Run a quote process and negotiate the price, the scope and the payment terms.
Before you ask anyone for a price, write down the job yourself: what you want done, with sizes, materials and finishes where you know them. This written scope lets you compare quotes fairly and then negotiate. The method works for any service or supply job, such as a renovation, an office fit-out, a catering order or a website.
Get at least three quotes, and make sure they are for the same job. Most quote comparisons go wrong at this point. If one contractor includes new cabinets and another assumes you're keeping the old ones, the cheaper quote is for a different job, so it isn't really cheaper.
Send the same scope to every contractor and ask each one to price it line by line. An itemised quote is priced line by line against a set scope, so you can see where the money goes. A lump sum is a single-line price that hides it.
Hui Min has just collected the keys to a resale flat in Bukit Batok, and the kitchen needs redoing. She asks three contractors for quotes. In figures invented for this example, the first comes back at S$15,500 as a single line: "Kitchen works, supply and install, lump sum." The second is S$18,000 and the third is S$19,200, and both are itemised over two pages. The cheapest is very tempting.
She goes back to the lump-sum contractor and asks for a breakdown against her scope. The revised quote is S$17,400, and it excludes the sink and tap, which the other two quotes included. With the sink and tap left out, the "cheapest" quote becomes only a small saving. She now has three numbers she can compare on a like-for-like basis, meaning the same scope with the same inclusions. Whenever a lump sum arrives, ask for the breakdown and check it for exclusions before you compare it with anything.
Once the itemised quotes are in, ask each contractor what drives their biggest costs. At this stage you're doing research and haven't started haggling. The answers often show you options you didn't know about.
You might ask, "What makes the cabinets the largest item?" The answer may be the board material or the hardware, and a different finish might cost much less and look almost the same. You might ask, "Is there a time of year when you're less busy?" A later start date may get you a better rate. You can also ask, "Which items would you suggest I buy myself?" Sourcing your own appliances or tiles may save money.
These cost drivers are the interests behind the contractor's price, in the sense used in Lesson 1.2, "Questions that uncover the other side's interests". A contractor with an empty schedule next month may care more about filling it than about the last few hundred dollars.
Payment terms are a negotiable issue in their own right. They protect you as much as they cost the contractor. If you pay a large share upfront, you're exposed if the work stalls or goes wrong. Paying in stages tied to completed work keeps both sides committed.
A common structure has a small deposit to secure the booking, payments at agreed milestones, and a final payment held back until you've inspected the finished work and any defects are fixed. This final payment, the holdback, matters most. A contractor who is still owed money has a clear reason to come back and fix defects. One who has been paid in full may treat their next job as more pressing.
Hui Min prefers the S$18,000 quote and proposes this schedule for it:
10% deposit, S$1,800 40% once carpentry is installed, S$7,200 40% once all works are complete, S$7,200 final 10% after her inspection and any touch-ups, S$1,800
If a contractor resists a schedule like this, treat it as a trade, as described in Lesson 5.1, "Every concession gets something back". You could say: "If I can confirm the booking this week, can we agree to holding back 10% until after inspection?"
Vague quotes look cheap on paper because they leave room for extras later. "Supply and install cabinets" doesn't say how many cabinets, which material or which hinges. Once work starts, the contractor may label items you assumed were included as "additional". The price then rises when you have the least room to walk away, because your old kitchen has already been removed.
Before work starts, put the agreed scope in writing and attach it to the accepted quote. Also agree in writing that any change will be priced and confirmed in writing before it is done. A slightly higher quote with a clear scope often ends up cheaper than a low quote with a vague scope. Choose on clear scope and terms rather than on the lowest headline price.
Hui Min chooses the S$18,000 quote. It isn't the lowest, but every item is listed and the contractor has agreed to her payment schedule.
Now write an itemised scope for a job of your own, and the payment schedule you would propose for it.
Pick a renovation, service or supply job. Write an itemised scope for it and the payment schedule you would propose.
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