Charlie: Daniel, Tom lives over in the Gulfton area. He says there are so many customer home builder(s) in Houston areas, he doesn’t know how to choose and honorable one, one that he can trust. What steps would you recommend?
Tom: Let’s see. Houston. Millions of people, there are so many doctors, and so many lawyers, and so many builders, and so many grocery stores, and so many restaurants. It’s tough. There’s a lot of people, but at least you have a lot of choices. But you always need to go to someone that has a good track record. There is no licensing, there is no registration, there is no procedures in being a contractor. What you want, is what we always talk about here with our certified home show pros, is the fact that they’ve been in business for at least five years, hopefully, and been doing good business. You call their banks, making sure they’re a business and not some guy that goes to the … What is it? The corner cash checking place to cash the checks. Also you make sure they have an office, a phone, they have insurance. The insurance will send you a certificate of insurance directly to you. And of course, you look at their work and you talk to some of the people they’ve worked for and use their references.
Charlie: Easy as can be. It’s kind of like …
Tom: Oh yeah. It’s a piece of cake.
Charlie: The five things you go through …
Tom: And you still get ripped off 25% of the time. But that’s just the way it is.
Charlie: Well you’ve gotta be careful. You gotta find somebody with whom you have the chemistry and you make worse. Kind of the same process we go through when we clear people to be a Tom Tynan home show pro.
Tom: Absolutely.
Charlie: You have to be able to clear more than the check out at Home Depot, to be somebody that we would work with.
Tom: Believe it or not, be careful. I have been approached by people at Home Depot. “Hey man, I’m a builder. You want me to build you a home.” No, be careful.
Charlie: Yeah, that’s scary.
Tom: Very careful.
Charlie: It’s kind of like when you’re walking into an Astros game and people are saying, “Do you have any extra tickets?” “Yes, as a matter of fact, every time I come to the game, I carried two or three extras.”
Tom: A pocketful.
Charlie: “Just in case I need them, that’s right.”
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