The bulletproof guide to picking the right contractor for your next home project. Picking a contractor can be a daunting task. If you pick the wrong contractor they can steal from you, ruin your house and leave you with a huge expensive mess to clean up. No pressure right? But how do you know who’s who? After all, unless you are in the know then you probably don’t. So What does a homeowner do? Well in this guide I'm not only going to show you how to pick the perfect contractor for your project, but I'm also going to show you how to get the best value for both labor and material. Notice I said the word value. Value doesn’t mean cheapest. If you're looking for the cheapest you might as well take the money you are about to spend on the project and put it on red at the casino. You may lose, you may win. If you win, take that money and hire that company your gut was telling you to hire in the first place. There is an old saying. “You get what you pay for”. This statement especially rings true in the home service industry. So first off let’s talk about little tricks and scams contractors use and to take advantage of homeowners. 1)The down payment scam This is the most common scam in the construction industry. “All we need is a 40% down payment and I'll come back next week to get started” ,preferable in cash of course, or in a check made out to someone and not a company. I'm sure you already know what's about to happen. The contractor in question takes the down payment leaving the homeowner waiting around. Next week comes around and the homeowner is left wondering when their project is going to start. They give this contractor a call. No answer. Waiting for the voicemail... Mailbox full. Still unaware that they have become a victim of a scam, the homeowner believes They will get back in touch with them. Weeks go by and now the homeowner starts doing some investigating into this contractor. They call the material vendor to ask about this contractor. And they find out that they have heard of them doing this before, or even worse, the vendor has never heard of this contractor. Unfortunately in these situations you aren't getting your money back. Even if the police catch the guy. The money is typically long gone. As a contractor myself I hear of this happening in my hometown (Memphis) almost every week. It's heart breaking too because it usually happens to people that had to work hard saving and barely coming up with the money to make the repair or renovation on their home in the first place. Run this type of investigation before you decide on your contractor. Call the vendor’s before signing a contract. Ask the vendor’s who they would recommend for your project. 2)The lawsuit scam This scam has been gaining traction over the years although not as common as the down payment scam I hear of this one taking place maybe a couple times a year. The worst part about this contractor scam is that it can take everything from you. So here is one way this scam works. We will use a painter for example. While the painter you hired is painting the interior of your home he “falls off his ladder’. Of course kicking his ladder over into something that does damage to your personal property, to really sell the incident of course. You come running into the room after hearing the loud bang of his ladder crashing into your china cabinet, and you see your painter laying on the floor telling you to call an ambulance. Completely unaware that the only accident that happened here was that you hired the wrong contractor for your project. Now your painter's attorney is calling. Telling you that your employee has been severely injured on your work site and will never be able to work again. Your painter's attorney is telling you that you are responsible for not providing a safe work environment for your employee. You call your insurance company telling them what happened. They say don't worry your painter has insurance doesn't he? Doesn't he? Your insurance agent then informs you that in your homeowners insurance agreement that you signed it states that all service providers in your home must have their own insurance policy. They recommend you to a Lawyer and tell you good luck, but there is nothing they can do. The scary part about this one is your contractor doesn't have to be trying to scam you for this one to become a reality. Especially when ladders are involved, there is a greater risk of an accident happening. In my experience of owning a construction company the injuries that happen the most for us are actually the low to the ground ones. 8 foot interior walls. Because you're not high enough to be careful but you are high enough to break a leg or fall and hit your head. 3)Material Scam This is the most common scam. There is an agreement of ½ inch plywood and they are hanging ¼ inch. There is an agreement for $90 gallon of paint but ...
