Haggling Your Way To A Less Expensive Home
With today’s buyer’s market, you can talk down the price of everything from flat-screen televisions to summer rentals. When it comes to home improvement, though, haggling is as risky as ever. Even if contractors are more willing to lower their prices nowadays, they’re still liable to get angry and to cut corners on the job.
To find out how consumers can safely play this give-and-take, we asked dozens of home-improvement pros around the country what approaches would work on them. Most didn’t want to talk about it, but we persisted, and a few revealed plum tips.
Stir up competition, get at least three bids so you know the market price range for the job. Tell each contractor that you’re getting other bids, so he’s motivated to give you a competitive number.