subject: Tips On Having Your Fairfax Home Repaired [print this page] If youre living in a city like Fairfax in northern Virginia, where real estate prices range from $300,000 to more than $500,000, the last thing youd want is to discover belatedly that plumbers in Fairfax would charge thousands of dollars for what initially seemed like a simple leaking faucet. To avoid unwittingly becoming a sorry home owner, these are some sound home repair tips that apply not only to residents of Fairfax City, but also to anyone living in other major cities in the US.
Get a Flat Rate
One good way to gauge whether or not youre dealing with honest, competent people is their willingness to provide a flat rate for their services, which is especially true with home repair contractors or plumbers in Fairfax. There are those who would dilly-dally when you ask them about their price, and mostly they do this to fish for ways they could charge you more. If you have a definite repair joba broken toilet, for instance, or a crumbling roof, with all the materials and extent of labor specifically detailed outtheres no reason the service contractor would be unable to give you a transparent rate, as they would only have to do the calculation based on their price book. Also, you dont necessarily have to pay for a mere diagnosis of your problemif the contractor is brazen enough to ask you about such a fee, then maybe youre better off with another one.
Ask for Referrals
As you know, home repair services do not operate in a vacuum. If youre looking for, say, good plumbers in Fairfax, it immensely helps your cause to shop around first before deciding on any specific service provider. Ask friends, officemates, even neighbors. Moreover, do not forget that the internet exists. There are several websites specializing in city guides, and a city as big and important as Fairfax will always have an extensive discussion in any such websites. You will find a helpful listing of home services providers on such sitesfrom gardening experts to garage door repair people, to the more general home maintenance and improvement contractors. The point is: talk with as many possible contractors as you can, and check out the feedback (often, a simple search on Google using the name of your potential contractor as key words can produce substantial and enlightening results).
Stick with your Set Budget
Having your home repaired often starts innocentlyyou see the edge of that roof and think, maybe you can just replace a few shingles. Before you know it, youre not only repairing the roof but actually remodelling your home. And this can be really costly, especially in a city. For example, your initial construction and home repair cost projections can turn out to be unrealistically much smaller than contractors or plumbers in Fairfax charge on average. When this happens, its easy to succumb to the urge to chase it. You must stick with your set budget, but base it on realistic rates. And if the actual costs turn out to be much more than you had projected, take a step back and regroup.
