Prepare Your House For Sale

Save Money On Your House 2nd Edition

Alright we talked about how fire fighters and police officers who run home improvement companies are a great source for doing work to your house yesterday.  We were saying that these types of people can be a great value to you.  They are rooted to your communtiy as where these traveling con-people have no ties to your community and and are gone by the next day after they have taken your down payment for work and materials to do the work on your house.

They have done TV shows on the scams that these traveling home improvement companies have run across the country.  They are know alot for the roofing and siding scams as these don’t require really large money down, but enough for a traveling group of con-people.  Don’t be followed if females are doing the contracts or sweet talking you into signing, as these cons are run by a man or a woman.   Con-people don’t descriminate by any race or gender, they will con you all the same.

These traveling home improvement companies are good at giving the appearance that they are a legitimate company and will have everything to make them look real to you.  They have slowed through the years now after being exposed on TV and papers as traveling home improvement con people.  They don’t drive around in trucks that say, “We Con You And How” plastered all over the side of their vehicles.  Please, also remember con-people can be local also and just very good at covering their tracks or walking a fine line between a con job or poor,  over priced jobs on your house.

There are many out there and they all look different.  There are again no race or gender fine lines when it comes to con-people.  They come in all shapes,sizes and every other catagory.  The do have one thing in common,  the better they are, the more honest they will appear when selling you on the services for your house.  They have fine tuned their sales tactics and have it down.    

Look for people that can show you that they have been in your community in business for awhile.  Then check to see if they have done work in the area recently and if you can see it or talk to the people they did the work for.  Get more than one to make sure it is not just, a really good con.  They can hire people to tell you anything they want.  This is why if the business has not been, what about the person you are dealing with.

The person you are dealing with could have ties and lived there, their entire life.  This can be found out just by talking to the person who is giving you an estimate.  Ask, them where they are from?  How long they have been in the area?  Now, I know these questions are not as good if you have not lived in the area that long.  The saying,  its a small world,  can apply even in large cities.  Most people know someone or have had someone who has done work on their house.

The large phone book ad which I covered in the first edition is not the answer either.  Really sometimes, I think they are worse for 2 reasons.  First,  I cannot say it enough, who do you think is paying for that big fancy,expensive ad?  Second,  large outfits run large crews.  They need crews to do the work right?  Well, how well do these large outfits know who is working for them.  Could be a con-person who just came into town and just so happens to know how-to work with wood.  Don’t think the large company when you ask them is going to say,  yeah, we hire and fire our crews everyday, because we catch them stealing from our customer and their house.  You can try to see indirectly how long someone has been working for them when they show up to do the work.  This  again can be figured out by more conversions about the area and people they have worked for.  Most people in the trades will be more than willing to say what they have worked on and where.  It is not different than an artist talking about where their paintings are at and how many they have done.

Many true craftsman take great pride in the work they do on someones house.  They will be more than happy to share with you.  Now, I am not saying sit and talk for hours on end, because this person is there to work on your house and you want them to get the work done.  You can learn many things just by talking to people.  You just need to be given the advice, like here, on how to go about it.  Please remember as I said before, these con-people and poor business people don’t run around with red flashing signs on their foreheads!  These people are very good at what they do,  that is scamming you and your house out of money.  Not, every con person is fly by night either.  Some are even known in areas as large contractors who do alot of work in the area.

You see the really big contractors with those large crews of unknown people working for them,  stay in business by those big fancy  ads which get them lots of leads for work.  The larger your area,  the more likely you will find a large contractor company like this.  I have one in my area, I can ask many people if they have heard of this company and they will say yes.  The funny thing is, when asked what do they think or have they heard, it is either bad or just Ok.  The next is they did the work but they were really high priced.

Well, theres the 2nd edition with more to come.

Remember safety first when working on your house.