Have you tried calling them? It could be that they're very busy, and you may need to remind them that you're waiting!

I can think of several possible scenarios. Obviously since I don't know anything more about your situation than given above, everything is only speculation.

1 - wrong type of contractors...perhaps you've talked with contractors who either typically deal in whole house remodels and this project is too small to get them excited, or you've talked with guys who typically do a small, handyman type projects of a couple days or a week, and this is a larger project requiring numerous trades.

2 - undefined project - is your project clearly defined or are you at the stage of looking for options? Could I move this door? use a wood floor? Yeah, I'll want some windows... or "three 2'x4' double hung vinyl windows centered on the north side"

3 - local rules and regulations - does your local code enforcement have a reputation of being the most difficult to work with in your entire area? For some projects, policies and procedures take out all the fun of being involved

4 - is your budget realistic? Is your timeline realistic?

These are just some possible reasons. There is a contractor out there somewhere who will work with you, just keep looking...

We try to tell folks that it will be several weeks before we can get back to them, but sometimes forget to do so.

For those contractors, like us, that are in the remodeling business it is very different from new home builders. We are generally much smaller businesses and we are actually on the job site every day with tool belts on doing the work. Unlike a new home (particularly a spec home) we are in client's home and their belongings, children, animals and everything important to them is there. We can't just leave a bunch of people there - even though we trust our subs. Remodeling is also a solutions business - we spend a great deal of our day uncovering problems and working out solutions. We can't do that from the office. When we have someone's home torn apart, they are not very happy if we leave during the day to get estimates done.

We work seven days a week most of the time. We take a hand-full of weekends off in a year. Our only time to work on estimates is in the evenings or on weekends - and then only if we don't have a meeting scheduled with a client on a project already in process. It takes us time to get back to people, but we are small. I think most remodeling companies are more like us than they are like the "big" guys.

Having said that, Linda is correct on all the points she has made. If it is not a good fit for our company, if the project is still too vaguely defined, if the budget expectation is way too low for the scope of work or if we become aware that there are a bunch of bidders, then that project may go to the bottom of the stack. Maybe that is not right, but one has to allocate their time the best they can. Bobbi is right, it is worth a call to see where the 2 contractors stand on getting back to you. We just had a recent case where we could not get a window quote for weeks because the only person at the local supplier that did window quotes was selected for a jury and couldn't come in to work. Very frustrating for us and for the prospect - but it was a sunroom and the windows are one of the largest items so we had to wait.

You may want to locate some additional remodelers by going to NAHB.org and looking up someone in your area. Tell them about your project and your experience and ask them what to expect from their company and whether this project is a good fit for them.

Good luck.

its a nice way of saying they wont do it. i have a very old house where alot of the frames of doors and such arent the average size. its to much work for them when they can get the same price somewhere else. they dont have a lack of work

I reurn every phone call, but then at the rates I charge, I can afford to.

I am experiencing the same thing. It is a waste of my time to schedule an appointment, wait for them, go through what I want done, and nothing comes to fruition. No call back, no estimates, nothing.

IMO this is an industry wide problem, if they are slow getting an estimate in writing back to you, they will be even slower doing the job.

Customers call me for a free estimate all the time. I have them email a picture of their kitchen sink along with the base cabinet and cutout dimensions. I email them back with pictures of jobs we've done similar to theirs and a budget range.

If my information isn't worth a bit of effort on your part, good riddance to you.

If they aren't comfortable in the budget range, I'm not coming out; it's a waste of time for each of us. I probably sell 70% of the jobs I visit in person. There are no free estimates, there is a fair trade of information.

This isn't 2008. We aren't dying for work. Gas is $4.00 a gallon, so I'm only driving to likely sales. Answer the qualifying questions you're asked and you'll get results.

This kind of attitude is why customers will go to big firms who pay a salesman to write the estimates and pass on the costs and then hire south of the border subs. I am looking at a 25K job not $300. At least the work will get done and I can pay with credit card so if it is a "no show" I won't get the short end of the stick.

A little 25K job isn’t worth a lot of contractor’s time. If it actually is a 25K job. Most homeowners think their jobs “should” cost about 1/3 of what they actually do. 25K doesn’t go very far at all. It’s a simple small hall bathroom, and not using any upscale materials. And that is it.

Good to know.

Because contractors do not respond back with estimates, even after you have sent them requests, you should just go to Home Depot. They will provide an estimate and will do the work.

Contractors pricing does seem very arbitrary. Ive been quoted a high price and regardless of how much preliminary work I do the price doe not change at all.

If I say anything about it they are very touchy and get offended. i dont like this kind of attitude. How can there be trust if the customer has little to no rights aboit inflated random pricing?

Edit

"A little 25K job isn’t worth a lot of contractor’s time. If it actually is a 25K job. " That's a lot of money. I never let the contractor put materials. If I am redoing my bathroom. The only thing a contractor put is labor and general materials. Every single title in that bathroom comes from my packet. You are not going to charge me 50K and put crappy materials. I have a medium size kitchen. I paid 20K for labor. I spent 50K total because I got high end cabinets and countertop.

I don't know of any licensed, professional general contractor who runs a professional remodeling company that would work for labor cost. That's a handyman.

Homeowners tend to select low end, cheap products and then they want someone to waltz in and make them look like a million dollars after installation. And if they look like the cheap stuff they bought once installed, then it must be the installers fault. Not a situation in which any professional wants to be involved..

Contractors and handymen have more negotiating power than corporate white collar labour. Only in America ! :)

I'm in the same boat. I moved into a home with a structural issue identified on my home inspection six years ago. The company that did my inspection said they don't service my area and referred me to someone else who then said the same thing. Mostly I have blamed this on being in an area without many service options. But perhaps the economy now is different than a year or so ago when this thread started, because now I am getting responses where formerly even just finding someone to come out and take a look at my foundation problem was "mission impossible".

Once here, however, I have had people who were told up front that the job involves foundation work never follow up or even return calls afterward. (One of the prior responses suggests that never following up could be related to bringing out a handyman when you need a contractor or a contractor when all you need is a handyman. However, that explanation doesn't hold much water because the customer will typically state up front – if not also text/photos – the type of job.) In this case, if the repair involves a foundation, why schedule for an estimate at all if uninterested or unable to perform that specific type of work?

It strikes me that genearal contractors could learn a thing or two from other trades, such as plumbers, electricians and HVAC people. Most of those people will show up with a business card and spend 5-10 minutes in their truck writing out the estimate on the spot. The beauty of that approach is that there is no backlog formed because once the meeting with the customer is over, the estimate is already in hand.

Initially, I figured that the contractors I managed to get out for an estimate were rushed and "ran out" of business cards. It also occurred to me that many businesses have intentionally gone paperless. But having repeatedly wasted my time with contractors who never followed through over the past six years, I now take the absence of a business card with relevant name/license as a red flag. (Presumably a contractor in good standing has worked hard for that license so why not supply pertinent information up front?)

I don't doubt that when a self-employed contractor or small firm is busy it's going to take time to follow up. I can also see how it might take extra time to nail down material costs. But when there is no estimate pad, another thing I don't see is the contractor taking out a measuring tape, jotting down notes or taking photos by which to remember what I was after in the first place. (I never made anything of this initially but now I take it to be a sign that I will more than likely never hear back even if there is a promise to email a quote after the fact.)

Another response on this topic also puzzles me. At least one of the prior comments here from a pro points out that $25K is not really considered a big sum of money. But that is an incredibly short-sighted answer. In addition to structural issues that remain unresolved, I have other improvements in the pipeline, from siding to an ADU! (It might be a clue that more work is in the pipeline if it looks like more work needs to be done vs. showing up at a new or fully updated customer home for which there are few projects left!)

I'd like to start with my structural issue first and then upon seeing how the company performs, expand out to other projects. If my experience is any kind of indication, no contractor should look at the job they are asked to estimate as a one-off. Do A JOB of some sort, and the customer could very well end up being a source of repeat business and/or word-of-mouth referrals.

In this most recent instance, it floors me that the salesperson — not even sure if I was visited by a contractor given that he obtained my number from Angi's list — drove over an hour to my home and, despite being told on the scheduling date and again on the day of the appointment to come prepared with an estimate pad and a business card, he did not provide what was asked. Afterward, the company made four follow up calls (not a small company) asking if we wanted to schedule the work, at which time we indicated that we were still waiting on a written estimate. On the fourth call asking us to schedule work, they hung up when I said that the only thing holding us up was not getting the estimate. (And that was an honest reply. The company rep made a good impression otherwise. That impression went out of the window when their sales staff hung up instead of promising to follow through on a written estimate!)

We all presumably attended K-12 school where showing up for class without a pencil or notebook of any sort would have not flown with our teachers. Why should contractors expect to show up unprepared with the first tool of the job — a business card? (And before someone under the age of 40 says that a business card is old fashioned, how many of us rush to enter contact details in our phones before we have made the decision to hire?)

Without, at a minimum, a business card sitting on the customer's counter (heck, even a cheesy refrigerator magnent will do!), chances are good that the customer will at some point misplace the nondescript sheet/pad of paper on which the verbals were hurriedly jotted down. (It's not like the customer, when the referral came from Houzz, Yelp, Angi's list or similar, will even have a bookmark or web history to fall back on given that they were matched with the service provider and didn't pull the business up from a Google search.)

From a customer perspective, the bottom line is this: If you show up at my home without a business card and an estimate pad in hand as per my up-front request, what else about my job will you overrule or ignore?

"Sitting around and waiting for the phone to ring" is not a successful business strategy. Spend your day cold-calling old customers. Be the ringer, not the ringee.

The answer is they do not sit at desks much. Maybe its lack of interest, not a good money vs trouble or a simple no time to write up an estimate, not that they write much when they get around to it. The good ones stand out but you pay for that attention to things, the less experienced one are barely affordable. You get real lucky if you find a skilled man out there.

Above and Beyond, if you do good work, invest in joining your local Home Builders Assoc and participate in meetings.

AABP:

I've built several businesses from nothing and sold them for profit, so I kinda know about these things.

If you're doing it right, your cold call will come accross as a friendly follow up for which your former customers will be grateful. Maybe they don't need painting, but certainly someone they know has seen your work and would appreciate a call. The great thing about these leads are that they're "pre-qualified". You come with a recommendation and your prospect can probably afford your services.

See if your area has a local HomeMag please. There is no copy, it's all ads, but only gets delivered to qualified prospects. Much more affordable than direct mail and much more efficient than door-to-door cards. You've got to spend money to make money.

Furthermore, there is nothing sweeter than sitting in front of a Rolodex for a while and walking away with a kill. It is intoxicatingly powerful. Try it please.

All of these might be reasons but there are no excuses when it comes to not following up. Unless you’re a toddler, felll people you’re either not interested or don’t have time. No response is childish

Yeah i dont get the opinion ghosting someone is a nice way of saying no. just be honest upfront and not lead people on.

For all the complaining going on about contractors not getting back here is some insight.

Contractors do not have free employees they send out to do free quotes. We see way more ghosting on the consumer side then contractors not leaving a quote. Getting a quote from a contractor and not responding one way or the other runs rampant in the industry. Hence the direction of many charging a fee to have a quality, trained professional come to your residence. Imagine that, having to pay a fee for a professional organization to visit your residence. That said the fee goes towards the cost of the job if you move forward.

There is no show room folks to walk in and see a contractor. The expense involved in training, benefits, salary etc for the establishment just to get a free dude to send is in the 20k range. The MEGA companies will always be free. They will also continue to have a revolving door of employees being abused for free by the public.

Perhaps some of the MEGA folks visited some of the responses on here. Those folks are just a number on a spreadsheet for the companies providing the service. And........wait for it. so is the consumer. The sale is just a means to the end.

For all of those complaining about what you did or did not get for free, here is a quarter, call someone who cares.

Todd:

It's nice to hear the other side of the equation, however, you're demonstrating a lack of qualifying your leads properly. Right after "Hello", you should be asking "How did you hear about us, please?" You always lead the sales process.

If they picked you out of the phone book (remember those? lol) you'll need to give them an assignment, such as calling some previous customers of yours to get a referral. If they can't be bothered to do such a simple task, they don't deserve another minute of your time.

They may say, "You did a great job for the Jones, our neighbors." The Jones were great customers, they live in the right neighborhood, which means they're nearly automatically qualified as customers. Nail that appointment immediately.

Always ask if they've had some work done recently. You may hear about how they had to sue their roofer and their plumber. They may be in the right neighborhood, have the money, and still be a complete PIA money pit. You must get these potentials to reveal themselves, fortunately, this isn't very difficult.

You'll find customers at evey level in between. You cannot survive without learning to sort leads on the phone and identify problem potentials before they become customers.

You've got to track the amount of proposals written against the amount of proposals closed. I've heard the industry average is one out of four. I would get a job at a Wendy's drive-thru if my kill ratio wasn't 50/50 minimum. 75% of your proposals up in flames means you're wasting time on the wrong potentials.

Thanks Joeseph,

We found out long ago about qualifying leads.

75% of the complaints about getting or not getting a quote did not proceed with the project they requested quotes for on this string. lol

All business is not good business.