We keep Customers and experts out of trouble
Our handyman service helps Customers find a reliable expert fast. It is very hard to find a reliable expert: we estimate that 40-50% of home repair jobs involve serious misunderstandings, shoddy or undeclared work and/or outright fraud. MrFix will post tips for Customers and contractors to avoid the worst mistakes and problems: this is the first.
Quote vs Estimate
Customers ask us every day for quotes while they mean estimates and vice versa. The difference is simple: a good expert always estimates how much time the job will cost him and therefore also has an estimate of the labour cost if the hourly rate is clear. He can (but rarely does) share this estimate with the Customer: “The job will cost me ~X hours so it will cost you ~€Y in labour”. If the Customer prefers, the expert can also quote a fixed price: “I ask €Z for the job, no matter how many hours it costs me”. Z can be lower than Y if the expert can work entire man days on the job, but also higher (because the expert runs the risk of the job taking longer than he estimated).
So what is wiser to request: an estimate or a quote?
That depends:
- A quote (or a proper estimate of material cost) usually requires an inspection visit, which costs you time and often money too (the first hour of inspection is deducted from the final invoice, though). If you would like the expert to advise you and/or measure, it is usually better to ask for an inspection & quote
- A quote is ideal if the job is big and well defined, such as “paint 350m2 of smooth walls over with roller – 1 coat, RAL 9010″. And if it is that clear you can even avoid the inspection
- An estimate is better if the job is relatively small and hard to define / estimate, such as “Stop bad smell in bathroom“. Without more information you can’t even get a serious estimate for such jobs
- If you know and trust the expert (or home repair service MrFix) then an estimate of man hours should suffice. Please note that the minimum possible estimate is 1-2 man hours.
MrFix has advised Customers for years to follow a simple rule of thumb: for jobs of less than a day’s work / ~€500 ask for an estimate. For bigger jobs a quote is usually the wiser option, even though that often requires an inspection visit.
Just request your job via the form you find at the top of most pages of our website and click the green button “First a quote” on the right. Then we will get you a quote or estimate according to our rule of thumb. If you want something else then you can indicate that under “DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF JOB” or contact us to discuss.