How I lost THOUSANDS!!: Case of the missing siding

There was a hail storm that damaged aluminum siding to the home. No problem open and shut case, but this was far from the case. We had an insurance claim for both the roof and siding. We had a larger popular license contractor do the roof because hey its a roof you don't play around with a roof. If your investment property has a slow secret leak, it follows the equation below.

Secret water leak= mold, wood rot, insects=$$very expensive repairs=END OF INVESTMENT PROPERTY

The problems started when we got the thought of maybe we can save money on the labor of the siding and have some new windows installed into the property also. Great idea, right!! So we notified the contractor we will be going another direction with the siding, and our business concluded when they finish the roof.

We went on the search for another contractor/handyman to install siding on the house. The problem was every decent contractor we found was either busy (as good contractors should be) or costly. When we were about the give up hope and call back the original roof contractor to do the siding, one of our property cleaning employees told us they also were the contractor for subcontractors and handymen. They could oversee the project, and the insurance quote money allowance was just enough to fit some windows in also. GREAT!!! We had been working with this cleaning contractor for a while; they kept their word, took the initiative, and had good ideas. Wow, we had lucked out on this one. So we hired her to complete the job immediately.

Then the job got started, is what I wish I could say. After about two weeks later, the contractor came to us saying how she had acquired the needed siding for the project and was waiting for the windows she had ordered to arrive. Ok, that's understandable, no problem. Then the other shoe, she needed all the money to pay for the project supplies and the subcontractors to get started. Honestly, it raised red flags, but she had a good starting track record of trust with us, so we offer her 20% of the total project payment. She then said she needed a more substantial portion because the project budget was very tight, and had just gotten back from church and prayed about this, and was basically doing it charitably for us because of our relationship. So then, after speaking a little more, we ended up at 70% of the total project cost upfront.

Then the project started immediately, well in a way. All the aluminum siding was taken off the home very quickly (we will visit this later). Then the house sat with no siding on it; after a week, we followed up. She said the windows had not come in yet, but she will get started in a few more days. Some days pass, we go to the property expecting to see busy workers still nothing. We call again with some serious attitude to hear she had just got out of jail. WAIT WHAT HAPPENED!! She was experiencing a domestic dispute, but she quickly sent someone out the next day to get started. We overlooked the jail time (wrong idea!!) because now we are getting somewhere.

Oh, also, did we mention that there were tenants in the home during this whole time of having a home with no siding. To put it lightly, they were extremely PISSED. They called the property manager regularly. They contacted the city and county multiple times and threatened to call the news for bad press. So then, if we didn't have enough issues, the county did get involved and sent us some evil emails threatening to fine us for keeping the property in an unfavorable condition and had a week to correct the issue. I called them discussed the problem asked for mercy, and they added on another three weeks to fix the issue. Wow! Ok, I manage to delay that bullet.

Now back to the home, the worker/handyman was working on the first side of the house, which is good, but when we went to inspect the work. It seemed wrong; all of the ends of the siding was

in the same place. When we investigated further, we found out this is incorrect as endings to siding is supposed to be offset from each other, so if the wind blows off one set of siding, it won't take off the rest with it. So, we call her, aka the contractor, and expressed our anger with the issue. The next day she called, saying the subcontractor was trying to assault her, and he quit the job. She then said she was working on getting someone else to complete the job.

But that never happened, the job was never completed. We called no one answered. After a few days, we had to ask, are we getting screwed on this deal? The short answer was YES! Very badly. So now we are in the situation with no siding on the house, never got the window she "ordered", lost thousands of dollars, extremely angry tenants and the county government is on top of us with one of the reasons being the contractor was using illegal child labor.

So with these bullets coming at us, we continued forward. We first had to open lines of communication with the tenants. They were angry about the property having no siding. We had the property manager give them a briefing of what happened because ending up on the ten o clock news is not suitable for any business. Then we called every contractor we had good experiences with again. Yep, still busy doing projects. So all that was left was the first contractor that began the project. Guess what; they had availability to get the project done.

Then there was one more surprise. When the contractor came to inspect and quote out the job, he asked, What happened to the aluminum siding? We told them the previous contractor took it all off. Well, that is going to raise the price he quoted previously. WAIT WHAT!! He then proceeded to tell me that reason I didn't see a piece of aluminum left on the property was because they sold it for scrap metal. OUCH!!

The contractor then got to work. The home was completed in a few days and looked terrific. So what were some things we learn from this experience?

1. Trust, but verify applies to absolutely everything and everybody in the business. I should have confirmed that the windows were purchased and had them delivered to the location

2. Get the supplies. Do not have the contractors get large supplies such as siding, windows, drywall. Decking. If you can, have it delivered to the project's location.

3. Look at references for that specific job. It doesn't matter if they did other work for you.

4. Stick to your guns. Just because they just came from church, act, and walk like a saint doesn't mean anything. If your rules have a certain payout percentage and procedures, do that and stick to it every time. Some will, some won't, so what.

5. The cheaper you go, the higher the risk. Understand those risks before handing over any money.

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