The five questions to ask any firm
Ask all five of every company you speak to, and write down what they say. There is more than one good answer to each. The answers differ far more between companies than their websites do.
Who actually enters my house?
An employee or a subcontractor? The same person each time? Will you know their name before they arrive, and what happens when that person is on vacation?
What do I receive after every visit, and how soon?
Ask to see a real one rather than a sample — a note from an actual visit, with the findings and a price in it. A checklist of ticks is not a report.
What happens when you find something?
Who decides, who is called, what can be spent without asking you, and what happens if you are unreachable.
How do you choose outside providers, and how are you paid by them?
A markup, a referral fee, a commission from the trade or an in-house crew all change whose interest is being served when something is found.
Where does the history of my house live?
In a system that survives the person, or in one manager's phone? Ask what happens to it if they leave — and if you leave.
This sheet does not score, rank or compare firms, and there is no right answer printed on it. Our own answers to all five are published at myvellamore.com, on the Homeowner Guides page, so that you can read them before you call and hold us to them afterwards.
Five questions · sheet v1.0 · published free, no email required
Vellamore · Kiawah Island, South Carolina
myvellamore.com · 843-619-2346