Jump to content
Find Professionals    Deals    Get Quotations   Portfolios
Sign in to follow this  
renoseeker

Until Death Do Us Part: My Renovation Story

Recommended Posts

My first post... and kudos to your efforts, I actually bothered to post, instead of lurking... lol... I think it's a worthwhile idea, and since I'll have to do my reno early next year, I might give your service a try. ;)

I do recall there was a reno project management venture by NTUC called idConnect doggone years ago. I think it has gone the way of the dinosaurs... wanted to use them for my current flat then, but ended up going with a contractor instead.

It'd probably be wise to learn why they went belly up and not repeat their mistakes!

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join 46,923 satisfied homeowners who used renotalk quotation service to find interior designers. Get an estimated quotation

Nice thread, but hiring an agent to hire an agent is a little complicated. Decisions related to selecting an ID I feel is mostly irrational, like all human decision making. What if the client asks the agent to make a recommendation and is not satisfied with the process?

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Dear Renoseeker,

In the proposed business model, what is the responsibility of the "Us" (as per your diagram) after a successful engagement, in terms of the entire renovation cycle?

Cheers!

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No offense, although you term this as a sharing thread to aid all the people here in renotalk, it seems to me this is like a promotional thread to sell your services and create market awareness.

You are intelligent, coz you know how to embed the 'selling' and disguise this as a normal t-blog.

Anyway my personal view:

1) Renovation is not about reports and prices, it also involves chemistry between the the client and renovator. We look for IDs and contractors whom we can communicate and are comfortable with ---- which is what your service lacks

2) How much the renovator understands our requirements depends largely on how well your 'service agents' understands us, the client. Important bits of info are often lost when a medium is engaged. I dun feel comfortable with a 3rd party helping to communicate my needs.

3) from what renoseeker will be doing, dun think the service comes cheap. I am sure if renovators will price that cost in somehow if it is substantial.

4) because you are paid by the renovators, there is a potential conflict of interest here. You get paid no matter what your performance is(in this case, finding a good renovator). So if your service sucks to the core, u still get paid by the renovators. There is no real incentive for you to really 'perform'. There is also the question of your neutrality --- do you have affliated renovators whom you will try to push for to the clients? Do some Renovators give u more 'commission'? All these we will nor know coz all are transparent to us, the clients.

5) selection of renovators through you is limited. Am not sure how many renovators u are able to attract to give quotations and drawings judging from your current operations.

I applaud your creativeness,, but there are just too many concerns left to be addressed.

Edited by knownothing
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I welcome any ideas or any attacks or name calling.

I was planning on ignoring this thread, but since you asked for it... This sounds like a shameless promo thread to me. I have no qualms if this thread is in the advertising or services thread. But in the T-Blog thread? Seriously? Read the last few posts you have written and let us know how it's not a promo thread please.

What this means is that, likely, the home owners don't have to pay the "mark up" at all.

I don't buy this argument... the costs has to go somewhere... you don't expect the contractors to bear the cost right? They are businessmen, not running a charity, and if they are good/popular they can always get other clients without accepting a job that gives them lower profits. So the likelihood is that they will pass on the cost to the homeowner, or cut costs somewhere else.

Even if I take the scenario where the ID/contractor is desperate enough to NOT pass on the cost... why are they that desperate for a job that gives them less profits? I dunno, too many questions, am just not convinced.

Also, another great feature is at Step 8. If the homeowners are not happy, then RS don't get paid until they are happy and pay the renovator. Only then, we issue invoice for referral fees. So, if the guy takes your money and run, we would also die....because we do free work and have to eat air. This would give RS the incentive to find good renovators.

Errrr... how do we know you will not get the money before hand? Take your word for it?

Sure, you say it's the business model, but let's not forget...

1. If ID/contractor run away with the money... the homeowners suffer a tremendous monetary loss, not to mention delays in reno, inconvenience, etc. You just don't get the fees (which is of course much less than the homeowners $$$). Will you die? Don't think so. Let's not use exaggerated words. If you say that you will suffer reputational impact which will be a death blow to your fledgling business, I'll probably take that tho.

2. If I were to use a service like yours, I would want to be PROTECTED against a scenario like that and not just be told if the money is gone you will also die (which in that case, read #1 above again).

The beauty of the system is that homeowners don't have to run around and meet renovators themselves most of the time. They can use videos to see if they "click" or not. The videos are meant to let a homeowner see if they want to work with the ID/Contractor or not.

Because, first impressions is everything. This is a proven fact. We form our opinion about someone within 30 seconds of meeting and once our first impressions are formed, it is very difficult to change.

I'm not sure how accurate 1st impressions from a video is... anyway chemistry requires two-way communication. Personally I wouldn't trust that I have 'chemistry' with a person from a video.

=====================================

As Knownothing has mentioned so many points above (which I mostly agree with), I just want to question how many of us feel comfortable that the 3-way communication via an intermediary will work? Just reminds me too much of those team-building games where you start passing a message through a chain of people, and the last person will say something totally different.

'Chemistry' cannot be passed on anyway.

Edited by adidaem
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×