Case Study 1

Mark and Susan (the names have been changed to protect the embarrassed) hired me to help them with their renovation, but told me that they didn't want a lot of input from me. They just wanted me to occasionally check on the contractor's work while the work was progressing. I asked if they wanted me to review the contract that the contractor gave them to sign, but they declined.

When the contractor was just about finished, the clients called me in a panic. The contractor gave them a final invoice that was $16,000 more than what they were expecting. Their estimate said the cost of the materials would be $12,000, but the final invoice listed the material cost at over $28,000! The contractor explained that the contract they signed said that the homeowner was responsible for the entire cost of the materials, even if it was over the estimated amount.

If my client had asked me to review the contract prior to signing, I could have saved them well over $10,000, not to mention the stress of unexpectedly having to come up with an additional $16,000!

Case Study 2

In September 2016, Martin called me for a free consultation on a renovation that he had started on his own in May 2016. It involved converting the second floor of his house into a rental apartment, for which he expected to get between $1,600 to $2,000 per month.

The project should have taken no more than 4 months to complete, but by September, it was less than 1/3 completed and was in total disarray. The electrical contractor was no longer returning phone calls, having completed less than 50% of his contract, but had been paid more than 75% of the contract value. Martin wanted more time to think about whether or not to hire me.

In the end, Martin decided not to hire me, and as of April 2017, the project still wasn't completed. Had Martin hired me when I first saw him in September, the project would have been finished by mid November, and he could have generated $12,000 in rental income from December to May, far more than the fee would have been for my services.

Case Study 3

Alan was getting prices of $190,000 to $210,000 for renovations to his home, which he thought were excessive. He decided to be his own general contractor, be he realized he couldn't do it alone. He called me for help.

I put together a trade list for him, along with a schedule of when the tradespeople would be needed. I reviewed the quotes from the various trades and gave Alan my recommendations.

Alan supervised the work himself, occasionally calling me for help on technical issues, which I helped him resolve. In the end, Alan saved $75,000 to $80,000 less than the prices he got from the general contractors.