Home is the center of our lives. When we hire building trades persons, we expect them to respect our wishes towards its enrichment. But we may find it important to do whatever we can to ensure each hiring decision we make is for someone who will contribute to that. Information is key.

As stressed in the initial edition of “Homeowner’s Guides In Successful Resident-Contractor Relations" (Articlebiz, July 14, 2020):

“Evidently, resident knowledgeability of contractors’ ongoing and past activity on private homes is useful towards making safer and wiser hiring choices. Subsequently, unless we are able to effectively validate the competency and legitimacy of building trades personnel, we are at higher risk for being defrauded.”

Succinctly, the HGRBS volunteer nonprofit offers a wide array of informative guides which residents use to assist in arriving at best choices of building trades personnel [as home repair contractors]. For emphasis, here are several key points:

*In light of the real need we have for being adequately informed about persons in the building trades, the homeowner’s guide “Who Is This Contractor?” can also be an indispensable tool to that effect. It is free and downloadable. No sign up or sharing of other personal information required.

*HGRBS believes that every private home decision maker in America, whether owner, renter, or lessee, has potential for making more effective hiring decisions. But it is unfortunate that only a few are proactive about “setting aside time” to learn how we can avoid worst outcomes.

*The apparent reason for such demonstrated minimal interest is that many of us are under the impression of “knowing enough about it.” This is interpreted as an unwillingness to improve our tactical advantage in related decision making. This viewpoint is often catastrophic. Evidence to such misfortune is played out in the overwhelming majority of reported cases: had we “known enough,” we would not have been so humiliated.

*There is only a small group of private home decision makers who differ. Instead of settling for what we know about effectively deciding, we are passionate about any new information to improve upon that. As a result, we continue to experience little to no home fraud. The more we know, the better prepared we are.

*It follows, the greater our awareness about building trades personnel vying for work on our property, the better fortified we are against the shenanigans of the corrupt element.

*An application process improves our approach toward screening contractors and selecting only the best!

Please refer to Resource Box for link to access free download “Who Is This Contractor?” We may want to learn more about how we can improve upon our standards for hiring only those most suitable for our home maintenance and improvement needs.

Comments always welcome.

Edited with special assistance from M. Conti

Public Courtesy – HGRBS – Since 2009