reach them?
Your job is carried by 1 designer and 1 project manager, from the first drawing through the final walkthrough.
Your project manager is on site every single day of your build.
You also get weekly on-site meetings, weekly written recaps of what was finished and what’s next, and a group chat with your project manager, your designer, and Charleene.
How did you arrive at my price?
At the home visit, you’ll get a realistic range on the spot, based on jobs we’ve done that look like yours.
That’s a range, not your number.
To get your number, every material, finish, and layout decision gets made on paper, then the subcontractors who’ll do the work walk your space in person, pricing your house against the drawings.
What comes back is your scope of work, broken out line by line.
What a Long-Tenured Crew Tells You About Reliability
A remodeler that has worked with the same trades for years has already vetted them over dozens of jobs, and those trades know the standards they need to meet.
The trades stayed, which means the work has been steady and the firm has been worth working for. And the firm kept them, which means each one has cleared the same standard over and over.
Our subcontractors have been with us for 17 to 20 years.
They know our standards, they respect our clients, and they show up.
Why Almost All of Our Design Clients Move Forward to Build
Clients move forward with us mostly because of our detailed process.
We design to the budget you gave us, not above it.
Tell us the real number and the plan gets shaped to fit inside it. We don’t want to reach the end of design and find out you didn’t budget for what you just fell in love with.
When something does push the number up, we can value engineer it to bring it back down.
By the time the design phase is finished, there’s nothing left to take on faith because you’ve:
- Walked your own floor plan in 3D.
- Picked finishes from real samples instead of a screen.
- Watched a video walkthrough of the finished space.
- Seen a price built after the trades stood in your rooms.
You also get a scope of work broken out line by line, with quantities or hours on each item and the price against it. Our overhead and our projected profit are at the bottom of that page.
We go through it together line by line.
And people just like us. We get along well, which is important when you’re going to be working with someone for months. They also like that we’re a woman-led company.
Your Home Deserves a Real Match, Not the Cheapest Bid
The right remodeler has everything that points towards them being a legitimate business that does the work you want, and they get along with you.
Take your time with that decision, because you’ll be living with the result long after the last invoice.
When you’re ready to see whether we’re a match, fill out our Calendly.
