An Upside to The Downturn
Slump Gives Homeowners an Edge

By Annie Groer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 1, 2008; H01

For months, Long Fence tried wooing customers with $400 and $500 rebates if they spent a few thousand dollars on fencing or stone paving.

Last week, Long tripled one such incentive, giving $1,500 back to anyone dropping at least $4,285 on a new deck.

"We're trying to make the phones ring," says Karen Richey, marketing director for the company, which is based in Capitol Heights.

The housing downturn, declining consumer confidence and spiraling energy costs have taken their toll on many parts of the home improvement industry, from architecture and landscaping to roofing and window manufacturing.

This can be good news for homeowners seeking repairs or renovations. While they may not get a cut-rate kitchen makeover, they can often get quality contractors to do smaller jobs that would not even rate a callback during the boom, and have a much shorter wait for work to begin.

Last Saturday morning, Meadows Farms -- which has lost considerable landscaping business at the same time that trucking costs for large plants and trees have skyrocketed -- held an "early bird" sale at its 22 nurseries. Already-discounted items were reduced an extra 10 percent between 8 and 11 a.m. "to entice people to come in," says Ted Zurawski, a company senior vice president.

That meant, for example, savings of about one-third on popular Knockout rosebushes. Usually $25 each before the initial markdown to $19, the early-bird price was just $17.09.

"People are coming to expect sales," says Zurawski, who was careful to emphasize that "we do not" bargain on landscaping, patio-building or other big jobs.

In these hard times, however, some contractors will succumb to haggling, though they are not eager to admit it for fear of harming their business. "Everything is negotiable," says one longtime Northern Virginia remodeler, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "In good times, we have a lot of work and phone calls, and keep our prices up. When we slow down, well, we negotiate."

Others try to use speed rather than price as a carrot, says Keith J. Decker Sr., co-owner of Jack's Roofing Co. in Silver Spring.

Having laid off six of his 35 employees this year, he grimly jokes, "What time today do you want it done?" It is an overstatement, he adds, but gone is his five-week backlog. "When it's slow, you cut your prices to try to get work," a move that carries some risk. "Then it gets busy, and these few jobs you've cut prices for want it done now."

James Ragusa, who owns Certified Window Supply in Fairfax, will not negotiate. But if you sign a contract to buy replacement windows while he's at your home pitching the job, he'll knock off 10 percent "so I don't have to make a second trip and burn more gas" to close the deal.

As an incentive, he promises faster delivery. Last year's wait of up to a month is down to about two weeks because the factory in Pennsylvania that customizes each replacement is no longer tied up making windows for new houses.

Not everyone in the industry is hurting, particularly in parts of the District and some close-in suburbs where housing values are relatively stable, says architect Bruce Wentworth. Design work at Wentworth Inc. in Chevy Chase is somewhat down, he says, but construction is chugging along. Although consumers know that "investing in their home is still very prudent and smart, especially in this area," Wentworth says, "they might not do some of the bells and whistles they might have done -- steam showers or super-expensive appliances."

Tim Burch, who owns Burch Builders in Warrenton and heads the local chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, says that "with all the doom and gloom you read, our members are not necessarily seeing that."

In a recent survey of 132 NARI members by George Mason University, 33 percent were positive about the current market and 22 percent were negative. The rest were neutral. But when asked to predict conditions in six months, optimism increased to 47 percent and pessimism dropped to 11 percent.

"The bigger companies have seen some slowdown. If they have a lot of overhead, it's the monster to feed," Burch says. "The good contractors still stay busy."

Several market factors have enabled Bowa Builders in McLean, a high-end company with 83 employees, to trim client costs, says Josh Baker, company president.

The new-home market's collapse means "a lot more availability of subcontractors than there has been in many years. We are able to get competitive prices and better service than we have in years. And lumber and drywall prices have come down. The reality is, our costs have come down and we are able to pass that along" on some projects.

What many contractors large and small see, however, is new competition and some serious underbidding of projects by laid-off painters, carpenters, drywall hangers and others who no longer work on new homes.

"I have customers who are quoting ridiculous prices from other contractors that they may ask me to match," says Jim Prentice, owner of J.F. Prentice Construction in Oakton. "Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't."

Prentice and others urge consumers to check contractors for current licenses, insurance and workers' compensation, as well as for references.