Planning to Automate - with noise

[NeverDie]

Well, yeah, kinda.  Trouble is most folks don't know that until they've already got grip marks on their ankles.  You do have to know ahead of time there's going to be some attempts by all their other players to take whatever advantages they can.  Life's like that in general.  But since most folks don't build more than one house in their lives (for, oh so many, good reasons) they end up feeling more pain than expected.  
 
The developers and builders are often QUITE aware of this.  The subs... well, they're complicit but I wouldn't be as quick to lump them into the same cesspool of disgust as the developers.  They're usually just going along with whatever nonsense the builders try to get away with.  The subs often get screwed nearly as bad as the customers.  Here's a point to consider, if the sub hasn't done many jobs for the builder this raises two red flags.  One is that the sub might not have a good handle on doing things or, two, the builder is such a jackass that no subs stick around to tolerate the nonsense.  Either way you're screwed.  Conversely if the sub has been with the builder for ages then they're likely partners in the same crime.  Great, isn't it?  
 
The analogies get ugly, but they're not entirely inaccurate.

Aside from doing the work yourself, is there a way to successfully avoid being taken advantage of?

 

[wkearney99]

Aside from doing the work yourself, is there a way to successfully avoid being taken advantage of?

 
That's a question you can ask about everything in life.  
 
It's really tough to decide, sometimes, just how much you "need" to know.  Because how much you know can complicate things.  There's such a thing as being paralyzed with indecision.  Knowing you don't know enough delays getting things done, until you know enough and discover that you should have just run with the first plan.  Or scaring off the installers because they know it's not profitable for them to have customers driving them crazy being know-it-all micromanagers.
 
When we built the house I didn't have a wishlist of things we wanted.  I had a shit list of crap I NEVER WANTED TO PUT UP WITH AGAIN.  Of course I didn't manage to drive out all the nonsense.  I just discovered my architect's choice of window widths in several locations is just 3/4" shy of being wide enough to install the top down/bottom up automated shades I'd like.  Really?  REALLY?  These whole wide walls and I'm jammed up on shade choices because the architect picked something random and it's too narrow?  Live and learn... and share the agony with others to help them avoid going through it.
 
There's a few things that are best done during construction, and a LOT of things that can be done later.  Sometimes it's better to focus on the things that'll be really expensive to add on (or fix) later.  Of course, anything that gets built can always be rebuilt, it's just a question of whether you want to pay now or later.
 
Anyway, my point here is, no, there's no guaranteed way of avoiding feeling like someone's taking advantage of you during this process.  Undoubtedly someone is/will be.  But what you can do is learn the range of what's possible, what that can cost in your area (this varies by region) and whether or not those options are realistic given your budget.  And then focus on how to realistically get those things installed.