Avoid Scams!!!
When someone comes to your house and starts smashing down walls, tearing out appliances and
punching holes in ceilings, it's best to know exactly who you are dealing with.
As a smart proprietor, you've already used Bank rate (www.bankrate.com) to lock in a low interest rate on a home equity loan and to find out which remodeling projects give you the best return.
Don’t get nailed by a shoddy contractor
According to a census made by the U.S Census Bureau, American people spend about $120 billion + on home improvements, the average age of the houses is at 29 years, this is a pretty good age to have some improvements done.
So who’s improving our homes? The Remodeling Industry Association say 78% of all work is done by contractors, the rest is do-it-yourself and buy-it-yourselfers, this means that a lot of contractors are needed, giving them an opportunity to scam you.
STOP THE SCAM
The Better Business Bureau ranks home remodeling amount the 10 top consumer complaints.
Annually they receive 7,000 complaints during the past 10 years.. $ 35 million is lost each year by American families getting bad work or downright scammed.
Holly Cherico a representative for the BBB has 3 reasons for the complaints.
1. Homeowners do not read thoroughly before signing a contract
2. Homeowners pick a company based on price alone without finding background on company.
3. Homeowners fall victims of outright scams.
We can categorize scammers in 3 main branches
1. The con man who promises a good price, demands his money up-front and vanishes.
2. The low ball con artist who bids below competitors and then makes costly changes in procedure and
skimps the materials ultimately causing a problem to re-occur
3. The good intentioned technician who incompetently bids a job for a good price but has poor judgment
and ends up costing you money.
Its easy to protect yourself from these con-artist, contact your local BBB and research the company you are hiring, especially if you’re spending more than $1,000 on your projects.
