Why I Turned Down $2,500: The Real Cost of Building Trust in Home Repairs
Introduction
Sometimes Doing Right Costs More
A STORY ABOUT CHOOSING LONG-TERM TRUST OVER QUICK PROFIT
I just finished a job that taught me something important about this business.
It was a high-end home in one of Nashville's luxury neighborhoods - the kind where houses run between 3 and 5 million dollars.
The owner was out of town, so we handled everything over the phone.
Pretty standard stuff at first: full encapsulation, drainage work, two sump pumps, insulation, fungus removal, and hauling away debris.
But here's where it gets interesting. I made a call during the quote that would test our business principles.
The Project Scope
This wasn't just any crawl space job. We were looking at a complete system: full encapsulation with proper drainage, dual sump pump installation for extra protection, and dealing with existing fungus issues. The customer needed everything done right - no cutting corners, no half measures.
I quoted higher than the big corporate companies - even those three-letter firms everyone knows from their billboards. Why? Because I planned to do everything properly, including careful removal of existing materials and thorough preparation before installing the new system.
What I didn't know then was that my commitment to doing things right was about to be tested in a way that would hit our bottom line hard.
The Unexpected Challenge
When we got under that house, we found what the other companies wanted to ignore - tons of rocks and boulders. Not just a few scattered stones, but three solid days worth of heavy material that needed to be removed. The big corporate quotes? They just planned to cover it all up with plastic and call it done.
That's not how we work. You can't properly encapsulate a crawl space by laying material over debris. It's like putting a Band-Aid on a broken arm - might look fine at first, but it won't solve the real problem.
The Customer's Offer
When I called the homeowner to explain the situation, something interesting happened. He offered an additional $2,500 to cover the extra work. Fair offer, right? Most contractors would jump at it. After all, we're talking about three guys working five extra days, hauling out rocks and boulders one at a time.
And let's be honest - this is usually where you'd see a change order. It's standard practice in the industry. Find something unexpected, charge more money. Simple business, right?
Why I Said No
But here's the thing about building a business that lasts: sometimes you have to think bigger than today's profit. This customer sits on the HOA board in a neighborhood full of multi-million dollar homes. Each one of those homes has a crawl space. Each homeowner talks to their neighbors.
I made the mistake in my initial assessment. That's on me. Taking that $2,500 might have felt good today, but what's worth more - quick cash or becoming known as the contractor who stands by his word? The guy who eats his mistakes instead of passing them on to the customer?
The Real Value Exchange
Instead of taking that $2,500, I asked for something more valuable: a testimonial, a video interview, and permission to put our yard sign up. In a neighborhood where everyone's watching their property values and sharing contractor recommendations, that's worth more than any change order.
Think about it - when a homeowner in a luxury neighborhood tells their neighbors, "This contractor found extra work and refused to charge me more," that means something. When they say, "Other contractors working on my remodel wouldn't do this," that means even more.
Our Business Philosophy
Here's how we do things at Crawl Logic: if I quote you a price, that's the price you pay. Period. If I miss something in my assessment, that's my problem to solve, not yours. No change orders, no surprise fees, no excuses.
It's not always the most profitable way to run a business in the short term. But after six years of operating this way, I can tell you it's the right way. Our reputation for honesty and standing by our word has built us into the highest-rated non-corporate crawl space company in Middle Tennessee.
Ready for Honest Crawl Space Work?
The job we're finishing today is massive - probably one of our biggest this year. My crew killed it, working extra days to make sure everything was done right, not just done fast. The crawl space looks amazing, and more importantly, it's done properly, with no shortcuts and no rocks hidden under the encapsulation.
If you're looking for crawl space work, give me a call. I'll give you an honest assessment and stick to my quote, even if it costs me extra. Because at the end of the day, I'm not building a business on quick profits - I'm building it on trust.
