All Forum Posts by: James Luctamar

Time to take leave from your family and job and go there. Cambria hotel is $78 a night make a deal with them. Do you have his home address? Show up at his house at 6:30 AM in the snow with your boots on ready to work with him to complete. A breakfast burrito for him in your hand. He's going to stammer and be embarrassed and have excuses but you married him, time to get him cooking bacon or if he is mortally injured to release all liens and get someone else started today. 

Others suggest an attorney - sure spend $70000 and waste time in court, that avenue is going to take thirteen months. You cannot leave the subject property half completed. Bad guys will break in and wreck everything. Have Amazon send you security cameras and some dummy ones to the hotel so they are there when you arrive. Borrow a ladder from your GC and install them and practice the app with your phone. Let him know you have someone coming daily to monitor progress and you have eyes on the driveway as well. IF he is dishonest those cameras disappear when you leave town. 

Interview new sub contractors at Modern Builders on 5th/ and Columbus Builders on 3rd/ and Home Depot on Hamilton Rd. The $30000 might be gone for now BUT you MUST get completed. Your Realtor can recommend an honest person to be your project manager- the job requires a notebook, cell phone and to go to the subject property for 30 minutes at different times 7 days a week. This person logs who is working, what supplies are there and texts you - progressing yes or no daily. You are going to have to pay the person by venmo or something weekly to keep them reporting and taking photos. 

The cost to extend your loan may be in the thousands. Carry costs, liability, theft, and weather are against you. It's 54 degrees there today so bring warm casual clothing, work boots, rubber boots. 

Don't respond that you cannot go there. You chose this and you have the guts to see it through. Do it.

I did a condo remotely in Florida from the UK.  I kind of had a similar situation.  But before leaving ( i had to go back family emergency) I hired a friend.  Gave a kitty to her of 3 k to go check on the property from time to time to report progress and deduct from it each time.

   In my contract there was a specific payment timeline as per the works being done.  We followed that.  However they still did lag and it wasn't until I got back out there to actually get it done.  It took another month for them to final fix things even though they said it would be done.  First by Sept, then December.  Then I arrived in January, and it took another month to finish.  I negotiated a reduction in fee due to not meeting the deadline which they granted.  I didn't need to consult a lawyer, but they were worried about their reputation.   My suggestion is that you need to go there an sort it out and given that you paid a chunk up front, hire an lawyer.  I don't know what your contract with him says but you need to, as well as getting him to refund it to move on, maybe get him to release a lien on your property if there is a permit involved and if he made the application for you.  If you move on you will need to get this released.

 So you pre-paid the $30k for the work and now he's essentially ghosting you?

I would try to continue to call him and get a hold of him non stop and from other numbers. He needs to know you're on top of him. You should engage an attorney if you truly think he's "ran off" with your money. You can maybe try dangling some future work in front of his face and see if he'll get his act together to finish up this 30k project and then just don't give him anything in the future.

Overall, having a boots on the ground project manager (such as paying your property management company 10% project management fee) is really the best way to go about it. If you're not doing that, then you really need an unbiased person on the ground reporting objective facts to you. I've had contractors say they finished painting the entire house only and send one photo of the painted front, only to find out the sides/back weren't painted. Plus contractors will always try to use scare tactics to get you to pay or keep paying more since they know you're out of state and are not checking up on stuff. If you absolutely do not have a project manager, then flying out for certain "stages" of the project to sign off on the repairs/quality is another recommended way. Photos can be very misleading vs walking the property.

Usually the best way to prevent this chaos is by getting a GC who has been referred to you and vetted by several trusted folks (property manager, realtor, etc.). Sorry you're in this situation. Hopefully you can pressure him to get this 30k project finished.

Hey @James Luctamar, so you would trust your cleaner with your making your asset pristine and clean between guests but not to be an emergency contact?

This is one of the standards for cleaners in areas that require a local contact. 

I'm sure there are companies that do this. I found a few with a quick Google of "Columbus Ohio Airbnb manager."

Some people use their cleaner and then possibly compensate them for it.