Latest / Ask The Experts / What's in an Estimate? with Larson Home Services

Transcript

What's in an Estimate? with Larson Home Services · Ask The Experts

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Eight oh five thirteen ten WIBA and asked the experts
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: hanging out in studio this morning with mister Andrew Larson.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Of course. Andrew comes to us from Larsen Home Services
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Online Larsenhomes Services dot com. That's l a rs o
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: N Home Services dot com. Andrew, how you doing this week?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Are you ready for Halloween?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, my wife decided that she should go
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: and buy all the Halloween candy? Are you ready? Which
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: is just not good no for me anyway.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I feel like, and I know there's been a move
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: over the years to kind of kick off Halloween stuff
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: earlier and earlier every year, and I think part of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: it is they know that they're going to sell some
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: candy late August, early September. That is no way in
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: heck it's ever going to make it to trigger treating.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: We're the same way at the prevle household, right.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know fun size. Fun size just means
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: you take eight.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Yes, and you feel better about it for some reason
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: because well they're little, yeah yeah, but eight bites a
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: little one equals a big one, and then you've got
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: to try the other brands too.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Sorry I could go off. I'm like babe, you got
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: to buy this stuff like the day before and then
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: we just throw it away.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Get like a get like a candy safe maybe or
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: something to lock.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, because I'm like I'm gonna steal my kids
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: candy anyway. Yeah, Like there's tough we're giving out. Just
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: get rid of that.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Yes, it's good to talk with you in this time
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of year. I know at Lars Stoe Services it's a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: busy time of year when the leaves start coming down.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Of course, folks are definitely thinking about gutter shutter, and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: folks are thinking about their home in general. And yet
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: I know a lot of folks pick phone, give you
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: a call, of course, tellfhe not about Larstome Services. Six
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: oh eight five three five forty three forty three. That's
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: five three, five forty three forty three. And one of
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the nice things Andrew is, for most homeowners, you're generally
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: not replacing a roof every year. You're not replacing gutters
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: every year. So it's something that sometimes it's really beneficial
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to get a bit of a refresher on what goes
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: on when it comes to having somebody come out and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: take a look at your home. But also when it
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: comes to getting an estimate and what exactly as a
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: homeowner you should expect in that type of scenario. Let's
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: talk a bit about large home services and when somebody
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: gets an estimate from you, what can they expect to
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: see and what's really that experience like and all about.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I can speak to it personally, but I'd like to
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: hear a little bit a little bit from you as well, Andrew.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: You know, it's something that honestly, it's the estimate process
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: for me is a very important one. And you know,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: for a lot of homeowners that we talked, wouldn't you
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: say a lot, but a few they call and say, hey,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: you know I need I need a new roof. You
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: just have someone come look and email me an estimate.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: And our response is, yeah, no, we actually can't do
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: that because here's the problem. There are a lot of
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: companies that will do that. And the question that I
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: have about that and people ask you, well, how long
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: does the estimate take? Well, I mean the real answer
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: is the estimate takes as long as it takes. It's
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: not like some drawn out, you know, high pressure sales.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: But what it can be is very informative. We put
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: a lot of work in on the front end to
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: make sure that we inspect everything properly, we find everything
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: that's wrong. The last thing that we want to do.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Say we're talking about a roof, the last thing we
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: want to do is tear a roof off and go, oh,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: we're so sorry mister and missus homeowner. We didn't inspect
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: your roof very well or look in your attic, so
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: now we see that you've actually got a whole bunch
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: of rotten osb and we're gonna have to replace that.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: And oh yeah, by the way, that's going to cost
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: you an extra five thousand dollars. That's what we don't
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: want to do, and that that's the type of thing
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: that happens all the time. All the time. We'll give
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: an estimate and homeowners will look right up my reps
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: and go, now, that's everything right because we've done other things,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: and then these mysterious charge start popping up. No, with us,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: it's everything because we want to do a proper inspection.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: We hear it all the time. Yeah, last guy came over,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: gave us an estimate on the roof, didn't even get
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: on the roof, didn't look in the attic. Either way,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: you need to look on the attic. Well half of
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: the roof you can only see from the attic because
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: the shingles cover it up, and that's your roof deck
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: in your OSB. We need to make sure that that's
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: done properly, that it's thick enough, it's not rotten. It
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: also gives us an opportunity to see if you've got
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: proper ventilation going on going on up there, because we
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: pop our heads up and attics all the time and
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: find mold. So I just want people to understand that
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: the estimate process isn't just coming out and going ah, yeah,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: you got twenty squares, that'll be twelve grand. No, it's
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: an inspection. It's making sure. I mean, we get up
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: on roofs all the time where people think they need
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: a new roof and they don't need a new roof,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: they need a new chimney flashing and a chimney cricket,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: or they need new pipe boots, and we can actually
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: make that roof last longer for a lot cheaper because
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: the shingles are great, they're just the little details weren't
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: done properly. So when people ask if we can email,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: and ask Tom, no, we can't email an estimate because
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: we need you to be there so we can explain
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: exactly what we're going to do. We're going to show
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: you every part and piece that we're going to put
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: on your home. Now, I know, as a homeowner, I
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: want to know what's going on my home. I want
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: to see what type of underlayment's being used, what type
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: of ice and water is being used, what type of flashing,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: type of shingles, all of that stuff. I can't tell
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: you how many times where we come in and they say, yeah,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: we had another estimate. They were a lot cheaper, Okay, cool,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: What were they using and they have no idea, They
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: have no idea what they were getting. That's like saying, hey,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: I just looked at two cars today. One was a Cadillac.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know what the other one was, but the
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: other one was cheaper. Yeah, no doubt it was, but
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: you also don't know what it was. Now we know
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: that a Cadillac typically a pretty nice car, right, yep.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: I like them. I'd love to have one. But so
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: that's my analogy. And the same thing is when it
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: comes to gutters. I mean, what we want to make
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: sure more than just measuring, we want to make sure
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: that you've got straight facial. We want to make sure
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: that you've got solid boards to attach to. We run
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: into gutters that weren't flashed properly and behind them's all rotten. Now,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: if we don't inspect that, we're going to come out
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: tear your gutters off and go, oh man, you got
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: a whole bunch of rotten facial. We're going to have
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: to replace all that. Oh yeah, and by the way,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: that's going to cost an extra three grand. I had
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: mentioned that's when people get upset and I don't want
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: to do.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I had mentioned I could speak to this too, and
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I know a couple of weeks ago, I just I
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: just pulled up and I should probably do that now
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: that it's been a number of years since since you
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: guys did our roof on the on the Preble house,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and I'd pulled up just just like what the estimate
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: looked like, and what I was saying, I can speak
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: to this is literally every little thing was itemized and
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: this was before the work was done, before anything, you know,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: before even sign the thing. This is what you're going
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: to be doing. This is you know, all the way
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: down to you mentioned the OSB and other things, how
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: many sheets are going to be needed? All that stuff
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: was it was laid out in that estimate, which which
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: gives you, you know, once once you've talked and learned
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: about why all that stuff is there, it makes perfect sense.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: And I can see why some folks may not want
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: to do that because it's a whole lot easier to say, well,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: the roof's been ripped off your house. We just discovered something.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: We're gonna need a little extra money to finish this job.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: As a homeowner, you're sitting under the barrel going well,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: now I've got to do it. Having that that straightforward
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: upfront price, and having that that inspection done right away,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: a detailed inspectually, these are exactly the things we're gonna
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: do for a homeowner. That is so huge, that it's
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: so big, and it's also and Andrew, I'll let you
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: speak to this a bit too. The other area that
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: was that was so cool for us was not only
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: did we get that that detailed invoice, get that detailed estimate,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: and also then because we now have that information, allowed
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: a conversation to happen to say, so, why do we
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: need this? What does this stuff do? And and that
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: is ah, that is another big feature. It's hey, what
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: what is a cricket? Exactly what does this do? And
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: why do we need it? I would have never thought
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: to ask that question had I not seen it on
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that estimate exactly.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: And we have this saying, and I say to the
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: sales guys all the time of why we try to
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: be transparent, inspect what you expect because everyone is suspect,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: including us. That's why we want to show you everything
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: that we do, everything that's going to go on your house.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: We let you pick it. I mean, we have a
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: top tier, best of the best roof, and then we've
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: got roof that is really good that that might fit
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: in someone's budget a little bit better. But you're gonna
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: know the difference between all of those roofs and exactly
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: what you're getting. And then when we do your roof,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: we are going to photograph the process so you can see.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I remember, they showed me that underlayment. They
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: showed me that ice and water that's actually on my roof,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: and that's very very important to us. We actually have
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: competitors that go out and bill the customers folder with
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: all the same brand stuff that we use. Brochures from it,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: but then they don't use it. Oh, and they will
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: literally say, well, we do the exact same roof as Larsen,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: We're just cheaper. I'm telling you, there's only a couple
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: of ways to get things cheaper. That's to use inferior labor,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: inferior materials, or or or get by on less warranties.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: So if you want something done right, it's going to
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: cost a certain amount to get it done with great warranties,
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: great workmanship, with a great product. I mean, that's just
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: just the way it is. Even when it comes to gutters,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: full inspection and we're going to give you a full
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: scope of work, letting you know exactly how many feet
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: of gutter we're putting up, how many albos, how many
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: b elbows, how much downspout we're going to do. All
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: of those details are going to be laid out for
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: a homeowner so they understand what they're getting. That's why
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: we can't just email you. Oh, the last guy we
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: called said he'd just do a satellite image and email
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: as an estimate. We hear that all the time, and
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: it's like, Okay, yes, you can take a satellite picture
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: and you can come up with a rough estimate, you
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: sure can, but you can also show up to that
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: house and realize that, oh boy, this satellite was off.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: We use satellite imagery too to get measurements, but we
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: also will remeasure when we're there to make sure it's right,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: because they can be wrong. If the tree coverage is wrong,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: you you can't see what's going on. Hey, same thing
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: with insulation. A lot of our they peek their head
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: up in the attic, they use a laser measure and
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: they go boop boop. All right, you got a thousand
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: square feet you want ten inches? All right, that's ten
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: thousand board feet. That's gonna cost you x Oh my goodness.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: But they have no idea what's going on under the insulation.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: And we all know that if we just put more
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: insulation on top of old insulation, it only does one thing,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: puts money in the pocket of the company that put
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: it in. It's not going to fix your home. It's
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: not going to make it more comfortable, it's not gonna
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: make it more energy efficient. That's why, just like with
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: a roof, we need to tear it off start with
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: a clean slate. It's the same thing we need to
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: do in an attic. Someone tells you they can come
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: up in air ceil you attic without removing the old insulation,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: you can, but you cannot do a good job. I
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: know this from experience. You've seen it. I'm not so
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: perfect to say that we haven't screwed up before. And
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: when we first started doing insulation, we made the mistake
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: of trying to air seal without removing We thought we
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: were helping the customer because it was it was a
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: lot cheaper for them and we can fit it in
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: their budget. But at the end of the day, it
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: created sometimes it created more problems. So we just basically
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: got to the point where it's like, this is the
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: way we do it because we want to do it right,
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: and we don't We don't want to create any bigger,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: bigger issues when you when when you mess with the
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: way a home breathes and you don't do it right,
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: it can lead to big problems. So again, an estimate
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: process is not just getting an estimate. It is It
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: is educational and it is informative, and yes you will
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: get a price at the end of it, but we
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: want to make sure that all the details are laid
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: out on the table before we do, before anybody moves
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: forward with anything. Because we're not talking about a few
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: hundred dollars here. We're usually talking five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: We do one hundred thousand dollars projects, so we're talking
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: a lot of money, and we want homeowners to know
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: exactly what's going on before we ever pound one nail
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: into their home.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: You talk about protecting and taking care of your biggest investment.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: It's an important day if you've got those questions. It's
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: a great day to have malt from lur Storm Services.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Get that inspection, give them a call six oh eight
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: five three five forty three forty three. That's six oh
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: eight five three five four three four three for Larsen
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Home Services. Again the cool thing and we we're back
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: in the old days before it was a a USB.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: We actually have the old folder with the pictures. Yeah,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: but that's such a such a great We know that
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: eventually if we do sell our home, guess what we
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: can the new the new buyers, potential buyers, we can
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: show them exactly what's done. It's a really really cool thing.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Today is today. Give them a call lar Storms Services
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: telephone number five three five forty three forty three. That's
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: five three five four three four three online Larsenhomeservices dot com.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: That's l A R. S O N Home Services dot com. Andrew,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: it's always informative, it's always great chating with you, my friend.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Enjoyed this great day.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: All right, we're talking next week.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: News comes here. Excuse me, Kevin Ham hams Arbor, here
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: comes your way next year A thirteen ten wu I
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: b a