Skilled labor isn’t cheap. Cheap labor isn’t skilled.
What if you get prices from 3 contractors? Contractor 1 and contractor 2 are within 10% of each other. Contractor 3 is 50% less than the cheapest competitor. Contractor 3 is either unscrupulous, incompetent or has a fundamental misunderstanding of the scope of your project.
Never tell a contractor “no rush” if you want to see them in the next 6 months.
Television remodeling shows are edited, have great high end products that are donated and have many unpaid “Interns” to help with the projects.
Most contractors don’t want to break the law or do shoddy work. Most contractors are asked by a customer or potential customer, to break the law or do shoddy work every week.
There is always someone who can do it cheaper. There is always someone who can do it better. These are almost never the same person.
If you think you are the smartest person in the room, sometimes you may be right. If you think you are always the smartest person in the room, you will always be wrong. In 30 years of meetings with architects, civil engineers, structural engineers, and seasoned old Yankee contractors, I have never been to a meeting where the person who thought they were the smartest person in the room, actually was. I’m hoping to be surprised someday….