JonCanadian

We've had a lot of exterior work done to our house this year: re-stucco, replace the 2nd floor Juliets and replace an exterior stone wall. We had 3-4 quotes for each fo these three jobs and decided to experiment with the Macan GTS in the driveway or parked down the street when the estimator came. The lowest Porsche-in-the-drive quote was always higher than the highest Porsche-down-the-street quote. On average, the Porsche-in-the-drive quotes were ~20% higher than the Porsche-down-the-street ones. In hindsight it's not really surprising but it's something we are going to have to keep in mind for all our future work.

Greg981

Yup. I make sure the Porsche is in the garage - door closed.

Henley1

or..... on the opposite end. imagine pulling up in 911 to quote on a project thats a no go. might as well not even go to the meeting.

ronnie993tt

Pretty much irrelevant I've found after 40 + years of owning old houses but can't hurt to hide the wealth. Maybe get a bunch of neighbour kids over so they think you're the old woman in the shoe? Tell 'em you've costed it out - check on line how to do this - and are getting 4 estimates. Also, don't waste time with anyone a long ways from you. These clowns all expect to get paid to drive to the job. GLWR.

Henley1

maybe some "clowns".. for sure. but not ALL contractors. dont generalize.

BIG smoke

I always question the contractor that shows up in a nicer car than mine.
I appreciate the Clean chevy suburban, with black 22" footwear.
I question the Land Rover SVR murdered out sled, and shinny pointy shoes.

I tend to conceal the toys. My 997S was 30k, I'm sure most thought it was a $100+ car. I'm sure most think the worst.

o/p - This was just your observation. How were the quotes against what they drove?

JonCanadian

Quotes scaled, more or less, with vehicle cost. The cheapest stucco guy had an older Camry with steel wheels. The cheapest exterior wall guy had a Ford F250 with rusting wheel wells. We actually went with both these guys and were happy with the work. The priciest stucco guy (50% over the cheapest) had a very clean, black muscular looking Ram something. The balcony guys all drove ratty looking trucks but their quotes were all within 10% of each other. I really dislike it when I see a contractor driving an expensive car/truck because I'm paying for their overhead.

Henley1

so by this logic you guys want a guy that cant keep his truck clean and organized..or a rusty Toyota sedan. how do you think the job will go? wouldnt you want a someone that had there **** together? using guys like this will end in people not showing up.. asking for payments that dont reflect the work thats been done and jobs that suck. but then i guess youd have nothing to complain about.

JonCanadian

Whatever the logic may be, my experience with fancy-truck contractors has been poor. The cheap truck contractors that did my exterior work this year showed up on time, finished on time (taking into account a few rain days), did a quality job, fixed the small things we noticed and didn't try to upcharge on anything. My worst contractor experience was the fancy truck guy (black Lariat) who did our eavestroughs a few years ago: they showed up on time but kept disappearing to go to another job. They finished a month late, kept finding extra things that needed to be done and the job ended up 25% over. Our stucco guys had to fix some of their soffit work that was poorly done. I like to hire guys who are hungry for business and people trying to build a clientele don't always have spare cash to buy a fancy truck. If having a nice truck in front of the job is what you want to see, then go for it. You are paying for it.

andrew54

Totally agree. I hide toys when possible, but I find this also applies to any finishes inside the house. As the general appearance improves, so does the quote.

991GTA

lol I'm going through this now

I always hide my toys and last week the contractor saw 2 of them and then I got an email saying the cost of the few very very small extras we want is going to increase the overall project cost by 10%

petee_c

I usually attempt my own work as I graduated from the University of HGTV., but

I've had work done by 2 guys in a ratty truck (had an old VW van, then a old NA fullsize truck) for multiple renovations for very cheap... they did a good job, unfortunately for me they switched out of the reno / handyman business...

Last year, my wife organized a $45K renovation of our master ensuite bathroom, and we used guys with fully decked out work vans.. (definitely more overhead .... office, secretary, pretty lady who managed the project,... owner's son who came around once in a while) The carpenter we had was very good, my impressions were it was a little pricey, but at the same time we didn't receive many quotes back. My wife was happy. They did a good job, and spotted a small leak around the flashing of the chimney that was going into the bathroom area and called people to fix that up.

I was a little perturbed that they wouldn't do a $100 sponsorship for my daughter's team that won Ontario Provincials and was going to Nationals that year..... I did not feel bad that they left behind a Panasonic WhisperQuiet bathroom fan - new in box when the project was done.

I only have a boxster, and it was under a cover in the garage so they never saw it.

SToronto

I tend to hide any vehicle of value. However recently I arrived home after the contractor. So my 19 Cayenne was seen and commented on by the contractors. Resulting quote for refurbishment was very close to replacing with all new materials (another contractor). They have since offered to drop it by a few thousand. Now I'm concerned if quality will be reduced as well or is it just Porsche tax has been reduced. May need to get another refurbishment quote.

Don't enjoy dealing with contractors or at least trying to find the good ones. We've been lucky with a few major ones over the years. One not so great experience, not horrible but maybe would have been worth the extra $3000 for our usual guy.

I have no issues with contractors having nice cars, at the end of the day you make the decision on awarding the business. This being said, just because they drive a beat up old car doesn't mean they are no good. Had a great guy do our staircase, one man business. But he took his time and was meticulous in ensuring things were just right. He drove an old chevy astro.

theiceman

I find this thread interesting, as many of the people on here are successful by running and owning their own business. Do you guys like being judged on your quote because you drive a nice car ?. by most of the logic on here you guys who drive Porsches do a worse job, don't work hard, and are overpriced.

S98CS

VERY WELL SAID!