Relationships are key to contracting

By Emma Peterson. 

How the Kruse Brothers foster project success by building a strong homeowner-contractor relationship. 

Hiring a contractor can be a very intimidating process, so in this episode of the AskARoofer podcast, Megan Ellsworth and Lauren White sat down with Steve and Randy Kruse to talk about the relationship between contractors and homeowners.  

The duo owns their own company, the Kruse Brothers, and have years of experience with contractors, products and the industry overall. They are also brand ambassadors for products like LP Building Solutions’ SmartSide. Steve started in the industry at 19 years old and Randy joined right after attending technical school. He shared, “Steve and our oldest brother Robert were working on siding projects, and I just wanted to see what it was like. I started in on siding, ended up on roofing and took off and built a little division of roofing that we had in our business at the time.” 

When asked about how homeowners can have a great experience with contractors working on their homes, Randy and Steve emphasized the relationship built between the contractor and homeowner. Randy explained, “When you're doing your own home, it's just a lot of fun, because it's something that you're going to look at for the rest of the time you live in that house. And that's kind of the way that we try to treat our homeowners, is like we're doing it for ourselves.” He explained that this means working together with homeowners as a team, rather than distinctly separate units. An example would be knowing the homeowner’s pets. Randy elaborated, “Let’s say you wake up, you get there in the morning, and there's a dog in the backyard. You should know the dog, know the dog's name, put it back in the house or don't leave the gate open, stuff like that.” 

Steve echoed Randy’s point, saying, “The more comfortable the homeowner is with you, and you are with them, that job is going to go smoother. You're guaranteeing success when you have all your ducks in a row.” He noted that a lot of homeowners might be nervous because they don’t know exactly how the process works and it’s the job of the contractor to communicate with them, whether it’s about products or design or timeline, so they can know what to expect. Steve emphasized, “It’s a give-and-take with the homeowner, because they know what to expect, and you know the end result, and it's all going to come together at the end with a very happy homeowner and a proud contractor.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the episode for more about how to pick the right contractor to work on your home.