Getting a Quote From a Contractor

I've personally found that contractors don't necessarily agree on what the underlying problem is or the best way to fix it. And if you're a woman, there may be an added layer of complexity as we can be easily taken advantage of. I experienced this first hand when i bought my house. My real estate agent convinced me to not push the celler to externally vent the dryer in the basement because she had a recommendation for a contractor that could do it for a hundred dollars. He ended up quoting me for 200 dollars, but the final bill was 500 dollars. Rather than continuing to argue with him, i ended up just paying it and considered it the cost of a lesson. Since then