It has been said that no enemy is worse than bad advice. It has also been said that if you can tell the difference between good and bad advice, you don’t need advice.
That’s the rub right there – how to tell the difference!
Discerning between good and bad advice comes with wisdom, and wisdom is gained through experience. Good and bad! Experience is the best teacher. Unfortunately I tend to learn through the school of hard knocks. But as the years have progressed I have picked up a thing or two.
But what if you don’t have the experience and background to make a good choice in a given area? That’s when you may need someone to help. Someone who has been successful in the area you wish to learn about.
Before we go further, let’s have a little fun and take a look at some examples of bad advice.
- “Follow your heart.” (Only if you bring your brain along with you.)
- “Stop reading! You read too much; you’re going to hurt your eyes.” (Pathway to ignorance.)
- “Always weave a little when you drive, and all the other cars will stay away from you.” (From a Dad teaching his kid to drive.)
- “No one can give you better advice than yourself.” (That hasn’t worked for me.)
- “Start smoking. It will help acclimate your lungs to the smoke in a building fire.” (Actually said to a new firefighter at the fire station.)
- “Just open another credit card; it’s free money.” (Yikes.)
- “Don’t get married until you find the perfect person.” (That’s the end of marriage!)
I wear many hats from home inspector to remodel contractor, and lots of other housing professions in between, and I have heard a few doozies myself.
- “You don’t need to have your new home inspected before your one year warranty runs out. It’s a new home for heaven’s sake.”
- “You must replace the furnace as well as the AC system because new AC systems don’t work with old furnaces.”
- “You don’t need deep footings for a deck. We can just set the posts on blocks on the ground.”
- “Don’t worry about water drainage. Water usually finds its way to the right place.”
- “You don’t need a permit for a bathroom remodel. We aren’t adding any structure.”
- “We don’t need a contract for the remodel. I always guarantee my work. And by the way, I need 50% up front.”
These are all things I have heard from clients who have been burned in the past. Good advice, especially when it comes to homes, is indeed worth its weight in gold.
That’s why I offer advice for free to anyone who asks.
I love to say “once a customer, always a customer.” And this means just call if you need a little advice – any time. If I don’t know the answer then I will help you get it.
And that goes for my real estate agent friends also.
Some agents use me as a part of their team to help analyze issues with a home and hopefully bring some sanity to bear. I have helped pull several deals out of the fire.
I have explained the differences in safety between grounded and ungrounded circuits to a seller and her agent which helped to calm everyone down so that decisions could be made in a rational manner. Yes I know electrical.
I have helped clients figure out how they might reconfigure their entire bathroom with plumbing best practices in mind so that the plan executes smoothly. Yes I know plumbing.
I have diagnosed the reason for water intrusion into a basement and guided those involved towards the best and most cost effective solution, which helped seal the real estate deal.
I have walked into relatively new homes and have found serious structural issues that were missed by the builder and other inspectors. This could have cost the homeowner thousands of dollars in the future when things fell apart.
Banks use me to verify that work has been done correctly for homes that are being updated using a rehab loan. I can do that for you too!
I have been asked to inspect bathroom remodels after the fact, and have helped the clients put evidence together to use in court so that they could sue the contractor who totally messed up their bathrooms. One was able to recover $6,000. But they still had to go through the pain. Another ended up deciding to take the financial hit ($14,000) because they were frankly just tired.
An ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure.
Let me help. It’s my pleasure.
