ASK YOURSELF…

Let’s start by saying that you just don’t wake up one day and say to yourself, “I think I want to buy a new air conditioner today.” Let’s face facts, we live in South Florida where air conditioning is more of a need than a want.

So, what happens when it comes time for your air conditioner to be replaced? Well there are two types of homeowners. First you have the ones who take time to be proactive, plan, and prepare themselves for replacement. Then you have the rest of us that just wait for it to fail on a Saturday night in August. The difference between these two types of people should be obvious. When you are acting proactively you give yourself time to do your research and read reviews, not only on the manufacturer of the equipment but more importantly, the company whom you will have installing your new system and potentially having a relationship with for the life of your new system. So, you can say there is a lot that can and should go into purchasing a new air conditioner and it should be taken seriously.

Now we have the rest of you that panic when the system fails. You start calling three or more so-called “companies” to hopefully come out to give you what you think is a good price on some system-of-the-month they are just trying to sell and unload on you. They are in and out with their price quote in less than 30 minutes. They do not take the time to sit with you and ask you a single question about you or your home or what your wants and needs may be. All they may give you is one or two price quotes on what they want to sell you. They just want you to buy what they are pushing. Is that really fair to you, is that what you want? Then after wasting an entire day listening to the same thing over and over, you only base your buying decision on price because they have forced you into that kind of thinking. Most of us have heard the phrase pay me now or pay me later, well buyer beware. If it’s cheap it’s probably going to cost you a lot more over the life of that air conditioner because simply put, something had to be skipped to give you that low-ball price.

Most of us tend to be a little smarter in making a major buying decisions for our home, so when it comes to choosing the right contractor the best advice is to always do your homework. Reviews are a powerful tool at your immediate disposal, telling you how many years a company has been in business, what their BBB rating is, and more. Ask yourself these questions; Did they take the time to talk to me, build a relationship with me and answer all my questions and concerns? Did they take time to check my entire home room by room? Did they check the ductwork to make sure the new air conditioner will even work properly? Did they check or ask about hotspots around the home or did they just give me a cheap price, spending only thirty minutes with me and then left like I was just a number? All these questions are vital when choosing the right contractor to install your new air conditioner.

Now that you are aware of what to look for you can clearly see it’s not all about getting a cheap price. This is a decision that will affect you for at least the next ten years and should not be taken lightly. Remember the phrase pay me now or pay me later, and don’t fall for just a cheap price. If anything, you should ask yourself, what are they NOT DOING for that cheap price?!