How to destroy a reputation

Question

This is an angry post. More for venting than for anything else.

But how do you deal with horrible contractors, inspectors, and city officials. I mean these guys have messed up my rehabs and cost me thousands and weeks of lost time.

I want to just tell them to leave and not pay them. I want to just flame them all over social media and reviews. I want to sue them.

BUT. I also don't want these lowlifes who know where my properties are to come in and vandalize anything or steal stuff, or break exterior windows and walls. Cause lets be honest, a lot of people these days will do horrible things to you or your stuff if you piss them off.

Do you guys just take the hit, suck up your losses, and let them off easy where they can potentially rip off other people?

Or do you fight with them and take the risk something bad happens to your place.

Rant over...kind of

JD Martin · Answer

You factor in some of the lost time and money as part of the project.

I've been a professional musician for 30 years. There's a saying in the live musician community - "I play music for free; I get paid for the bullshit". That's also true in REI. If this were easy, and everyone was clean as apple pie, everyone would be doing it, and no one would be making any money. You get paid for the bullshit (assuming you structured your deal properly).

Russell Brazil · Answer

You have to deal with a lot of difficult people in this business. Contractors, tenants, ..well everyone. You've just got to let the bull shit roll off you. If you don't, you'll put yourself into an early grave.

David Zheng · Answer

@Chinmay J.I literally background/review check everything even $10 items haha.

Literally out of 7 contractors from 7 different companies (plumbing, electrical, Soffit, painting, flooring, general building, HVAC) only two of them have been ok (still late on their projected finish times by over 7 days). what baffles me is that I reviewed all of them and they were either BBB accredited, on angie's list, had good google ratings, personal friends of mine recommended, etc.

From now on, I'm only 5% up front and no pay until project is officially completed. I'm also going to make them stick to their finish date or else they get docked a percentage of the costs per day the project is late.

Unfortunately I have no punishments for them not sticking to the finish date stated on the contract, but still....6 weeks late on projects is absolutely ridiculous.

And the city inspectors are a whole nother load of monsters I could get into. Messing up inspection dates. Not closing permits they had signed off on. Inspectors walking ino my building at uninvited times.

Linda S. · Answer

Let me just say, I quickly wanted to read your post because I absolutely understand your frustration.

Bad contractors I think make up about 70% of the stress of renovating!  It makes me very, very angry, when I'm like throwing money at contractors, and they do a poor job, or make it obvious it's not a priority.  Dealing with bad contractors, omg makes my annoying just thinking of the bad ones we've had!  If we have a bad experience, we are quick to fire them after the agreed work is done.   Can someone tell me why picking up your created trash, is a luxury not included with contractors?? We don't take a risk about them doing stuff to our places, not worth it.    If we ever had a really, really bad experience, where it's a legit problem and not just poor service..  we'd report them to the state board.

Chinmay J. · Answer

@David Zheng - Take a chill pill bro.  I loved your post on how you built the business in last 13 months. There will always be some bad apples. I am sure you already know this and I am preaching to the choir (most likely) but do you check references before you hire them? That might save a lot of heartache and headache.

How to destroy a reputation

How to destroy a reputation

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