I just made an enemy, and for some reason don't feel bad

[Freshlook 14]

Ok, 2 houses down from my personal residence, a couple has a house for sale with about 1500 ln/ft x 6ft high privacy fence. About 2 months ago I seen a crew outside their house doing landscaping work (MUCH NEEDED) and little odd's and ends to the outside. Well, I noticed that the company which did all the cleaning just used household bleach to clean the wood and left it as is. Ok.. it's ugly but it's not my house and I just laugh everytime I see the whitewashed fence and how much my wife exclaims how ugly it looks, she even points out the rust runs from the nails.

NOW, to the fun part. The Realtor selling the house is the step-father of my daughters friend. He came by to pick up his daughter from a sleep over and was asking me what i do. I told him and he then exclaimed what a wonderful job these guys did to the house 2 doors down. I just bit my bottom lip and said sure, I guess so. OH BOY... he said I guess so? what's wrong with it? I then opened up my portfolio of pics to the fences that i've previously done, and showed him the before and after pics. He was a little irritated at this time, but not at me "thank goodness the last thing I want is my daughter to be forbid to going over there", and went to talk to the homeowners. THEN the next thing I knew I had 3 irritated people at my front door, himself and the couple living there. The gentleman asked me why didn't I say something sooner, and I just couldn't help my smart-a-- mouth and said, you recieved my flyer, and seen my truck every day, and if you hired them to do the job, who am I but a passed over contractor. 1 day passes and then I get a phonecall from the company which did the job. Needless to say they are peeved. Once again I don't care and laughed as they called me every name in the book, questioning my ethics and how we need to stick together in this tightly knit industry. I pulled myself together and went from carefree to customer advocate. I simply told him that if they are charging a customer for a service, they should provide the service rather than a disservice, and that I would actually have a hard time conciously collecting ANY money from the job they performed. NOW the bad part, I have good reason to believe that the homeowners are filing a suit against the company and I'm lying REALLY LOW. They came to me and asked me how to correct the problem, beings that 3 couples who were interested in the house commented how bad it looked. I just mentioned to them what is done is done and staining may be their only option. They wanted a quote and I gave them one, $1,200. Their mouths dropped... and exclaimed that they couldn't afford it. Then they wanted to know if I could do anything to help them out or lower the price.. I had a bad day and without really thinking stated, Sure I'll sit on my back deck while you stain your fence and offer a lot of encouragement, and exclaimed that they got what they paid for. The other company charged them $200 for the fence. I was honest and mentioned that if I were to just strip, clean, and brighten their fence, for that price I might merely break even after chemicals, and expenses.

Now the fence is still left in the shape it is, and I smile and wave to the homeowners as I pass their house with my equip every day. Taking note to self.. THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK!!!!.. but being BRUTALLY HONEST is my biggest flaw...

How different should I have handled this situation, and what would you do differently. any other advice I left out to the homeowners?

[MMI Enterprises 289]

yea... say "my kids got to eat too ya know..".. .. as in perhaps they don't feed your daughter when she visits..haha j/k :)

[squirtgun 122]

You handled it perfectly.

[HotShot 34]

my only suggestion would be maybe keep the price the same, take your $200 now to cover costs, then get the rest when the house closes....

makes you the savior and a good guy and also helps them out.

[bigchaz 157]

Not to pick on you but the story seems a bit strange. You simple showed him some pics your work and he started getting mad at you? Or was their something else

If he really just got that mad then they obviously have some serious issues dealing with other people

I agree you did the right thing after all those people started making a huge deal out of it. Especially for the homeowner to call the company that originally did the work, thats just ridiculous.

[Integrity Curb Appeal 64]

Ant had a good thought. At the end of the day remember we're all just people. We all just screw up. I typically don't consider my neighbors for services either. If things go bad, I have to live close to it. You mentioned you have a problem with keeping your mouth shut, perhaps they have a problem with opening theirs. I would definatly go with Ant's idea. You both win. Charge them cost on the front end. You look good, the cost of the stain & chems are covered, and you feel better.

Plus, think of the example you can set for your daughter.

Just my .02

[Freshlook 14]

Not to pick on you but the story seems a bit strange. You simple showed him some pics your work and he started getting mad at you? Or was their something else

He was mad at the fact that the job orrigionally done was done improperly, and he was obviously trying sell the house quickly, but looking at the fact that they were only charged $200 I don't see what they expected, unless the company performing the work failed to tell them what exactly to expect. I agree it was grey as a stormy sky before, but now it's looking like a pair of jeans from the 80's.. stonewashed and dingy. I don't see why they would seek legal recourse thou, it's not like they damaged the fencing, it's just merely half done.. well maybe a 1/4'th

That may be a good idea to see if they want me to perform the work and get paid when the house sells, but that also poses a dillema when and if the house sells. Heck for the price they are asking it may be a good 5 months, especially considering the interior of the house is very much is need of some love. 10 yr old carpets and a dog don't mix. I don't know I might make good and tell them they can make payments, I typically don't do payments, only paypal via credit card. But after I posted this i seemed to have a little warm spot in my heart for them.

After all this is a VERY competitive housing market, and these people live at the end of my caldesac, and cut their grass maybe once a month, and have a chow that likes to make noise all hours of the night. If i help them out maybe their house will sell sooner and I can actually get a neighbor that cares about his/her belongings. Once I'm ready to sell my house, having his as the focal point to my street isn't going to help the matter.

[MMI Enterprises 289]

Once I'm ready to sell my house, having his as the focal point to my street isn't going to help the matter.

Ok I call dibs on turning that into an advertising hook!!! :)

[Mountain View 14]

Outside of maybe making some comments that might have gotten under some peoples skin, I don't see how you did anything wrong. If they go ahead with filing some sort of suit against the other contractor, I wouldn't say a word. If the Real Estate agent or home owners want anything from you, make them do it through a subpeona, don't volunteer a damn thing. As far as the other contractor, they gave terrible results, don't let yourself get drawn into any confrontation with them...not worth it.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

As a favor to your daughters friends step dad, a realtor who can help you get more work, and some people who got hosed and now have a bitter taste for pw's, maybe you can sharpen the pencil on a price that makes you money and makes the neighborhood look nice.

Do it as a PR thing. How many jobs have you done in your neighborhood? Is their potential for more when people see you actually working?

[jeffex11 121]

sit on your deck and wait for the new buyer to pay the $1200 or ask the sellers if they want to earn some sweat equity off the price and help you. Other wise sit on your deck because waiting for your money after the sale sounds like another post on collecting from them. You did the right thing!!

[PressurePros 249]

Darn Greg, do you live in Beverly Hills or Ocean County? I only see that much drama on TV reality shows. Then again, read on..

Don't ever do work for neighbors. I did one down the street. Good guy, we would always stop and chit chat. He asked me to do his house. Without him asking, I gave him a healthy discount (35%). I told him the price, he said that sounded good and go ahead and do it when I got around to it. So I did it when I got around to it, about a month later when I wasn't busy. I did the job personally and took extra time and did all of his patio furniture, popped out all of his screens, ran all the way down the sidewalk, the whole nine.

When I finished I left a note in the mailbox that I'd catch up with him later. He started avoiding me. That doesn't make Ken a happy guy. Finally I had to go down and knock on his door and ask for payment. I despise chasing people down for money so I was a little salty. When I try to collect he basically accuses me of taking advantage of our friendship, saying I ripped him off. (an expert at work told him I overcharged him). I informed him of his discount and of market rates and it loooked like he half believed me. In one of the decisions of my life I regret, I lowered the price even more (thinking I would rather have a happy neighbor than make a profit)

The end result? I hear from another mutual friend that he tells people he caught me trying to rip him off and that no one in the neighborhood should hire my company. Nice huh? It takes every ounce of restraint when I see him to not make an extension wand popsicle.

Moral of the story: Don't wash where you eat.

[plainpainter 217]

Neighbors suck, agreed. I also can't stand when you give homeowners advice or your thoughts on another contractor - and then behind your back, they go to these contractors and use your good name to make accusations against them. Hold on - aren't what we say 'off the record'? That's happened a couple of times now - that I never say anything to homeowners about stuff like gee - they really goofed installing your gutters - now I just shut it. And so now these people get annoyed when they ask you questions about what the previous painter did or carpenter or roofer - and I don't tell them anything. Can you believe that? I will go to give a free estimate, and then these people want me to tell them how lousy a job other contractors did and recomendations on how to fix the problems - and probably won't even hire me for any work anyways. But I am resolute - I don't talk sh$t about any contractor anymore, even if I think they're hacks.

[RPetry 564]

Ken,

Funny how different one's experiences can be.

I live in a townhouse community. Kind of fell into this business years ago after I restored my own deck. Neighbors started asking me to service their wood, and the business grew from there.

To this day, I always have a signed contract detailing labor cost, sales tax, estimated materials costs, and scope of services, in hand before I start any job.

My wife and I are going out to dinner tonight with our next door neighbors. We have both lived here for 18 years and are good friends. We will be maintaining their small deck later this season. They will have a contract for the job, just like all customers. Business is business, whether customers are friends, relatives, neighbors, or new prospects.

You can separate regular life from business practice and it can work.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

No one likes the thought of having bought a lemon. And honesty is what this industry needs. It sounds like you did your best to inform them and even came under some fire as the unchosen one.

It' not like you were offensive or bashing the competition.

You were asked your opinion and unfortunately it opened pandoras box. The realtor in my guestimation is the referring entity and possibly explains the offensiveness.

After reading your recount of the events, I would have to agree with your actions and support you in standing your ground. People need to know that excellence comes with a higher price tag. They can't buy a beamer for the price of a yugo so why should they expect anything less than a fair price for the value?

Rod!~

[Barry M 73]

My next door neighbor wants me to do thier house when I have time. I have a bad feeling about it and keep avoiding it. Maybe it's the $7 his wife owes my wife for one of our kids school fund raisers from this winter.

[Celeste 341]

I can't even begin to elaborate on any of the suggestions that have been made already - I just have to thank you for the "giggle of the day". I think you were spot-on with what you did. Not many have the brass ones to be that blunt :)

Well, maybe one idea.....work out a deal with the REALTOR. He already knows you know your stuff. Do something on some of his other properties and let him know that if he gets you say, 5 other paying properties (FIRST) then maybe you could rework a better price for the fence, since he's your daughters friend's dad.

Celeste

[Tom DeFrancesco 23]

I think it was a GREAT story. I liked the whole do it and get the rest of the money at closing. Good idea.

[PressurePros 249]

You can't guarantee a payment at closing unless you lien the property. I'd say there would be about a 80% chance you would not get paid.

[Celeste 341]

Thing is, with the house on the market, a lien would work just fine. The probability of not getting paid would change dramatically if they decided not to move BUT, if that were to be the case and no sale happened, chances would be good on a refi, which again, would work toward your being paid eventually.

Celeste

[HotShot 34]

or if they didn't sell and jacked you for your money, you could take it out on their (_!_)

[PressurePros 249]

what did you say, Ant?

[HotShot 34]

the "picture" speaks for itself...hahahahha