Why Your Renovation Quotes Don't Actually Compare (and How to Fix It)
Last year I got three quotes for repainting and re-tiling a bathroom in one of our units. The totals were ¥480,000, ¥610,000, and ¥720,000. My first reaction was “just take the cheapest one.” My second reaction, after actually reading all three line by line, was that I had no idea if I was comparing the same job three times or three different jobs that happened to share a bathroom.
That gap between “the totals look comparable” and “the scopes are actually comparable” is where a lot of property owners in Japan lose money — either by overpaying, or by picking the cheap quote and then getting hit with change orders once work starts.