How to Spot a Fake Home Contractor

Are you looking for reliable home contractors to remodel your bathroom or kitchen? Or are you looking a competent family handyman to solve your small problems around the house? Whatever the size of the project in your home, home contractors are the most skilled, proficient and practical. Or at least that’s how they should be. Look out for those who want to rip you off, especially if you are going to make major changes in your home. Thousands of families are known to have been fooled by fake home contractors. The good news is that there are ways of exposing them.

First of all, if home contractors come to your door trying to gain business, you should definitely be suspicious. Good contractors do not need such a publicity for themselves. Secondly, if you are offered an impressive discount from such family handymen, you should be able to tell that there’s something fishy there. Good contractors will always use the references from their previous clients and they don’t need to make such discounts in order to convince you because their work speaks for itself. Then, if they don’t accept cheques, they only want cash, and even more, they ask you to pay for the entire work up-front, then you definitely don’t want to work with these home contractors. A smart choice on your part would be to pay by credit card because you would have proof of the payment in case you needed it. Moreover, no money should be given to home contractors prior to their first day of work, and even then you shouldn’t make payments which exceed a third of the sum that you have agreed upon.

A phony home contractor might also be the one who asks you to make an immediate decision. When hiring a home contractor, there are many aspects that you need to consider and you need time to analyze all of them. Any good home contractor knows and respects that. Before making a choice of contractor, you have to show your projects specifics to several firms and ask them to give you estimates in writing, which you can later on compare. This, of course, can’t be done overnight.

If your project requires serious expenses, and you have to turn to a lender, don’t let this be the lender that the home contractor or someone else suggests, al least not until you’ve done some checking of your own and compared loan terms. Too many people have been conned into paying too much interest to their loan.

Some home contractors will try to talk you into have something done in your home, because they have just finished a job in the neighborhood and they have some left-over materials. The are just as fake as those for whom you won’t be able to find a phone number in the phone directory. Just remember that almost no advertisement of a home contractor is a guarantee for the quality work that you expect.

If what you’ve read so far has convinced you that no home contractors without references from someone you know are to be trusted, than maybe you should consider transforming yourself into a family handyman and doing everything by yourself. Family handyman guides are easy to find and they will tell you almost everything you need to know in order to make all the necessary changes yourself. A family handyman guide deals with the problems that homeowners face most often, and it also offers solutions to these problems.

By: Groshan Fabiola
Credit:www.superfeature.com