Today, we’re sharing a piece that originally appeared in Building Management Hawaii.
Across the country, condominium Boards face important decisions when selecting a contractor for plumbing, mechanical, or other major infrastructure renovations.
We’re reposting it here to help kickstart your search for the right partner—and highlight the questions that will help you find the contractor best suited to your property’s needs.
Why Interviewing Contractors Matters
Imagine you’re looking to buy a new primary residence. You hire a real estate agent, and they come back with a list of properties that check all your boxes. But instead of scheduling viewing appointments, you ask the agent which one they recommend, and then you make an offer, sight unseen.
That sounds crazy, right? Well, it is!
You’d never rely solely on the advice of your realtor to buy a home. You’d want to get a feel for the properties yourself.
So, why are condominium Boards doing just that—leaving the decision to someone else—when it comes to hiring contractors for major renovation projects?
Hiring a Contractor…Sight Unseen?
When making big purchase decisions for renovation projects at their community, Boards typically hire a third-party owner’s representative, engineer, or architect to develop a scope of work and put the upcoming project out to bid. It might be a lobby renovation, a balcony and spall repair project, an elevator replacement, a plumbing retrofit, or a new pool deck. In each case, these are all multi-million-dollar investments.
After the owner’s representative sends out the Request for Proposal, they receive bids from multiple contractors. They level-set those bids to make sure there’s an apples-to-apples comparison of the scope and pricing. Often, they’ll then make a recommendation based on their experience working with various contractors.
All of this is good, and helpful!
The problem comes when Boards skip the interview process. The recommendation of your owner’s representative may turn out to be right. But before you write a seven-figure check, don’t you want to find out for yourself?
Advice for Interviewing Contractors
While conducting interviews may be time-consuming or inconvenient, it’s also essential to make sure you hire the best contractor for your property.
Here are a few areas of focus for your interviews.
- Company culture.
Each contractor has a different culture, which is defined by their values, history, and experience. Get a sense of how the team works together and ask for information about how they treat their staff. Make sure that their way of doing business fits well with yours! - Ability to troubleshoot.
It would be great if every major project went 100% perfectly, with no hiccups, roadblocks, or changes along the way. But in the real world, every job has challenges that need to be managed: a delayed permit, a floorplan that’s missing some details, or a weather emergency that changes the game plan. Ask each contractor questions to get a feel for how they’ll handle these kinds of situations. Listen for examples of how they’ve dealt with tricky scenarios that have come up in past projects. - Meeting your needs.
Each community requires something a little different from their contractors. Does your building have a lot of pets, or a lot of elderly residents? Do you have logistical challenges with limited elevator usage? Ask each prospective contractor how they adjust their working style based on these factors. You’ll be surprised by the variety and diversity of answers that seemingly comparable vendors will provide. - Communication.
A contractor’s tone and communication skills during the sales process are great indicators of how the project will go. If they blow off a hard question with a vague answer, it’s a good indicator of how they may behave once they’re under contract and things get tough. Since transparency is key throughout the project, be sure to ask for information about how they’ll communicate at each stage. Do they have a process or program in place to make sure your community is always informed about what’s going on? The more specific, the better!
In Conclusion: Don’t Skimp on Interviews
Just like buying a home, there’s too much at risk and too many variables at play to leave the purchase decision to someone else’s recommendation or a gut feeling.
In fact, not interviewing contractors could potentially open a board up to liability if the project were to go sideways. Imagine if the community found out you never even talked to the contractor before hiring them.
Even if you really trust and like your owner’s representative, you should still insist on interviewing potential contractors yourself. It’s the responsible thing to do, and it helps you make the most informed decision for your community’s renovation project.
Ready to start a plumbing or mechanical infrastructure at your condominium community? Reach out to SageWater for a free consultation.
