Weekday Update: How to find the right Contractor

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[00:00:37] Eric Goranson: And you know something? Welcome This is what didn't happen in last weekend show and isn't going to make it into this weekend show. Happy 1st of May, everybody, or whenever you're tuning into this, boy, I tell you what, it's been a crazy news cycle over the last 24 hours with all these kids breaking into places and everything else.

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[00:01:15] Eric Goranson: And I tell you what, I think the kids going to the trade school can go make 150, 000 a year being an electrician or plumber once they get good at it. So parents out there. Careful where you send your kids. If you're seeing it on the news and nobody's dealing with it, you know where the problems are. So there's my two cents.

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[00:01:54] Eric Goranson: And I tell you what, I can tell you a few places. That you don't go. And this is where I see a [00:02:00] lot of illegal contractors going on out there. And what I mean by illegal contractors, these are the non licensed bonded insured ones. Like in my area, even a handyman has to be licensed bonded insured. Because here's what happens if you hire somebody to come over your work, your house, no matter where you're at in the country.

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[00:02:35] Eric Goranson: You always want to hire people that are licensed, bonded, insured, and follow up to make sure that they are. There are no savings here hiring that unlicensed contractor because they're unlicensed for a reason. And maybe here's the thing. Maybe you don't have don't have contractor licensing in your area.

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[00:03:14] Eric Goranson: So that's the first one there. Some of the worst places I've seen to find contractors are going to be on social media sites like Book Marketplace. And the next door is one of the worst ones. I see criminals on there lurking all the time. And you'll have somebody in a neighborhood. That's a buddy or a friend.

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[00:03:49] Eric Goranson: Do your research. First off, ask your friends and family that are in the neighborhood around you who did work on their own. Find out who did the great work. If you're driving by [00:04:00] somebody's house and beautiful work being done, ask them. See what's going on. Know your neighbors. And then next here's another tip right here is talk to your local state agency or local agency and do your research on who's around you.

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[00:04:31] Eric Goranson: Contractors are out busy. They're working their 50 60 hours a week trying to get the job done. The last thing they have time for is to sit back and to spend money and design their own website. And so many times contractors spending all their effort and get the job done spending on that, but they're hoping the phone calls and the referrals come in.

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[00:05:07] Eric Goranson: Sometimes the scammers are the ones out there that have the slickest websites. And that's unfortunate. So I'm going to really spend some time this next year, working with contractors in my area, trying to help them out and get them on the right path of making it easier for people to find them. Because I think that's one of the biggest problems we have in the world of construction right now is having.

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[00:05:47] Eric Goranson: And to get leads is like 5, 000 bucks. They'll take a month from these guys. So you, as a consumer jumps on this website, gives your information, and then you get three, four, five, six, 10 people call you. [00:06:00] And the problem is each one of those people are paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Just to contact you.

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[00:06:25] Eric Goranson: They start asking you address email, because they're going to send contractors your way and they're selling you. To that. So that's where the problem is with these. So just pay attention to those kinds of things. I'm not the biggest fan of those. Cause a lot of these companies do not do the research. They do not do the background checks.

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[00:07:00] Eric Goranson: So. This is where I want you to do your research. And I'm not a big fan of those lead referral services because you're just, you're just piece of meat getting thrown out to the wolves. And you want to be able to control that situation yourself and talk to the people that you've done the research for, not random people looking for work.

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[00:07:45] Eric Goranson: No one had contacted there had been nothing through the bbb and they asked me to pay 750 bucks to be accredited And they would give me an a plus once I told them That I was media and I worked part time on the [00:08:00] radio all of a sudden I had an a because they didn't want that bad press But I could have had an a if I would have paid the money So anytime that you can pay to have a good rating that is not reliable in my book And those guys are there to make money.

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[00:08:37] Eric Goranson: I can get them on the phone and say, I'm looking at these three contractors. What can you tell me? And you can have an honest conversation on their background. They'll go through and say, yeah, this one had a complaint three years ago, but they've been in business for 20 years. So that's a stunning record to have one complaint in 20 years.

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[00:09:18] Eric Goranson: Boom. They're gonna make a phone call. It's just done until we figure it out. So that's one of those things that little mistakes like that happen, but you need to know why those mistakes happen. And that's the key right there. All right, guys, if you have any questions about this kind of stuff, feel free to email Email me over to round the house online.

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[00:09:55] Eric Goranson: We'll see you on Saturday's episode. Thanks for tuning in to Around the House. Have a great [00:10:00] rest of the week.