When selecting a home remodeling company in Orange County, California, it can be confusing.  There are so many different remodeling companies with so many different levels of service.   You go from some basic handy man work to the contractor and subcontractors to the firms that provide your plans, structural engineering, they pull permits, and warranty your work.

The later of the home remodeling services is what Sea Pointe Design & Remodel Design & Remodeling services offers.  This means, you will not be interviewing the following roles to get your kitchen, bathroom, or room addition complete:  Architect, Designer, Structural Engineer, Plumber, Roofer, Installer, or General Contractor.  Design and Remodel firms are your one-stop-shop for getting a complete job done.

Now once you have decided to select a General Contractor or a Remodeling firm, you want to be sure to check your references.  There are so many places to check and so many reviews to look at.  Doing your homework here pays off in the peace of mind you want when making such an investment in your home, which is already your largest investment in most homeowner’s cases.

Below you will find 15 resources for Remodeling Firm reviews and verification:

1. Houzz enables the home improvement business to showcase their work through videos and images. Some of these are paid placements, but their reviews are not. In fact the reviews go through a human auditor at Houzz for authenticity check.  These are trustworthy and can be compared to the other firms you are shopping on Houzz.
2. The Guild Quality provides reviews specifically for the home improvement industry. Guild Quality invites all customers to participate in a survey.  This means you pay for GQ to survey your customers and provide you feedback.  This also means you can control which reviews make it to the public.  So know that the Guild Quality review should be compared with other review sites as well.
3. Qualified Remodeler Top 500: Qualified Remodeler Magazine awards the Top 500 most reputable remodeling firms across the United Sates every July. It’s quite the honor to be recognized nationally for work done locally and shows you are working with a reputable company.
4. Remodeling Magazine honors the nations’ Top 550 remodeling companies annually. This list includes the remodeling firms annual sales, number of jobs sold annually, as well as the firms on the list also show generosity, dedication, and ingenuity as reported by Remodeling Magazine.
5. The Big 50 is published annually by Remodeling Magazine and honors the nations’ 50 remodeling firms that are top of their game. This honor only comes once in a lifetime, so once honored by the Big 50, you are always considered a Big 50 remodeling firm.  Being on this list definitely differentiates a remodeling firm from the rest.  When you want to work with the best and most trusted, be sure to check out this list.
6. NKBA is the National Kitchen and Bath Association is a non-profit trade group that promotes professionalism is the kitchen and bath remodeling industry. Originally existing as a network of kitchen dealers, this group has now become the premiere association of designers, retailers, remodelers, manufacturers, installers, fabricators, distributors, and other industry professionals.  Membership in this organization shows a top-notch organization with access to the nations’ best in the industry.
7. NAHB is the National Association of Home Builders. This association ensures that home builders and remodelers in the US have access to continuing education, networking, access to niche experts, and advocacy in state and local government to reduce excessive regulations.
8. Job walks is another very clear way to see how your potential remodeling firm runs their jobs. Do they have zippered plastic sealing off the renovation area with HEPA filters and daily clean up?  Do they treat the space with respect and care as they transform it into your dream space?  A reputable firm should be happy to take you on a job walk.
9. The Better Business Bureau is an old reliable source. Though don’t let them fool you, they too take payment for certain statuses online. Specifically, to be BBB Accredited, you must pay an annual fee, but you can still show your ‘A+’ rating without paying. It just does not show accredited which can be misleading if you don’t know this.
10. Google Reviews are a newer generation of reviews that remodeling services use to get feedback. When pulling up a local service, you will see their listing on the right with business details as well as reviews near the bottom.  You can see the overall rating and expand to see all reviews with what customers are saying about them.
11. Facebook reviews are another great place to check out your prospective remodeling firm’s reputation. audience resonates with the remodeling age and demographic well.  This too, is another location where you can check reviews. You should check the remodelers page as well to be sure they are active and a brand you want to work with. Do they share pictures of jobs that have the detail or scope of the job you are hiring them for? You don’t want a handyman that does drywall patching to be doing structural work.  The Facebook page for your prospective remodeling firm will have reviews and can tell the story of how these folks will be to work with – what image are they displaying along with the reviews?
12. Yelp is the new generation review system and more popular for restaurants but nonetheless plenty of home remodelers and service providers has pages here for reviews. In fact, be weary if they do not; this could mean they changed business names when a page went horribly awry with poor reviews or not enough customers to get reviews. Yelp is just one more place to check when comparing companies.
13. There are 43 different licenses a contractor can have. Be sure to check the contractor for the proper licenses as you don’t want your plumber doing your roofing job.  You can find all licenses at cslb.ca.gov.  Be sure the license matches the business name, and this is just one more verification you can review prior to hiring your home remodeling firm or General Contractor.
14. Warranties are required by all remodelers to the tune of 1 year. Be sure that your firm offers a minimum of 1-year warranty.
15. Be sure your contractor or remodeling firm pulls your permits from the city. The person or firm that pulls these permits takes responsibility for the work being done.  This includes passing inspections.  Sea Pointe passes inspections on 1st inspection 99% of the time; this keeps your project on time and is a testament to our quality workmanship.

As you can see, there are plenty of resources to check out prior to hiring your remodeling firm or general contractor. Be sure to do your homework as this is a serious investment in your home.  You don’t want to become one of the victims of fraud, poor workmanship, or deception when renovating your home.

Living in Orange County, California already makes most of your real estate decisions extremely different than the rest of the United States. Most of us have seen Love it or List it on HGTV where the Home Designer remodels a couples’ existing home to meet their needs while a TV Real Estate Agent simultaneously looks to meet their needs with a new home. Each are given a budget and the homeowner is left to decide to stay in the remodeled home with the new improvements and improved equity or to sell that equity and buy something that meets more of their needs.

In Orange County home ownership real life, we’re not given such a set of circumstances to make these decisions; we are here to help you make both a financial, functional, and lifestyle choice with some informed options. We will start by evaluating some real Orange County home remodel return on investment data.

The reality is there are local averages of return published by our friends at Remodeler Magazine. These percentages show that you’re not covering your whole spend with a return, but you are replacing and maintaining areas of your home that can change how you use it and increase your personal value. When you design your own spaces, you get exactly what you want – when you move, you inherit the best option available to you in the neighborhoods you are shopping in. And then there’s moving!

Let’s look at a Newport Beach kitchen remodel. Keep in mind that this is an ocean view property and smaller space but clearly in a location where design, materials, and fixtures matter to prospective buyers. And they certainly matter to homeowners that intend on staying in their home

During the kitchen remodel, the homeowners were able to address several needs; these included incorporating, storage space for display items, adding desk space (and potentially a space for wheelchair use), more storage space, and a larger refrigerator.

The homeowners selected exactly the materials they want and location for everything they want in their new kitchen. This keeps them in their home with their dream kitchen and no need to enlist the 4-letter word, M-O-V-E, making the whole family happy.

Below you can see the breakout of the financials. This shows that there is a significant financial cost to remodel their kitchen and that they will be getting this value out of their home for years to come. This also shows that there is an even larger 1X expense to sell their home, closing costs. As well as annual tax increase that will never go away.

Kitchen Remodeling Financials

Purchase Year: 1994
Purchase Price: $ 198,000.00
Annual Taxes: $ 2,243.00
Remodel Cost: $ 65,474.00
Resale Value: $ 829,000.00

Selling Your Home Financials

Purchase Year:  2020
Home Purchase: $980,000.00
Annual Taxes: $9,800.00
Moving Costs: $2,500.00
Selling Costs: $68,600.00

When deciding to remodel your kitchen or move to a different space, there are many considerations to account for. We hope that by providing some local financial information on remodeling a kitchen in a coastal Newport Beach property, that we’re able to show you what the financials come out to be.

While a remodel may seem overwhelming with everything involved, it’s not moving your home to a new location. Consider your lifestyle and what a kitchen remodel will do for you and your family before selling the home. If you’d like a complimentary in-home design appointment, we are happy to give you ideas on what your space has to offer with function, features, and design. Our space design  experts can design space in ways you may have not already considered. We’re here to help, when you’re ready for evaluating your kitchen remodel.