How to hire the right Contractor and how to fire when you hired the wrong one

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[00:00:23] Eric Goranson: So I'd say, let's say 70, 000 bucks. And I want to see every bit of that spelled out. Now, I just, I don't want to see new kitchen, this cabinets, this. 70, 000. I want to see a detailed estimate because I want to see the level of finishes that are broken down And that's where really this makes a big deal because if you go through When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know Well, we've got you coming This is around the house.

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[00:01:27] Eric Goranson: That's not licensed bonded insured or whatever But I want to make sure that we get you the right one And if things are going sideways then how do you deal with that correctly? And of course the big one is legally. First off, if you've got a question or comment, make sure to reach out to us. You can give me a call here in the studio at 8 44.

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[00:02:09] Eric Goranson: But sometimes the last few people I've called, I have tried to get it back ahold of you. And I've had no luck because your voicemail box is full. So check that voicemail box and I will get my, do my best to get back ahold of you. And if you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house online.

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[00:02:51] Eric Goranson: com. I wanted to talk about hiring the contractor and getting the right one. So the first thing is I want to talk about, and we've talked about this before, but [00:03:00] we're going to take a look at this at a different lens. We've had a bunch of people request this subject, and I just wanted to see if I could give you the comprehensive one time show with this, that really helps you.

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[00:03:32] Eric Goranson: What do I need done? Is this a bathroom model, a kitchen remodel, a roof? Are they doing some drywall repairs in your house? What are they going to tackle and figuring out what you want to be done and how it fits into the grander project. Makes a lot of sense. So first, before you do this, if you've got, uh, if this is a phase one of a five or six part job, I really want to make sure that you're spending the time to figure out what those [00:04:00] steps are.

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[00:04:28] Eric Goranson: I want to make sure that you take the time. And do it because when the walls are open, if someone's going to have to run another circuit up to the bathroom to have a, a towel warmer, or maybe you're putting in a bidet toilet seat, or maybe just don't have enough outlets in that bathroom, that might be the time to run that power and get it up there or do any other plumbing changes that you might be doing.

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[00:05:07] Eric Goranson: So here's the thing. There are places out there. Where basically you can sit there as a contractor or a bad contractor in by good reviews, or you can get yourself accredited. So those reviews never end up on their website. And I'm going to tell one here that, that I don't recommend. And it's because of a personal experience that I went through.

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[00:05:52] Eric Goranson: No complaints. Everything's good, but I only had a C plus. So what do I do? I call up the BBB. Made that [00:06:00] phone call to them, and they said, If you want to pay me 750, now this was 15 years ago, then you'll be accredited and you'll have your A, and I'm like, okay, here comes the shakedown. I wasn't going to pay them to have an A over there when I've had no problems.

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[00:06:31] Eric Goranson: So I called him up and said, Hey guys, I'm going to be talking about this on the radio coming up this weekend. You have an official comment. 10 minutes later, that D went And I went, I am not paying for this. So here's the thing. If I would have been a bad contractor or even a contractor at that point, I was just a kitchen about design firm.

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[00:07:14] Eric Goranson: And there's a lot of those where you jump on this brand, you hire a contractor, and then they get ahold of you. Those are those lead referral sites. I'm not a huge fan of those because again, those are ones that they want to make money by selling the lead. But if you have a bad review with those guys, Some of them, and I heard one of them do it because I was standing right there on speaker.

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[00:07:55] Eric Goranson: So I want to make sure you do your research. So one, talk to friends and family who [00:08:00] around you has had a good experience to the big one here is make sure they're licensed, bonded and insured. And don't just take their word for it. Get onto your stage or local, whoever manages that for and make sure and figure out if they are licensed, bonded, insured.

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[00:08:36] Eric Goranson: It went flawlessly. And of course, then take a look at the online reviews. The online reviews are just a small part of it. There are companies out there that have dozens of great online reviews. There are some out there that only publish the good ones. But when you look at them, if you start to see like Google reviews and that kind of stuff, those are really hard for people to push off.

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[00:09:13] Eric Goranson: Cause even the best contractors will have a bad review or two where somebody was trying to hold it hostage. And that is something I want to talk about when we come back. This is something that I've noticed with today's online businesses out there that people will go, Oh, I still owe you two grand. I'll pay the two grand, but I'll leave you a good review.

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[00:09:47] Eric Goranson: And then what to look for in bids and contracts. We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns.[00:10:00]

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[00:10:31] Eric Goranson: And if you want more information about me, head over to AroundTheHouseOnline. com. Now, I tell you what, we've been talking here about hiring the right contractor and of course, how to fire them if you hired the wrong one. In the last segment here, we were talking about just one of the ways to, or a few of the ways actually to figure out how to get the right person for that job.

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[00:11:13] Eric Goranson: It's just like the sledgehammer contractor and my friend Amber. I mean, she in Colorado, that, that story got national detention because horrible contractor, horrible work did the job incorrectly. It looked like an eight year old did the tile in my opinion. And when she said, Whoa, stop, I'm done here. And he was trying to shake her down for even more money, even though it wasn't due yet, he came over with a sledgehammer, went in the house, even though he was told not to and busted the bathroom up swinging the sledgehammer.

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[00:12:09] Eric Goranson: So these are things that the horror story of things going badly. And of course he probably left the state and who knows could be in your backyard. Trying to do the same thing to somebody else. So that is just something to be very careful with. So here's the thing. When you go out and get a bid. And this is a controversial subject.

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[00:12:48] Eric Goranson: Now, I just, I don't want to see new kitchen, this cabinets, this 70, 000. I want to see a detailed estimate. Because I want to see the level of finishes that are broken [00:13:00] down. And that's where really this makes a big deal. Because if you go through and get this hammered out, I want you to know that, Oh, okay.

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[00:13:35] Eric Goranson: And I don't by any means think that that should be free. I think if they're working for you, They deserve to get paid. If they're going to come in and say, Hey, this is going to be 70, 000. If you would like, I'm going to charge you 300 bucks or 500 bucks. But if you go with me, then I will refund that off the total price of the package because they've already done that work for you.

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[00:14:21] Eric Goranson: And these are the ones that you want that are winging it to, to, you want to weed those out because you want somebody that has gone and done this a bunch of times and is not just going to be winging it for your next project. So a contractor that can put together an honest written bid has a better chance of starting and finishing that project because many times when contractors, just like anybody, when they get in over their head, because maybe that's the biggest project they've tackled or even worse, they don't know what they're doing and they've given you a number that was so much cheaper than everybody else.

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[00:15:18] Eric Goranson: These are where these things come up where they come back and go, Oh yeah, that 40, 000 bid is now 70. So these are the places for you that are the, the, the, this is kind of the test really to make sure that you get them on the project and you find the right contractor. Now, one other thing, if you're working through this process of bidding, this is the honeymoon period with this and the contractor.

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[00:16:02] Eric Goranson: So if there is a personality conflict here, now's the time to find somebody that you're going to work better with. Now, I will say there are plenty of people out there and I say homeowners that are Very difficult to work with. And if you're one of those people, you need to figure that out sooner than later.

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[00:17:11] Eric Goranson: It'll be fine. I'll we'll take care of it legally. He just gave that that person direction, thus making him an employee. So when the guy got hurt an hour later, this contractor who hadn't hired this guy, had never met him before. That moment, was now giving him direction. He got hurt and now his. Insurance got hit for that guy being a worker, even though he wasn't.

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[00:17:57] Eric Goranson: Just wait to have that person do it at [00:18:00] another time because legally for that person, it could be really big and I don't want to see anybody in trouble. So those are things. With contractors, if they say, nope, I can't do it. Sometimes if you're going to do demo or something like that, I have seen contractors got, I don't want to deal with it because for that reason, there could be damaged, you could have over demoed, you could have caused other issues and with lead and asbestos rules as well.

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[00:19:02] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round the house show. This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information education. Thanks for joining me today. We've been talking about how to hire. And at the end here, we're going to talk about how you fire. That contractor, if you can, it's all depending about your contract and what you have worked out.

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[00:19:38] Eric Goranson: 4144. And if you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house, online. com. I wanted to talk about this segment here, about really talking about the research on referrals and reviews. And we talked a little bit about it, but. Again, I just want to help you find the right contractor, [00:20:00] which you're looking for.

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[00:20:23] Eric Goranson: If you're in my home state, and that is something that I would recommend calling your state or local. Licensing agency for contractors, because here's what happens for instance here in Oregon. If I'm sitting here giving a call to them I will call up and say hey i'm looking for i'll make up a name abc construction And if i'm calling up looking for abc construction And they will tell me what's going on.

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[00:21:10] Eric Goranson: It's not something that is uncommon. There are a lot of people out there that will file a complaint just because they're trying to get their way. And that is the one bad part is that we used to be able to really work things out between people. And nowadays it seems that people really love to rush to the Google reviews, the Yelps or a state licensing agency when they want to nail somebody, when they're not getting their way.

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[00:21:52] Eric Goranson: And here's the thing. Every place is different in the state of Oregon. It's a state run thing. You get into other places [00:22:00] and it is a township or a S or a city or a County. So every state is a little bit different. And. There are some states that are just a freaking wild, wild West where there is not much, if anything, for a licensing board that manages who can have a contractor's license and who can't.

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[00:22:37] Eric Goranson: Maybe they have a table saw accident out in your backyard as they're building your deck, if they are not covered by insurance. And you just hired some Chuck in the truck. That guy can turn around and go, Hey, Mr. Homeowner, Mrs. Homeowner, you are in trouble because you're, I'm your employee. You're my employer.

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[00:23:20] Eric Goranson: And this is where calling that lease licensing agency will help you as a consumer, understanding what forms they have to give you as part of a contract. Because here in my state, there's like lead, there's Lead rules. There's all these different things that these contractors have to follow. And they have to give you that information, like the right to lean.

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[00:24:02] Eric Goranson: I'll pay you 30 days after it's delivered. They've got a financing plan where they're basically they're billing them and they're invoicing. And it's not even really financing. They're just, it's a net 30 that they're getting paid on after delivery, which is not uncommon for some remodelers. And especially with lumber yards, they've got their own structure there.

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[00:24:36] Eric Goranson: No, they have the right to do a lien. But then as soon as that contractor pays the bill, They will send out a lien release saying we have released that lien because we've been paid in full. And so this is something to pay attention to as a homeowner, because if they're out there doing this net 30 thing, the thing you don't want to happen is that I want, I want to make sure that you're, you're paying that [00:25:00] contractor for materials.

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[00:25:19] Eric Goranson: And this happens, especially. Right now, when we're in these more troubled economic times, this is where some people get over her head. And, and I want to talk about that for a second before we talk about how to fire and do that. A contractor, sometimes these are honest mistakes. Sometimes that contractor comes in and maybe they're new.

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[00:26:07] Eric Goranson: So What I recommend to builders and remodelers out there is when you're done with the project, go back and see actually what you made on that project. What was your labor? What were your materials? How much did you actually make? So you can learn this for the people that don't do that. What happens is, is All of a sudden they're like, wow, I thought I had money coming in, but my bank account is empty because I just paid last week's bills and your project is stalled, but they have to get more work done to make sure that your project gets paid for.

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[00:26:57] Eric Goranson: And I want, just want to make sure that you understand that, that [00:27:00] that is something that happens when contractors get upside down on projects. And it's not right. Cause you might be paying for materials for somebody else. You just hope that if they are doing that juggle, that they now have that stuff Played out and they go.

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[00:27:40] Eric Goranson: So that is something that I just want you to pay attention to. And like I said, if you're looking to hire that contractor, if you can find somebody that's a good referral from a friend, that's something. If you find somebody out there, they've got really good Google reviews. They've got some decent reviews online and they're licensed, bonded, [00:28:00] insured, maybe take a look, have a discussion with them.

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[00:28:17] Eric Goranson: There's a dozen lawsuits against these people. And if you go back and take a look at their old, their old Google reviews that they've tried to wash out and take a look, they've hired some reputation management companies to try to bury those with, with good reviews. And I wouldn't hire this company. But you know something, they're still out there doing business because enough people have not done the research.

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[00:29:04] Eric Goranson: To the around that show. This is where we hope to get the most out of your home through information and education. Thanks for joining me today. Another note where I wanted to give you out. I will be next week at the national hardware show. So I'm going to be heading out there to Las Vegas and I'll be there helping host and do some show recordings out there, got some new products and stuff.

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[00:29:42] Eric Goranson: As I'm out there, take a look, the latest stuff that you'll see in the hardware stores next year. And there's a lot of great stuff that is coming out. Now, I wanted to talk here, this segment about how to let go of a contractor legally. If you have [00:30:00] those a reconcilable differences and you are both wanting to get out of this and start over with somebody else, this is a conversation that you're going to have to have with them.

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[00:30:39] Eric Goranson: What are the terms of the contract? Are they fulfilling the contract? Are they doing good work? And what is their right to repair? In your area, because sometimes as bad as you want to fire that contractor, it could be too expensive to sit [00:31:00] there and have them go in the middle of your project. Because your contract is not written in a way that you can terminate that contract correctly.

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[00:31:30] Eric Goranson: Where you're like, I'm done. They're out of here. And you did not give them the proper notice, the proper attempt to fix it and rectify the situation. And sometimes you can be penalized for this, for breaking the contract. So these are things I want you to fully understand what's going on. And my strong recommendation is if you're thinking about getting rid of that [00:32:00] contractor, I would reach out to two different people and have some conversations before you do this.

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[00:32:48] Eric Goranson: So you need to make sure that you're following the law, your, your area and the contract itself, these are things I want you to figure out before you even sign the contract, [00:33:00] what does it take to get out of it down the road? Now, you shouldn't be able to just get out of it easily because you want them to be able to work on the project, start to finish and get things done.

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[00:33:34] Eric Goranson: You've already got somebody else working on it. You now have a contractor coming in that could be assuming the liability of the other contractor because they, at the end of the day, have to warranty the work. So they might have to come in and reinstall things like take the windows out and put them back in because they weren't done right.

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[00:34:14] Eric Goranson: And that's where you have to be careful with. Like I have dealt with a bunch of different people over the years here, helping them with situation with contractors that came in it just quite frankly, these were those few unlucky people that hired the wrong people. And got scammed and then the worst one I saw was this last year that i've seen in probably 20 plus years And that was because this guy decided to save money nice enough gentleman trying to help out his parents and He actually went and hired somebody that wasn't licensed bonded insured They clearly might have been a contra painting contractor at some point but had no business doing a kitsch remodel And then when I went and did a walk through on it You Guess what?

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[00:35:27] Eric Goranson: And the bad part is they'd already paid a hundred and something thousand dollars on this interior exterior model, and they were out the money and the materials. It was all going to have to get torn off, go in the dumpster. The deck was going to kill someone. It was just rough. And the bad part is, is when I went and tried to help them, I could see that they were going to be making the exact same mistakes again to put them in the situation that they were in.

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[00:36:20] Eric Goranson: And I just had to walk away and not try to help them anymore because they couldn't help themselves. And I want to make sure that you don't end up in that situation is one of our friends of around the house. So just make sure that you're making the good decisions. This is something that's a little scary.

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[00:37:03] Eric Goranson: And having the contractor by the materials and mark them up and install them. And so this is an important one right here. What I recommend is that you have your contractor by the materials, mark them up and install them because that contractor is going to get a discount, a contractor's discount. In most cases.

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[00:37:42] Eric Goranson: That's their problem. And they get to go out and figure it out. And somebody's eating that. Now, if you bought the materials and they showed up incorrect, you're paying by the hour for that electrician to sit there and wait for you to go track down those materials, get the new [00:38:00] parts, and that could cost you a lot.

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[00:38:21] Eric Goranson: So I would much rather have that contractor purchase it, mark it up. So you're covered under whatever your warranty period is and whatever your licensing warranty period is to make sure that you're safe that way. So if that's something that that can save you money, that's not the place to save it.

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[00:38:58] Eric Goranson: All right, guys, if you want to find [00:39:00] out more information about us here at around the house, head over to around the house online. com. If you've got questions or comments about this subject here, 8 is the phone number or around the house online. And you can email me here. At the show. All right, everybody have a great rest of the weekend.

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