Confirm Loop

What it is

The confirm loop is getting written commitment from a contractor via text. Not a contract — a text message. I walk the job with a contractor, we talk through the scope, I make a video of us walking it together, and then I send it all to them. I say: “I just want to make sure that price includes all the things we talked about.” And I need them to confirm that in text. I screenshot that. That goes into my system.

Communication is super hard. What I think I’m saying is not what you’re hearing. I’ve been working on this for years and I still suck at it. I had a tenant who said “I’d like you to paint the awning.” I sent guys to match and repaint it. He comes back and says, “When are you going to paint the awning?” He meant change the color entirely. I thought he meant repaint the existing color. Didn’t catch it. And communication’s just hard like that everywhere.

So three ways to communicate on a job: written, verbal, media. The written scope you’ve put together, the verbal walk-through with the contractor where they can add expertise, and the video. After you’re done, you’re going to send all of that to them through text message. Everybody has text. It’s the universal app.

Why it matters

When a contractor asks for payment and you need to check whether they’ve done the work, you pull up the text thread. Here’s the video of us walking through this. Here’s what we agreed upon. Here’s what I’m paying for. Did you do those things? That’s the conversation. Without it you’re just a he-said she-said argument.

And it goes both ways — contractors aren’t nefarious, they just forget things. You forget things too. If on the walkthrough video you didn’t say they were going to tile the bathroom, they can point to that and say you owe me more money. Great. That’s fair. The record protects both sides.

The other thing is you need their confirmed response. I send them everything and I say: do you see anything here that you don’t agree with? Because this is what I’m paying you for when you get done with this work, and then when you get done with this second set of work I’m paying you this. Tell me if you see anything wrong. I need that confirmation back. Once I have it, when they hit the pay schedule and want money, I go back to the text. Are all these things done? No? Then I can’t pay.

How it shows up

The video walkthrough is the key piece, not a formal contract. I’m not trying to legal-ease them. I say: I’m doing this because I’m too stupid to remember things clearly. What I think I say I don’t necessarily say. So I’m making sure we’re seeing the same thing. My goal is to get you paid quickly when you complete the work we agreed on, so I’m making sure we actually agree on it.

I would never ask contractors to use some cool CRM system or fancy tool. They hate white-collar admin work. That’s why they’re doing manual labor. I do the admin work for them so they can focus on the work I hired them for. Text message. That’s it.

Keep requests short. Contractors don’t read paragraphs. Two lines max. Specific ask. Confirm or don’t.

Related

scope of work, contractors, pay schedule, relationship capital, miy method