You will be able to run a quote process and negotiate price, scope and payment terms.
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. One comes back at S$15,500, as a single line: "Kitchen works, supply and install, lump sum." The other two are S$18,000 and S$19,200, each running to two pages of items. The cheapest is very tempting.
This lesson is about running a quote process that lets you compare properly, and then negotiating with the contractor you choose, on scope and payment as well as price. The same steps apply to any service or supply job: a renovation, an office fit-out, a catering order, a website. All figures are examples.
Get at least three quotes, and make sure they're for the same job. That sounds obvious, but it's where most quote comparisons go wrong. If one contractor has included new cabinets and another has assumed you'll keep the old ones, the cheaper quote isn't cheaper, it's a different job.
The fix is to write the scope yourself before asking anyone: what you want done, with sizes, materials and finishes where you know them. Send the same scope to each contractor and ask them to price it line by line. A quote that's itemised lets you see where the money goes. A lump sum hides it.
Hui Min goes back to the contractor who sent the single line and asks for a breakdown against her scope. The revised quote comes to S$17,400, and it excludes the sink and tap, which the other two had included. On a like-for-like basis, the "cheapest" quote has shrunk to a small saving, and she now has three numbers she can actually compare.
Once you have itemised quotes, ask each contractor what drives the biggest costs. This isn't haggling yet. It's research, and it often reveals options you didn't know you had.
"What makes the cabinets the largest item?" might lead to an answer about the board material or the hardware. A different finish might cost much less and look nearly the same. "Is there a time of year when you're less busy?" might reveal that a later start date gets a better rate. "Which items would you suggest I buy myself?" might show that sourcing your own appliances or tiles saves money.
These are the interests behind the contractor's price, in the sense of 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 an issue in their own right, and they protect you as much as they cost the contractor. Paying a large share upfront leaves you exposed if the work stalls or goes wrong. Paying in stages, tied to work that's actually done, keeps both sides committed.
A common structure is 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. Hui Min proposes this schedule for the S$18,000 quote she prefers: 10% deposit, which is S$1,800; 40% once the carpentry is installed, S$7,200; 40% once all works are complete, S$7,200; and the final 10%, S$1,800, after her inspection and any touch-ups.
The final payment matters most. A contractor still waiting for S$1,800 has a clear reason to come back and fix the drawer that doesn't close. One who's been paid in full may find the next job more pressing.
If the contractor resists the schedule, treat it as a trade, the way lesson 5.1, Every concession gets something back, described: "If I can confirm the booking this week, can we agree to holding back 10% until after inspection?"
Vague quotes are cheap on paper because they leave room for extras later. "Supply and install cabinets" doesn't say how many, which material or which hinges. When the work starts and you ask for what you assumed was included, you hear "that one is additional", and the price rises when you have the least room to walk away, because the old kitchen is already gone.
So agree the scope in writing before work starts, attached to the quote you accept, and agree that any change will be priced and confirmed in writing before it's done. A slightly higher quote with a clear scope often ends up cheaper than a low one with a vague scope.
Hui Min chooses the S$18,000 quote. It's not the lowest, but every item is listed, and the contractor has agreed to her payment schedule. The activity asks you to write an itemised scope for a job of your own, and the payment schedule you would propose for it.
Write an itemised scope for a renovation, service or supply job and the payment schedule you would propose.
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