Why the Cheapest Quote is Often the Most Expensive | Throwback Tuesdays

When you’re renovating, it’s easy to look at three quotes and feel your eyes drift straight to the cheapest one. Because surely cheaper means smarter... right?! 

But as Three Birds Renovations share in this Throwback Tuesday snippet, the cheapest quote can sometimes end up costing you the most. 

For the original episode, tune in here: Episode 181 | Tips from Three Birds Renovations on How to Create the Perfect Renovation, Survive It, and See a Return on Investment!

LISTEN TO THE FIRST 20 EPISODES HERE >>

MOORR MONEY MANAGEMENT APP:
👉 Apple: https://apple.co/3ioICGW
👉 Google Play: https://bit.ly/3OT86bW
👉 Web platform:  https://www.moorr.com.au/     

FREE MASTERCLASS:
- How to Build a Property Portfolio and Retire on $2,000 a week >>

FREE BEST-SELLING BOOKS:
- The Armchair Guide to Property Investing
- Make Money Simple Again

FIND US HERE:
- Website
- Instagram
- Facebook
- Youtube

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

There was uncertainty with a trade that we knew what we were talking about. And in the early stages, we didn't. We didn't. I think, and that's the key to being really open and honest with them to say, look, not quite sure. But then there's a flip side where I understand where people would then be really hesitant to do that because they feel like they're then going to get screwed by the trade.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

It's a real balance of just being able to manage a situation. And the key to obviously, you know, not getting screwed is to get um, you know, three or four quotes.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Yeah, get your quotes. I think the um treat the trades as as you want them to treat you with respect and with kindness and courtesy. And we have to use you, get a lot of cases.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

How many have you sacked on the journey?

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Uh, the first landscaper, he was about 12. I don't know if he was underage of child labour. I just all I'm saying is So his quote was good.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

He wasn't on a thing.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

He was the cheapest, and we'll teach you in rental school that you know you're gonna pay peanuts and you get monkeys, and this poor God love him. Uh, but he apparently had finished the landscaping job, and I came out to the front uh garden expecting something that was quite impressive, gonna wow the buyer, street appeal, you know, oozing street appeal, and it looked like some onion weeds, some like leak or something that has gone off in your kitchen, had actually been put into the ground. And I took a photo and sent it to Bonnie, who was actually holidaying in Byron Bay at the time. We were just trying to finish our first ever Reno. Uh going on holiday, yeah. She was in Byron Bay. She was a big for it with Erin.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

It was about exactly an annual family holiday.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

That'll serve you for your husband not doing any of the heavy lifting early on.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

So I sent a picture to the girls and said to Aaron Bonnie, because I had no idea. Is this the way the garden bed should look? And Bonnie got the phone, uh no. There is absolutely nothing there. And so I had to tell this landscape, I said, there doesn't seem to be enough plants here. In fact, they look like dead shallots. Okay, you've planted shallots. Could we somehow get something that's upright? And he sort of looked and said, like, I don't there's money in the budget for that. I said, Well, you did quote on a garden, that's not a garden. And so the point here about idea basically say you've got to put this here, put that there, but that just didn't work out. And uh, we've since got great landscapers that we've used in a lot of properties.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

And we do, we've you know, we've done so many now that we've got a great team that we work with. And then there was Dusty Derrick. Oh, Dusty Derrick.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

So again, we went for price. This was house number two. He quoted on doing the jeeprocking. You know, jeeprocking and plaster boarding needs multiple hands, it's you know, it's heavy stuff. Poor boy. Bonnie's brother actually is good at that as a trade. And Bonnie said to her brother, Oh, look, this one guy, he's given us a great quote. And her brother was like, I don't know how one guy can get it done in that time and that price. We just said, but Derek said he could. Uh six weeks later, Derek is covered in dust, head to foot, almost can't see him. He's like the snowman, and he sleeps overnight with the renovation. The wind doesn't work. But we're not sure. We're not just unconfirmed, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Definitely unconfirmed because it would not be the occupation of the world.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

I think the point of this story is the hard conversations that have to be had. Yeah. Yeah, I have to have them.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Well, yeah, Bonnie let Derek go, and then we called in a crack squad of gyprockers who seriously, a van came down the road. The van opened up like a bank robbery, six gyprockers jumped out, ran into the house.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Did you catch it on film? No, no, we went filming. Where was the GoPro? Where was the GoPro?

SPEAKER_02 3:42

No, they catch that on film. They ran into the house. By the time we're not exaggerating the door, they had finished sanding the whole house and left. That's how you do it. They were amazing. So we learnt from that. And you know, the the other thing, and I keep thinking of it, then you girls just keep raving on, and I can't get this point in. Okay. But this point I want to make is a lot of people are daunted or think that they have to do tasks DIY. Yes. Meaning they have to paint themselves, they have to do things themselves to save money and get a result. You don't. And the truth is we lean on experts and professionals and trades to do the work. And that's the reason we get through the workload we do and do what we do. Because if it was up to us to actually be doing literally the heavy lifting, painting ceilings, painting walls, it would be upsetting, tiring, exhausting, in the it would take a very long time. That's why some people's Renault's never finish.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Then you'd be on the Channel 9 series. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

And that's not fun. You see what happens, it's very stressful, and that's just not the life we wanted to be part of. And so the one thing I'd say to your listeners is don't feel that you have to do that to get a great profitable result for either your home or an investment property. Lean on, pay people to do it. Get three crates, get you know, still manage your budget tight, but don't run around trying to DIY everything because it will actually you'll burn out, you'll burn through your money anyway, it'll take too long and you'll never get to enjoy the property.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

So is there anything within the building uh project that you do outside of your core competencies? Oh, except put paint sort of samples on the front brick wall, but um no, just good.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

No, we hired professionals for everything. Good to know. Yeah, we did lay turf the first time again when these two girls were in bar and stunning themselves. I laid 40 square metres on my own in 40 degree heat. And just to reiterate, that's because her husband didn't do it. Yeah, but I felt it. So we did do it, and like in our first flips, you know, we were taking fly screens off ourselves. I bought a drill. I don't think we ever used it after the first house.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Sorry, Bonnie's got four boys, hand it over.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

That's right. No, but I think like to go back a little step is I think if there's anything you can do, it would be planting a plant. Yes. Landscaping, soft scaping. Soft scaping, yeah, exactly. You know, my husband planted, you know, however many plants here. Yeah. And it saved us a lot of money. Yeah, definitely. Soft scaping is something you can do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

And I think I'd only add in there, the one other thing where you can get involved and save a bit of money is going and sourcing and buying your own fixtures and fittings. Yes. So that's certainly something with flipping that I would encourage doing. Yep. Um, shop around, like with your traits, if you're getting your tiling done, you get your quotes, you get your tilers in, shop around for all your tiles, your grout, your um, you know, your taps, your bath, everything like that. So that's where you can really get your hands dirty. But as far as on site doing it, um leave it to the experts where you can.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Good tip then. Great tip.