{"id":100,"date":"2007-08-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/do-it-yourself-compared-to-hiring-a-pro"},"modified":"2007-08-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-25T00:00:00","slug":"do-it-yourself-compared-to-hiring-a-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/home-tips\/construction\/do-it-yourself-compared-to-hiring-a-pro\/","title":{"rendered":"Do-It-Yourself Compared to Hiring a Pro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Q: Can you tell me how to do a home improvement project myself?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A:<\/strong> ServiceMagic is a professional home improvement referral service and my<\/p>\n<p>primary function is advising property owners about the most appropriate<\/p>\n<p>professionals to consult and\/or hire to repair, maintain, improve, or<\/p>\n<p>construct their homes.<\/p>\n<p>If you are intent on doing it yourself, I recommend buying an<\/p>\n<p>instructional<\/p>\n<p>book or perhaps a videotape from a home improvement or online construction<\/p>\n<p>book store. A helpful site to reference is DoItYourself.com. Also, home improvement stores often offer Do-It-Yourself<\/p>\n<p>classes and you can even get information from websites by typing your<\/p>\n<p>subject matter directly into a search engine (I have good luck on<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.excite.com\/\">http:\/\/www.excite.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>However, after more than a decade in this business, I firmly<\/p>\n<p>believe that hiring an experienced professional is usually the<\/p>\n<p>best, most timely, efficient (and even economical) way to get<\/p>\n<p>a project done right the first time. Poorly done &#8220;improvements&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>can actually detract from a property&#8217;s value and I couldn&#8217;t count<\/p>\n<p>the number of consumers I&#8217;ve talked to who could have saved money by hiring a pro in<\/p>\n<p>the first place.<\/p>\n<p>At the very least, let me suggest that you compare what you would spend<\/p>\n<p>on the tools and materials (and time and possible frustration) you&#8217;d<\/p>\n<p>need<\/p>\n<p>to do it yourself against a couple of estimates from professionals<\/p>\n<p>before<\/p>\n<p>deciding what to do. To get some bids, please return to our site at:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.homeadvisor.com\/\">homeadvisor.com<\/a>, type a keyword relating to your project into the search<\/p>\n<p>box and submit a service request so we can match you with the ideal<\/p>\n<p>service professionals in your area.<\/p>\n<p><em>Kathy Maynard<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: Can you tell me how to do a home improvement project myself? A: ServiceMagic is a professional home improvement referral service and my primary function is advising property owners about the most appropriate professionals to consult and\/or hire to repair, maintain, improve, or construct their homes. If you are intent on doing it yourself, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction","category-expert-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}