I recently met someone who spent over $8,000.00 for a website that they were told was done with the latest and greatest SEO practices. They got less than 10 leads over a three month period even though they had adwords ad campaigns and professionally done SEO. The website designer said they were the best and they were experts at SEO. Unfortunately it didn't work.

When should I plan for the home show?

I got a call today from a homeowner looking for some guidance on a problem with product they bought from a wholesaler that was installed by their contractor. The homeowner bought a whirlpool tub that was installed into a custom base and then the plumber installed the drains and other items neccessary. The rough wiring was installed. The tile was installed around the perimeter, the faucets were installed and the last item to wrap  up was the final electrical connections. When the electrical was connected there was a problem with the motor and factory wiring of the unit. Turns out the motor and wiring would not work and was defective.

In today’s challenging economy consumers are faced with the task of deciding if they should hire the one man show or the larger more established contracting companies. The money that can be saved hiring the smaller contractor can be very attractive. Smaller companies tend to have little overhead often working out of their home. Also they are usually the chief cook and bottle washer of the company. They sell, manage, install and service their work. If they need help they usually hire as needed. The advantages are significant savings on price and the man hired is usually the installer you bought the job from. The disadvantages are the project will usually take much longer and if something happens to the one man contractor the consumer usually ends up with an unfinished project having to be redone. The ultimate cost may exceed the cost of hiring the established contractor in the first place. 

For the past 20 plus years I have been helping homeowners find cost effective solutions remodeling their homes. As a design build and exterior renovation expert, I met many homeowners who were looking for a professional and ethical company to renovate their home. Thankfully, I worked for great companies who always did what was right for the customer who received the best possible craftmanship and quality materials.

On 12/9/07 the Telegram and Gazette reported that the Federal US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency arrested 15 illegal aliens in Milford, MA. The illegal aliens worked for a company called Same Day Roofing and Construction. The article goes on to say that the owner of the roofing company bought a house and illegally jammed them into the property where there were numerous life safety issues. The house was a fire trap with individual rooms set up with makeshift kitchens. The building Commissioner claims that the house was used as an illegal boarding house.

You have been thinking of remodeling your kitchen or bath and now you are ready to take the plunge into the world of remodeling. Like most homeowners you search through magazines for ideas, you watch HGTV, and you visit the many showrooms to see the thousands of options available. So now you search for a contractor with one eye shut hoping to avoid the pitfalls of finding the wrong company and becoming a headline contractor nightmare story on the evening news. So where do you start? What questions do you ask your potential contractor to prevent this from happening?

I just sent out my first newsletter. It’s a companion to my blog. Unfortunately, not everyone I know reads my blog every week, so I plan to send out a monthly newsletter which highlights my blog posts and invites people to networking events I am attending. So, if you don’t read blogs via RSS feeds and want to be reminded to read my blog on a monthly basis, you can sign up over here.

On March 10th and 11th, I presented a series of seminars on How to Hire a Contractor at the DCU Center Spring Home Show. There were four seminars on Hiring Contractors and three on Design/Build remodeling. All but one was well attended. The How to Hire Seminar included a panel of consumer experts who volunteered their time to answer questions about their experience with consumer complaints from homeowners who had bad contractor experiences.

Last week, Channel 5’s Susan Wornick reported on the hundreds of homeowners who have lodged complaints against Home Depot. She alleged that hundreds of home inprovement projects ordered from Home Depot were poorly installed and had numerous defects. In the news interview, a former Home Depot subcontractor stated that he was told to say he was a Home Depot contractor. When, in reality he was an independent contractor. He went on to say that the project manager couldn’t manage the jobs assigned to him.