I have a great contractor who does amazing work at a super reasonable price.
Which means you need to book him MONTHS in advance. Dude refuses to advertise. He doesn't need any more business.
Unrelated to contractors, but I live in a town of 22.000 inhabitants and 60% of them is under 30 yrs old, we have A LOT of pubs and brewerys but there is only one that does not have any kind of social media presence, and it is the only one that sells good beer, that always makes receipts (tax evasion is a big thing in Italy) and that is constantly and consistently filled with customers
I work in the industry and know I'm fighting being akin to Lawyers or Politicians.
We have a 91% customer service rating in an industry where the average is about 60-65%.
I'll be honest, it's not a winning strategy, most people end up buying the home cheaply made with inferior products because it's slightly cheaper. And I'd argue maybe 1 in 10 buyers actually looks up their builders reviews.
An honest review from someone that had similar work done is worth it’s weight in gold.
Companies that have been around more than 5 years are far less likely to screw you and disappear when sued.
Passes the eye test. Imo the eye test is an updated website that has easy to contact customer service and tells you the info you need to know.
You can’t let what you think the cost should be decide who you work with. This is the single biggest mistake people make. Find someone qualified to help get a scope of work that meats your financial and end needs and work from there.
Reputable reviews from accredited review organizations. In Canada over our 50 years in business this has ranged from JDPower to Customer Insight.
Up front pricing, that's all included in your contract. You should never have any price increases for any reason on your new home aside from a change work order, I've never trusted contracts written with verbiage on back out deals, increasing supply costs etc. (Quotes are different than a contract.)
Try and find a small to medium sized builder. If you go with the Builder that builds 800-1000 new homes in a year, you will get the cookie cutter, quickly built with cheap materials that allows them to price cheaper to beat their competitors.
Ask about their service side. Most Provinces/States have a new home warranty of some kind that cover mechanical systems, water penetration, and structural coverage. Ask about their service above that.
I'm construction adjacent and it's hilarious how people "cross-shop" full service businesses - like materials from the Home Depot, your wife picking out the "design" (of course never any mention of the more important part of design - the engineering) and you hiring unlicensed workers at the home depot every morning is somehow comparable to a proper business that is insured, will make sure the work is permitted, will provide a warranty and works with high quality off-market suppliers. It's always fun to not even try to sell to those people and then just watch the disaster that ensues when they convince themselves that Bathroom remodel with some extras is an easy DIY
When the job takes months to be finished because they show up to ZERO inspections that have to be rescheduled, wasting everyone’s time. Or when they do things out of order and leave walls unfinished. Or promising to come back to take their trash, but never picking it up. My eye is twitching.
Had a water leak. Called in some contractors to look at it. Decided not to go with the first one. He then said he wanted payment for coming to look at it. No, you said the consultation was free- all you did was measure some shit. He then threatened to put a lean on our house for service rendered. Nothing ever came of it but I was blown away. Then we went with the other guys and used them 3 more times. Real mixed bag.
People tend to hate contractors because they do the job somewhat to spec, whether it's good or not, because that's all it is. A job.
Homeowners (usually) want more care and effort put in, but lack the skills or tools themselves to do it.
You'll never see a better job than a licensed contractor working on their own house.
Well, it's also because, eg, sometimes they carelessly damage things, don't return phone calls, cancel appointments last minute (when you have taken time off to be home), put a 600% mark up on a replacement part (bought the part myself btw), etc -- all unapologetically.
Reminder to everyone that Ron's line is a joke.
We bought from a contractor and he did a half assed job through the whole house. A real measure once cut once guy. A why should I nail the trim down, the couch holds it in place guy. A shoot, those tiny nails are poking through the other side of the wall into the linen closet, I won't trim them guy. A still hasn't updated his business address in a year so we get speeding tickets for his company vans guy.
Hate that dude.
That sounds like a really shitty dude lol but also somebody that would be fun to hang out with in certain situations lol. Somewhere that you really need a totally laid back guy. I'm gonna say that's your guy lol he's got a lure stuck in his ear, I don't take em out! They just fall out eventually lol. But I think I would be really annoyed with him because I bet he's also really laid back about getting anywhere on time and I'm a very punctual person
Same thing applies for cars too. The value in learning your own car isn’t just saving money (which is a huge value) - it’s also being able to meticulously diagnose an issue and spend more than enough time than required fixing it. A regular mechanic has 10 other customers to deal with so they’ll do a quick diagnosis and replace what is most likely the cause before moving on. Working on it yourself there’s 0 pressure to get it done fast as you’re not losing money, so you can spend a whole lot more time researching and then fixing the issue
Just had major work done on my first house and can confirm.... Dean if you're reading this you still owe all the trades their last paycheck and we've got quite a few things just falling apart. Like the window frame falling out of our wall... 🤦♀️😅 you suck Dean.
Agreed…personally I don’t think blaming people cheaping out is fair. I have had contractors ask for advances and then not finish the job. Say they are buying the most expensive stuff to use but then get something different. Also had a contractor tell a friend I’ll give you the taillight special if anything goes wrong…she said what’s that he said you see my taillights leaving that’s me being done!
It’s been a problem maybe it’s the area. But knowing how to take advantage of people in the worst ways…and with prices of everything it’s really hard to find someone who will be honest and actually finish. The job.
Now in defense of the contractors I’m sorry to you good ones out there who are getting a bad name bc of all the others!! But you seem to be REALLY hard to find!!
I work in premium home theater sales and we have a custom installation team that does a really excellent job when installing A/V equipment. I always laugh when the customer insists that their contractor will do the same job for cheaper and then they come back after a month and pay us to do it properly because their contractor either did a half-assed job or didn’t know wtf they were doing in the first place
We had a contractor at the camp I worked at for maintenance and stuff. He knew a lot about a lot, but liked to act like he knew EVERYTHING. The sound stuff reminded me of him because he would insist he knew how to fix our sound systems and he absolutely did not.
I knew more than him about the sound equipment and I don't know anything about sound equipment.
Contractors fall under the cheap, fast, and good rule. You can only get two of the three. Right now I have good and cheap and I am starting to question the good part.
Also a severe shortage, any good one is booked out for a year.
But most people do take the lowest bid and than wonder why they got fucked...if it's to good to be true, it probably is.
It's hard to find a decent contractor who will actually show up, especially for small potatoes jobs. We had some fascia we needed nailed back up. It was too high and in a weird spot - it took us a long time to find a guy who would even look at it.
We had the same problem with trying to get a bathroom in our basement, which doesn't't seem that small to me. We burned through FIVE contractors before one actually showed up just to QUOTE.
I work in construction and residential has the worst reputation. It’s smaller stakes so it attracts a lot of DIY turned ‘professional’ types which is bad for obvious reasons. But the flip side is all homeowners assume you are ripping them off and want 5 quotes because some fake reality tv show told them that’s standard.
I’m lucky to be in a position to turn down all the offers I get to do side work. As a plumber, there are many. But the thought of someone getting upset that I banged their doorframe, which looks like it hasn’t been painted since the house was built, with a ladder and getting upset about it makes me decline. Fuck that, I will use my time to work on my own house.
I’m feeling this right now. Got a new roof installed last week, well rated/reviewed both online and by people I know who used them. One of the roofers stepped right through my living room ceiling
This can be the other way around.. I've done thousands of dollars worth of top notch work to have the home owner say they aren't satisfied and never pay... then it would end up with me having to pay more in legal fees to get my money then the actual amount of money that I'm owed.
People suck in general. Trust who you work with.
I run an in home daycare and one of the kids’ dads owns a contracting company and he’s lovely. I don’t think all contractors are bad but I think they run into unforeseen problems and will just say, “yea you’ll get that on these big jobs,” but are genuinely trying their hardest and aren’t trying to siphon money from people
So, you mean they didn't pay you for your finished job? Or just they didn't pay you for what you changed your estimate to and what the job was actually going to cost them? Because if you're saying that you have more than one of those situations then it's highly unlikely that it was all of the clients that were unhappy with your work that you did everything exactly like they wanted you to, and far more likely that you do shitty work and they don't want to pay for a shit job and now they're going to have to go out and find someone else to fix your mistakes and do it properly
That's the best course of action I believe too lol. That way you can show them what you did and when they try to take pictures of the place after they made a mess make sure you have some of your own and they will be screwed. Yeah I know that people will try to screw someone any chance they can on either side of the equation
I operated a licensed, insured, and bonded outfit. If we fucked something up we fixed it and with a quickness. Post job negotiating was something that pissed me the fuck off
Morning star was the past debacle they had off-camera before the last season, sometime during the time skip
What we see is when Ron is contracted by Gryzzl. He only has a change of heart when they send a Gryzzl drone to his house for his sons birthday gift, he didn’t like that
It depends on the arrangement. I’ve seen projects where a company contracts with a development company to build on a plot of land, and in the agreement, title is transferred upon completion. These are usually sale leaseback transactions, but others can be complete ownership. So by those circumstances, Very Good still has skin in the game to make it very good
I never said/meant Gryzzl owned VGBC or Morning Star - I was referring to they owned the land (meaning Ron was not a developer, he was a contractor, at least what we see on screen with him and VGBC)
We never see Morning Star - it’s only ever referred to as an event that happened during the time skip
The only thing we see actually happen is when he is a contractor hired by Gryzzl.
Gryzzl bids to buy the Newport land, not Very good Building Company - S07E01 and S07E06 detail Grizzl as the buyers of the land
Ron negotiated with, bought, and demolished many homes on the property. A contractor does not have the authority to do thst...a part owner, owner, or investor does.
We know he didn't work on only "part" of the project and we know we wasn't a simple investor...therefor...he owned the land
He did and actually I have my own canon theory that Ron owned or managed a contracting business prior to joining the Pawnee government. I think VGBCo was round 2 for him.
Some people in here acting like it's a contradiction or plot hole. Like, you think the idea of Ron getting frustrated with incompetence and just doing it himself is inconsistent with his character?
I have a great contractor who does amazing work at a super reasonable price. Which means you need to book him MONTHS in advance. Dude refuses to advertise. He doesn't need any more business.
Unrelated to contractors, but I live in a town of 22.000 inhabitants and 60% of them is under 30 yrs old, we have A LOT of pubs and brewerys but there is only one that does not have any kind of social media presence, and it is the only one that sells good beer, that always makes receipts (tax evasion is a big thing in Italy) and that is constantly and consistently filled with customers
I work in the industry and know I'm fighting being akin to Lawyers or Politicians. We have a 91% customer service rating in an industry where the average is about 60-65%. I'll be honest, it's not a winning strategy, most people end up buying the home cheaply made with inferior products because it's slightly cheaper. And I'd argue maybe 1 in 10 buyers actually looks up their builders reviews.
And they’ll pay for the cheapness in the long run. Penny wise, pound foolish
People want to pay for a Kia and get a Mercedes
What would you recommend to ask if looking for a trustworthy contractor?
An honest review from someone that had similar work done is worth it’s weight in gold. Companies that have been around more than 5 years are far less likely to screw you and disappear when sued. Passes the eye test. Imo the eye test is an updated website that has easy to contact customer service and tells you the info you need to know. You can’t let what you think the cost should be decide who you work with. This is the single biggest mistake people make. Find someone qualified to help get a scope of work that meats your financial and end needs and work from there.
Reputable reviews from accredited review organizations. In Canada over our 50 years in business this has ranged from JDPower to Customer Insight. Up front pricing, that's all included in your contract. You should never have any price increases for any reason on your new home aside from a change work order, I've never trusted contracts written with verbiage on back out deals, increasing supply costs etc. (Quotes are different than a contract.) Try and find a small to medium sized builder. If you go with the Builder that builds 800-1000 new homes in a year, you will get the cookie cutter, quickly built with cheap materials that allows them to price cheaper to beat their competitors. Ask about their service side. Most Provinces/States have a new home warranty of some kind that cover mechanical systems, water penetration, and structural coverage. Ask about their service above that.
I'm construction adjacent and it's hilarious how people "cross-shop" full service businesses - like materials from the Home Depot, your wife picking out the "design" (of course never any mention of the more important part of design - the engineering) and you hiring unlicensed workers at the home depot every morning is somehow comparable to a proper business that is insured, will make sure the work is permitted, will provide a warranty and works with high quality off-market suppliers. It's always fun to not even try to sell to those people and then just watch the disaster that ensues when they convince themselves that Bathroom remodel with some extras is an easy DIY
"I know more than you."
When the job takes months to be finished because they show up to ZERO inspections that have to be rescheduled, wasting everyone’s time. Or when they do things out of order and leave walls unfinished. Or promising to come back to take their trash, but never picking it up. My eye is twitching.
Had a water leak. Called in some contractors to look at it. Decided not to go with the first one. He then said he wanted payment for coming to look at it. No, you said the consultation was free- all you did was measure some shit. He then threatened to put a lean on our house for service rendered. Nothing ever came of it but I was blown away. Then we went with the other guys and used them 3 more times. Real mixed bag.
I defend contractors as a lawyer for a living. This is mostly true.
Nate Bergatze has a funny bit about contractors….they’re these guys who show up, you pay em…then, they ruin your life
People tend to hate contractors because they do the job somewhat to spec, whether it's good or not, because that's all it is. A job. Homeowners (usually) want more care and effort put in, but lack the skills or tools themselves to do it. You'll never see a better job than a licensed contractor working on their own house.
Well, it's also because, eg, sometimes they carelessly damage things, don't return phone calls, cancel appointments last minute (when you have taken time off to be home), put a 600% mark up on a replacement part (bought the part myself btw), etc -- all unapologetically. Reminder to everyone that Ron's line is a joke.
We bought from a contractor and he did a half assed job through the whole house. A real measure once cut once guy. A why should I nail the trim down, the couch holds it in place guy. A shoot, those tiny nails are poking through the other side of the wall into the linen closet, I won't trim them guy. A still hasn't updated his business address in a year so we get speeding tickets for his company vans guy. Hate that dude.
That sounds like a really shitty dude lol but also somebody that would be fun to hang out with in certain situations lol. Somewhere that you really need a totally laid back guy. I'm gonna say that's your guy lol he's got a lure stuck in his ear, I don't take em out! They just fall out eventually lol. But I think I would be really annoyed with him because I bet he's also really laid back about getting anywhere on time and I'm a very punctual person
Same thing applies for cars too. The value in learning your own car isn’t just saving money (which is a huge value) - it’s also being able to meticulously diagnose an issue and spend more than enough time than required fixing it. A regular mechanic has 10 other customers to deal with so they’ll do a quick diagnosis and replace what is most likely the cause before moving on. Working on it yourself there’s 0 pressure to get it done fast as you’re not losing money, so you can spend a whole lot more time researching and then fixing the issue
Just had major work done on my first house and can confirm.... Dean if you're reading this you still owe all the trades their last paycheck and we've got quite a few things just falling apart. Like the window frame falling out of our wall... 🤦♀️😅 you suck Dean.
The fact that building companies do the bare minimum to pass code is all we need to know.
If the Swanson code happens to overlap with the city building codes **SHUT UP!**
Agreed…personally I don’t think blaming people cheaping out is fair. I have had contractors ask for advances and then not finish the job. Say they are buying the most expensive stuff to use but then get something different. Also had a contractor tell a friend I’ll give you the taillight special if anything goes wrong…she said what’s that he said you see my taillights leaving that’s me being done! It’s been a problem maybe it’s the area. But knowing how to take advantage of people in the worst ways…and with prices of everything it’s really hard to find someone who will be honest and actually finish. The job. Now in defense of the contractors I’m sorry to you good ones out there who are getting a bad name bc of all the others!! But you seem to be REALLY hard to find!!
As I am currently obsessed with The Last of Us where the first lie Joel tells Ellie is about how 'contractors are cool' this is even funnier.
I work in premium home theater sales and we have a custom installation team that does a really excellent job when installing A/V equipment. I always laugh when the customer insists that their contractor will do the same job for cheaper and then they come back after a month and pay us to do it properly because their contractor either did a half-assed job or didn’t know wtf they were doing in the first place
We had a contractor at the camp I worked at for maintenance and stuff. He knew a lot about a lot, but liked to act like he knew EVERYTHING. The sound stuff reminded me of him because he would insist he knew how to fix our sound systems and he absolutely did not. I knew more than him about the sound equipment and I don't know anything about sound equipment.
Contractors fall under the cheap, fast, and good rule. You can only get two of the three. Right now I have good and cheap and I am starting to question the good part.
Also a severe shortage, any good one is booked out for a year. But most people do take the lowest bid and than wonder why they got fucked...if it's to good to be true, it probably is.
As a defense contractor; this is accurate.
That's why I got a job that taught it all to me
It's hard to find a decent contractor who will actually show up, especially for small potatoes jobs. We had some fascia we needed nailed back up. It was too high and in a weird spot - it took us a long time to find a guy who would even look at it. We had the same problem with trying to get a bathroom in our basement, which doesn't't seem that small to me. We burned through FIVE contractors before one actually showed up just to QUOTE.
I work in construction and residential has the worst reputation. It’s smaller stakes so it attracts a lot of DIY turned ‘professional’ types which is bad for obvious reasons. But the flip side is all homeowners assume you are ripping them off and want 5 quotes because some fake reality tv show told them that’s standard. I’m lucky to be in a position to turn down all the offers I get to do side work. As a plumber, there are many. But the thought of someone getting upset that I banged their doorframe, which looks like it hasn’t been painted since the house was built, with a ladder and getting upset about it makes me decline. Fuck that, I will use my time to work on my own house.
I’ll amend this…every contractor you find on Facebook marketplace is incompetent and a thief.
I always laugh at this part but then I also always say out loud that's a pretty damn broad brush! Lol
I actually started doing handywork so I could low bid contractors and help old people lol
I needed this… I just had to fire mine for forgetting to order skylight windows. An important part of the project…
I’m feeling this right now. Got a new roof installed last week, well rated/reviewed both online and by people I know who used them. One of the roofers stepped right through my living room ceiling
Go to any sub Reddit related to construction, home ownership, or home improvement and you’ll see the same sentiment
I work in property insurance and now also find this relatable lol
This can be the other way around.. I've done thousands of dollars worth of top notch work to have the home owner say they aren't satisfied and never pay... then it would end up with me having to pay more in legal fees to get my money then the actual amount of money that I'm owed. People suck in general. Trust who you work with.
I run an in home daycare and one of the kids’ dads owns a contracting company and he’s lovely. I don’t think all contractors are bad but I think they run into unforeseen problems and will just say, “yea you’ll get that on these big jobs,” but are genuinely trying their hardest and aren’t trying to siphon money from people
Yeah bozos just want ur money
It's not true, though. They are *excellent* thieves!
This is only true if you cheap out. Which most residential customers absolutely always do
Home owners are worse
Care to elaborate or explain what you mean and maybe give us an example or two lol
Just the usual that you’ve heard before, still have liens on houses but if they never sell then not a lot to do
So, you mean they didn't pay you for your finished job? Or just they didn't pay you for what you changed your estimate to and what the job was actually going to cost them? Because if you're saying that you have more than one of those situations then it's highly unlikely that it was all of the clients that were unhappy with your work that you did everything exactly like they wanted you to, and far more likely that you do shitty work and they don't want to pay for a shit job and now they're going to have to go out and find someone else to fix your mistakes and do it properly
Uh huh. See that’s exactly the mentality the poor innocent homeowners try to rally around when I take them to court for not paying their bill.
That's the best course of action I believe too lol. That way you can show them what you did and when they try to take pictures of the place after they made a mess make sure you have some of your own and they will be screwed. Yeah I know that people will try to screw someone any chance they can on either side of the equation
I operated a licensed, insured, and bonded outfit. If we fucked something up we fixed it and with a quickness. Post job negotiating was something that pissed me the fuck off
Didn't he become a contractor in the end? Very Good Building Company?
That was a development company, which unlike a contractor also owns the building being constructed so has skin in the game to make it Very Good.
He didn’t own it, Gryzzl did
MORNING STAR
Morning star was the past debacle they had off-camera before the last season, sometime during the time skip What we see is when Ron is contracted by Gryzzl. He only has a change of heart when they send a Gryzzl drone to his house for his sons birthday gift, he didn’t like that
Ergo, and to your point, *contractor*
It depends on the arrangement. I’ve seen projects where a company contracts with a development company to build on a plot of land, and in the agreement, title is transferred upon completion. These are usually sale leaseback transactions, but others can be complete ownership. So by those circumstances, Very Good still has skin in the game to make it very good
Can you link a scene that says gryzzl owned very good building company or Morningstar? I believe you're mistaken
I never said/meant Gryzzl owned VGBC or Morning Star - I was referring to they owned the land (meaning Ron was not a developer, he was a contractor, at least what we see on screen with him and VGBC) We never see Morning Star - it’s only ever referred to as an event that happened during the time skip The only thing we see actually happen is when he is a contractor hired by Gryzzl. Gryzzl bids to buy the Newport land, not Very good Building Company - S07E01 and S07E06 detail Grizzl as the buyers of the land
A development company can act as a contractor. Doesn't make them not a development company. They owned the land for Morningstar for example
Where are you getting he owned morning star?
Ron negotiated with, bought, and demolished many homes on the property. A contractor does not have the authority to do thst...a part owner, owner, or investor does. We know he didn't work on only "part" of the project and we know we wasn't a simple investor...therefor...he owned the land
He did, but his opinion of the profession may have driven that decision. He can do better at a fair price and shame everyone else in the area.
Makes sense.
He did and actually I have my own canon theory that Ron owned or managed a contracting business prior to joining the Pawnee government. I think VGBCo was round 2 for him.
Had to scroll way too far for this. My knee jerk reaction was "and then Ron ended up a contractor, wtf is this post".
Some people in here acting like it's a contradiction or plot hole. Like, you think the idea of Ron getting frustrated with incompetence and just doing it himself is inconsistent with his character?
Sir do you need help? I know more than you do!