February 09, 2008
When to say “no” – Regrouts and Repair + Real Estate Agents and House Flippers
Here is a job I was sent to estimate from a real estate investor. He wanted me to “clean it up”.
This also reminds why I stopped chasing real estate investors and flippers. Early on I figured these guys might have a lot of work available because of all the renovations they were doing.
What I found is that there are exceptions but generally land lords and people trying to flip houses for a profit are happy if it looks good but obviously aren’t in it for the long term and really attempt to hammer you on price. Perhaps this is an obvious statement but it’s worth mentioning.
This shower pan was way too far gone. The smell was terrible, the water had completely rotted away the baseboards and was leaking though the other side of the wall where the closet was. The carpet was actually totally wet in the closet.
I told the guy the truth – there was an obvious concern for mildew and mold growth behind the wall and it was way behind any sort of “patch job” he was looking for and that he should call a mold remediation company to take a look at.
I have found house “flippers” to be the worst and real estate agents to be just slightly better. I’ve gotten decent jobs from realtors, have solicited them in the past but they are certainly not the low hanging fruit type of customers.
Here is an interesting read over at Contractor Talk about a contractor dealing with a house “flipper”:
Title: Is this typical for dealing with “Flippers”