An Opinion about the outcome of the recession as it relates to the construction industry and our potential clients.
I have a theory about what is about to happen to the residential construction industry in years to come… and I am not sure that it looks very good for awhile.
In an indistry that is highly unregulated, it is easy to throw some tools in a truck, come up with a company name, and call yourself a remodeler or home builder. Actually, it is just that easy! That being said, I think that most would agree that the large speculative home-builders will not be doing as much building for some time (if even within my lifetime); and all of those people that were working for them will have to find other things to do. I am not saying that they are not highly talented people that have very useful skills – but being a skilled tradesman is very different than being a skilled business owner, general contractor, remodeler, or construction manager. Also, all of those young people that are looking to start a career in the industry will be behind the eight ball, looking for work.
It is my fear that many of these people that do not have the skill to general-contract and do not know enough about the integration of trades and systems, client relations, scheduling, detailing, expediting, material selection, accounting, book-keeping, job site coordination, marketing, sales, etc, etc, etc, that all make for a good, quality construction business will soon flood the market with low-quality competition.
This only becomes a problem because all too often, our potential clients do not see the skill levels and training required to do the things that we do well, that they expect us to do well – and cost becomes king.
I think that because of this flood of unqualified new “businesses”, we are in for 5 or ten years of shoddy work, bad business practices, and unreasonable competition that will only sort itself out with regulation of the industry and the inevitable weed-out process that will come with businesses going under. Some of this shoddy work has benn occuring due to rushed schedules and over-eager builders, too. (See the link below this post).
So buyer beware, you get what you pay for and we have already seen a large number if businesses go under due to shoddy workmanship and bad business practices. J. Schwartz,llc has been hired on occasion to remedy some of these projects, and although the final outcome may still be beautiful, the process is tainted, usually exorbitantly more expensive and contains some litigation with the less than satisfactory contractor that had the “lower price”…
CLICK HERE TO READ AN ARTICLE ABOUT HOW SHODDY CONSTRUCTION IS IN PART RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FORECLOSURE CRISES.