Squeeze, but don’t oversqueeze your IDs

Let them earn enough and save yourself some headache, and maybe money.

Watch our tiktok video on this if you lazy to read.

If you know or think that you got a good enough deal for your renovation, don’t try your luck by over-squeezing the ID.

This is an actual incident.

There was a homeowner who wanted to renovate their landed property. As it involved structural works, only licensed builders can execute the works.

And so, he asked us for some recommendations, and we referred him a builder (hehe you can enquire here if you need referrals too), who’s a very nice person (quite hard to find in this industry).

Discussions went well, and the homeowner soft confirmed with the builder for a cost of $480,000, and went into deeper discussions.

Upon deeper discussions, the homeowner decided to try his luck further.

1) He insisted that works are completed in 5 months. The typical timeframe is 6 months. However, our nice builder agreed.

2) He insisted that the builder absorbed the 8% gst (then in 2023). This amounted to a whopping $35,000. At this point, the builder started thinking twice.

3) The last straw came, when he insisted that the last payment is raised from 5% to 8%. For context, last payment happens after all works are completed. By raising it to 8%, if the homeowner subsequently decides not to pay, the builder likely has wasted all their time with no profit.

The builder then kindly rejected the homeowner.

Eventually, the homeowner did go ahead with another builder, but for a cost of $580,000, a whole $100,000 more than required.

The homeowner called us to share this (and maybe to see if we can help convince the original builder to work together again), and shared that he regretted pushing so hard at the beginning.

Of course, by then, the original builder has firmly rejected the works.

We shared this example as such scenarios happen more often than we think.

The reason we share blunt advice is to prevent overcharging by many greedy IDs and contractors. That is not to say that it is wrong for them to earn money.

In fact, you must let them earn enough, so that they are incentivised to carry out the works properly.

Don’t be blinded by the few dollars cost savings, when your priority should be getting an ID that can work well with you for a reasonable price.

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