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Buyer Guide.

I have evil intentions!

This statement is explained below!

This site all about home improvement, designed by me, Dave Peterson, is intended to make you a consumer expert.

So, if you are considering the purchase of home improvement products, and need more information about siding, roofing, entry doors, garage doors, gutters, gutter covers or about replacement windows, you have come to the right place.

The informed buyer reduces his risk of making a buying mistake. The mistake of paying too much or purchasing an inferior product that costs you more in the long run.

The fear of making a buying mistake causes you to dread the whole process. You don't even want to think about it and procrastinate. As you wait and do nothing your home's value is dropping and many times sustaining damage from the elements.

Without knowledge about home improvement products and their installation you fear making a mistake. My goal here is to help educate you and allow you to ask the right questions to determine which products are best for you and who has your best interests in mind.

Where would you get such knowledge? If you are lucky enough to have a good trustworthy friend that is in the business, he would a great source. But most people aren't that fortunate. You could go to the library and read books about home improvement. Do you have the time, patience or energy to do this? You could read magazine articles. Again it is time consuming and if you aren't careful many of the articles are written by people with a hidden agenda (they are promoting certain products).

You can go to the internet, like you are right now. But, if your searches ended like mine, you found nothing but sites and that were the sell sell sell type. Giving you very little information about home improvement, but wanting you to immediately request an appointment so they could pitch their product. This hype is what I am trying to avoid here.

I grew up on a farm in Southern Minnesota and graduated from the University of Minnesota. I have had decades of experience in home improvement, home remodeling, and home construction. My experience ranges from hands on construction to supervising to consulting.

I have been directly involved in many minor and major construction projects in the 8 homes my wife and I have owned over the past 30 years. I have helped build many of the 15 homes built by our local Habitat For Humanity Chapter. I was trained as a home inspector and have supervised the construction of 14 different custom built homes.

I am presently working as an independent home improvement consultant. Over the past few years, I have consulted 1000s of homeowners on various exterior home improvement projects.

With this experience and the fact that I am an independent consultant enables me to be a great resource for my prospective customers.

When you call a home improvement company for a "free estimate", what do you get? You will get one of two things. Either a guy shows up, takes a look around, asks few questions and leaves you an estimate written on the back of his business card. Or, you will get some slick salesman trained with all kinds of sales closing tactics that reminds you of a used car salesman (sorry if you sell used cars, but others have given you quite the reputation). They have one product and one thing in mind - Sell you the product they have.

They want you to buy tonight before the "good deal" is gone! They may even call their manager for an extra discount just for you. Sound familiar?

I don't do that. I ask questions. I find out what my customer's needs and wants are. Then, from a collection of products, I make a suggestion to fulfill my customer's needs.

I realize that one of the needs of most homeowners is a reasonable price. I am still waiting for the time I have someone tell me that the money tree is in the back yard, and that I should go out and take what I need and come back in and tell them what they are getting!

Being independent, I don't owe a sale to a specific manufacturer. I have access to many different product lines.

I fit the product to my customer's wants and needs (including cost), instead of trying to sell the customer on a specific product.

In 2007 I completed 246 contracted jobs, with over 50% of my business coming from either customer referrals or repeat customers. Can you say "happy customers"?!

The best compliment that I can receive is an unsolicited email like this, "Dave, The guys came out on Tuesday and installed the windows. I want you to know that the crew was very professional, you would have never known that they had been here. They were very nice and neat. The windows are the best thing that I have bought besides my house. You can count on me for referrals down the road. It has been a pleasure doing business with you. Thanks again for everything." R.M.

Now for my evil intentions! My evil plan is to give you all the free information about home improvement you need to make an informed buying decision. This information came from years of experience and hours of research, but is free to you in this buyer guide.

I am hoping that you give me a chance to meet with you and answer your specific questions about home improvement and together we can find great products that fulfill your wants and needs. That's it - I am willing to give you all kinds of free information about home improvement for the chance to discuss your needs with you!

What this means to you is, that if you allow me to work with you, I will work hard to match the best product to your wants and needs.

I believe if someone gives you more in use value than the cash value they take, you will want to do business with them.

Thanks for your time. I hope you enjoy my site and find what you are searching for and want to meet with me personally.

So go ahead, use my site to do your research and come back here to request a personal consultation, or click the footer at the bottom of any page.

If you just want to email me for any reason, please use the form below.

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