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The Sum of Our Existence
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Every day we get up, go to work, and strive to accomplish the great American dream of home ownership. In most households both the husband and wife work to provide for themselves and their children. A great deal of our life energy is spent on this endeavor. We plan for our future, making sure there is enough of our investment funds available to provide for housing that is comparable to what we could afford in our most productive years.
We not only desire the home of our dreams, but that dream home of necessity has to be decorated like a Southern Living home. This of course requires a greater zeal and effort on our part to earn enough money to pay for our extravagant lifestyle. Our dream home must be furnished with fine furniture, custom kitchen cabinets with granite tops, and entertainment centers with high definition television and theater surround sound. Only hardwood floors, ceramic bathroom floors, and high-end carpeting are good enough for us.
Recently, I went to Nashville to help flood victims get their lives back together again. I took my eight year old grandson along with me so that he too could experience the joy of helping others. It struck me as I drove through several subdivisions which had been submerged under several feet of water that everything those homeowners had considered an integral part of their American dream was now only a pile of trash in the front yard. House after house had huge piles of trash stacked next to the road. These piles represented many years of toiling and dreaming the American dream. Now, nothing but a trash heap.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with building and owning a home. In fact, without people dreaming of home ownership, I would have to find another line of work. What I am trying to say is that maybe we should devote more of our time and energies on the things that really matter. The things that will last a lifetime and beyond. Our relationship with God, our family, and our friends are all more important in the long run. “When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 2:11
Things aren’t always what they seem!
Sunday, October 18th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
O sibili, si ergo, Fortibuses in ero. Nobili demis trux. Sewatis Enim? Cowsendux.
Can you make out what this Latin verse is saying? Or, maybe it’s not Latin but some other language. Actually, it’s East Tennessee and the translation is as follows: Oh, see Billy, see her go, forty buses in a row. No Billy, them is trucks; so what’s in them? Cows and ducks.
Things are not always as they seem on the surface, which makes it especially important to check everything out before you make a decision. It seems as though this is a very bad time to build a new home because of the present economic environment. But that may not necessarily be so. In fact, it could be a good time to invest in a home newly constructed. The one caveat to the above statement is that the home you build is built with energy efficiency as your primary goal.
If you think home ownership is a challenge now, just wait awhile and you will be hit with the reality of the new energy policies being put into place as we speak. The energy costs of your existing home will greatly increase in the future because of these policies, making your home less and less desirable on the resale market as well as more costly for you to maintain.
Building an energy efficient home is reason number one for making this a good time to build.
Reason number two for building now is that material costs and labor costs have generally fallen since the sharp decline in homebuilding. I’ve always heard it said to, “Buy low and sell high.” Actually, that is very good advice. Too often we buy when things are at their peak and get stuck with overpriced items.
I can remember in the 70’s when the Hunt brothers cornered the market on silver and ran the price up to over $40 an ounce. My young sons and I decided we would get in on the action and invest in some silver to reap the rewards of a rising market. The problem was, just about that time, the government stepped in and the price of silver nosedived leaving us with a huge loss on our investment. Thankfully, we had just bought a few silver dimes so we were not out very much money. We just has some very expensive dimes on our hands. So, reason number two is, prices are the lowest they have been in years.
Reason number three for building a new home now is so that you will be able to afford your home in the future because of the high future energy costs. Oh, I guess that was reason number one. Well, if you combine reason number one with reason number two, that would result in reason number three. Since costs are lower because of reduced material and labor costs, and since it costs more to build a really energy efficient home, the net result is that you should be able to build a highly efficient home at about the same cost as a commonly constructed home two years ago.
The fourth reason for building now is, if you think it is hard to sell a home now, just wait until those high energy costs take effect. The result will be that fewer and fewer people will be able to qualify for a loan to buy your home because mortgage companies consider a buyer’s income to be sufficient to cover the cost of the home plus the cost of utilities. So, it will take a higher income level for buyers to qualify for a mortgage for your home which automatically reduces the number of prospects.
This all sounds very depressing, but the bright side is that you can be one of the first to get your “ducks in a row” and be ahead of the curve.
Precision Builders is experienced in the area of energy efficient homes and we can help you make decisions regarding the best construction for your new home. We will do our best to advise you toward making a wise investment in your future.
“YOU LIE”
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
“YOU LIE”
In the shout that was heard around the world, Rep. Joe Wilson sent the political world into a spin. The immediate reaction was to condemn his outburst as an uncivilized way to act in a joint session of congress. Rep Wilson’s spontaneous reaction was not the first, and probably won’t be the last instance of such behavior by congressmen. The question we must ask ourselves is this, which is the greater offence, to lie, or to tell someone they are lying to their face?
When you look deeper into the character of Rep. Wilson, you will discover that he is a very respectful person who has been criticized in recent town hall meetings for not mentioning the President by name in dialoguing with his South Carolina constituents. This issue of health care reform has drawn out the masses of people to his town hall meetings which in the past were attended by small crowds of 50 or so people. Crowds of 1500 are the norm now that our government is pushing for control of our health care system.
Joe Wilson is a member of the Education and Labor Committee which has jurisdiction in this matter. He had been following the amendments of the Ways and Means Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as his own committee and he knew that there were no provisions for verification of citizenship. Rep. Wilson was right, the President was lying when he stated that illegal immigrants would not be covered in his health care plan.
The White House admitted later that Wilson was correct and President Obama let slip a “clarification” on how universal health care would intersect with millions of illegal immigrants.
So I ask you again, which is worse, to willfully lie, or to accuse someone of lying? It seems as though all the focus in on the accuser while the liar has been given a free pass by the media.
John 8:44 “You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.”
Who do you trust?
Monday, August 10th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
WHO DO YOU TRUST?
There was a television game show which debuted on November 18, 1957 called Who Do You Trust? Johnny Carson was the emcee and the announcer was Bill Nimmo who was replaced by Ed McMahon midway through the series. While the format of the game was similar to The Newlywed Game, it more closely resembled Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life.
Johnny Carson spent the bulk of the show’s time slot interviewing the three couples which were selected to be the contestants. These couples were chosen mainly because of their interesting idiosyncrasies. Each couple would be asked three questions which resulted in a winner’s purse of $25, $50, and $75. As you can tell, the stakes were high and the drama would build as each couple tried to correctly answer the question. I’m sure their collective pulse rates climbed to astonishing levels. After all, $75 was at stake. Each of the questions involved a numerical answer and the couple coming closest to the correct answer would advance to the bonus round. The reason the game was titled Who Do You Trust? is that the man would be asked whether he wanted to answer the question or whether he trusted his wife to arrive at the correct answer.
This hard-driving, pulse-raising, high stakes quiz show lasted for six years. That was all the drama we as a nation could handle. Any more would have caused apoplexy to the American TV-watching public.
There is today, with the bailouts of Chrysler and GM, a game being played. This game has much higher stakes and affects all of us whether or not we watch TV. Our legislators in general, and Obama in particular, in an attempt to save two mismanaged companies, have embarked on a game called Who Do You Trust?
In this new version of Who Do You Trust? for the 21st century, we have embarked on a journey which will require investors to determine who they trust before making investments. The secured bondholders of Chrysler were forced out of their lawful and customary place as first lien holders into the position of “too bad folks, the law no longer applies.” Unfortunately, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case so now it’s “investor beware.”
By simply ignoring to hear the lawsuit, the precedent has been established to disdain a premise of our economy which has been a cornerstone of commerce which set America apart from the demagoguery of socialistic societies. In the future, when Chrysler or GM is looking for investors to provide capital to keep them operating, it may be slim pickings. You have all heard the saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” This act of our leaders may have unintended consequences.
Who do you trust? That’s a good question. A question which you should ask every time you do business with someone. Having a home built is a huge investment of your money and time. Who do you trust to partner with you in accomplishing your purposes? Over the past several months, I have tried to show you why Precision Builders is a trustworthy company which has a track record to prove it. After 35 years of building homes and working with our customers, we have an established track record of trustworthiness. So ask yourself, “Who do I trust to build my home?”
I promise you that Precision Builders will not set aside our record of success for expediency. Who should you trust? Precision Builders.
Time to ban water
Monday, July 20th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
In the first year of the Obama presidency, there has been a mad rush to push America into the ranks of the environmental extremists. Al Gore has become the prophet of doom to whom we must listen if we want to save our world from certain disaster. According to him and his willing accomplice, Barack Obama, it is vital to our preservation to push for such extreme measures as “cap and trade.” “Cap and trade” is nothing more than a tax which will be inflicted on the American people alone. China and India, which are the greatest polluters of all, will be exempted from this nonsense because they are “poor.”
These two accomplices toss around the idea that there is man-made global warming as though it were a scientific fact when the truth is that weather scientists, with no governmental connections, are critical of Al Gore’s global warming hysteria.
Since Al Gore is so obsessed with his agenda, it seems reasonable to ask, “What is he doing in his own personal life to reduce emissions and to do his part to alleviate the situation?” If it is as urgent and important as he would have us believe, wouldn’t he be reactive in doing his part to share in the solution? That seems reasonable to me. Be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.
The reality is far different from what we would expect of such a rabid prophet of doom. One measure of a persons sincerity about solving a carbon problem should be the amount of energy he consumes on an annual basis. In 2007 a small group named the Tennessee Center for Policy Research published a story that shed light on the true Al Gore. In the month of August, 2007, the Gores consumed 22,619 kilowatt-hours of electricity which is more than twice the electricity the average American family consumes for an entire year.
Al Gore was criticized for his excessive consumption so he decided to do something about it. He spent several thousand dollars to install fluorescent bulbs, solar panels, and other energy saving technology. The result, a 10% increase in energy consumed the next year. In the past year, Al Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours of electricity which is enough to power 232 average American households for a month.
It seems that Al Gore’s message should be, “Do as I say and not as I do.” This is fairly typical of liberal folks who presume to know what is best for all of us.
The comedy team of Penn and Teller conducted an interesting experiment at a gathering of liberals recently. They enlisted the help of a lady to try to get people to sign a petition for banning dihydrogen monoxide. Everyone seemed more than willing to ban this substance without first finding out what it actually was. It is worth a look on You Tube.
As you saw from the clip, it is easy to get people to climb aboard a cause if you use language that sounds ominous.
Just to let you know, I am not against being wise in the use of natural resources. I believe it is our responsibility to take care of our environment in appropriate ways. God gave us a mandate to tend the earth as a farmer would tend his fields. This entails using resources wisely, and being diligent in our efforts to provide a clean, safe environment for our children. I am against climbing on the bandwagon of doubtful science and declaring that the “sky is falling.”
Precision Builders makes every effort to be knowledgeable in building energy-efficient, clean, and safe homes. We are a Certified Green Builder who will work with you to build an “EnergyWise” or “Energy Star” home which will be efficient to operate. With the near certainty of a carbon tax in our future, it would seem prudent for you to build a home that is as energy efficient as possible. It may be that energy bills will be as high as home payments. Plan accordingly.
Uniquely You
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
UNIQUELY YOU
Have you ever stopped to consider why you are the way you are? Let’s go back in time to the moment you were conceived. For some of us that was a long, long time ago. Anyway, at that one moment, one egg and one sperm out of thousands united to form you. If another egg and/or another sperm had united, there would have been a different person created. Someone completely different from you. Your parents may have named that child by your name but he would have been completely different from you. You are the combination of DNA from that one egg and sperm. Your hair color, the amount and texture of your hair, your eye color, your height, your skin tone, and every other characteristic of yours was established at that one instant in time. Had your mother and father been distracted at that moment, someone else would have been created.
There is something that is even more mind boggling than that. The Bible says in Jeremiah 1:5, where God is speaking to the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” If God could say that about Jeremiah, the same could be said about you. Somehow in the distant past God foreordained that Jeremiah should be just as he was and you should be just as you are. He, according to this verse, had to arrange the circumstances of life so that you would be conceived at that specific moment in time as a result of the union of that one specific egg and that one specific sperm to form the one specific you. Any other moment in time would have resulted in someone other than you. You are indeed unique.
Although you have a combination of DNA that gives you base tendencies, these tendencies can be modified by environment and circumstances of life. If you were born with the tendency of a quick temper, the training by your parents may have resulted in a modification of that tendency. If you have the tendency to gain weight easily, you may have learned to modify your behavior to keep your weight under control. You do have the power to change your natural tendencies.
I have started to grow some fruit trees and so have learned some things relative to shaping and modifying those trees to produce the maximum fruit possible. A peach tree needs to be pruned so that there is no central leader. In other words, the side branches need to be prominent and not the main trunk. With an apple tree the opposite is true. So with a little pruning here and a little there, I can shape the tree to be the most productive it can be. So it is with our nature and character. A little pruning here and a little there helped to shape us into who we are at the present time. Pruning is necessary during the whole lifetime of the fruit tree as well as in our lives.
What in the world does this have to do with building houses? As it is with you, it is with houses. There are no two alike. Oh, they may look alike but they are not exactly the same. Two houses may have the same floor plan and same exterior design, but I can assure you they are not exactly the same in every detail. In the past, I have built the same floor plan over and over again and can tell you that it is impossible to make them exactly the same. The room dimensions are always just a little different, the stud layout is never exactly the same, and the colors are always different since each unique person has unique tastes affecting the end result.
Are you up to the challenge of creating a home that is uniquely yours? The combination or your unique tastes and my unique abilities as a homebuilder will result in a home that is unique. If you build it on a lake lot, you could name it ‘Waters Edge,’ or if it is on the golf course, you could call it ‘Fore-ever Mine,’ or what if………..
Stretching the truth
Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
STRETCHING THE TRUTH
The warm breezes of summer take me back to the days when I was but a young man of ten years. In the summer, my parents would travel from Niles, Michigan to Webb Lake, Wisconsin to visit the place of my birth. Most of my relatives still lived in the far north woods which surrounded the twin lakes connected by a channel called Webb Lake. Out of those two lakes flowed a creek which was named, coincidentally, Webb Creek. My grandfather, whom I loved dearly, lived on several acres through which the creek flowed. Land which his father had purchased for one dollar an acre.
My grandfather was a man who was respected by all who knew him. He was a builder who built every home with loving care. He and his son (my uncle) would cut timber from the local forest, saw it into lumber, and stack it in pyramidal stacks to cure. After a year or two, they would plane the lumber to make it into smooth dimensional lumber out of which would spring his wonderful creation of a custom home for some customer from the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Customers who were wealthy enough to build a lake home on one of the hundreds of lakes in that area.
My grandfather and uncle would physically perform every aspect of the building process. They dug and poured the footers by hand, laid the foundation, framed the home, as I said, using their own lumber, built the cabinets, did the wiring, did the plumbing, and every other part of the job they accomplished with pride. I can remember watching my uncle lay the rock for the massive fireplaces for which they were known. It seemed to me like it took hours to pick out just the right stone. Many stones were tried until finally one was found that would fit perfectly into the appropriate place. My grandfather and uncle were perfectionists and took great pride in a job well done. I’m not sure they made much money in their homebuilding profession because they lived in a less than modest home. It seems as though they were more interested in doing the job well than in actually turning a profit.
Even though my grandfather was an honest and trustworthy man, there was one flaw which became evident after he would take me fishing. When we would see folks he knew, it seemed that every conversation turned to fishing. When he was queried as to the results of our fishing the previous day, he would always mention that we caught our fish on such and such a lake, although we had not even been there. I soon figured out that he wanted to keep his favorite fishing spots a secret that just the two of us could enjoy.
It seems that this is a great tendency of all fishermen. Stretching the truth about where, which bait, and the size of the catch is born into every man or boy who enjoys the pleasure of fishing. I have learned that taking pictures ensures the veracity of any catch. Since the days of fishing with my grandfather, I have enjoyed taking my sons to some wonderful places where we catch fish until our arms ache, and we have the pictures to prove it.
I think that I learned a great deal from my grandfather and uncle about taking pride in building homes that both my customers and I can be proud of. They say an acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree and I am proud to have followed in my grandfather’s footsteps. When I started building homes, I also dug and poured footers by hand, I did the framing (although the framing material came from the lumber yard), I wired, did the plumbing, the trim work and the painting. Over the years, however, I began to sub-contract those jobs to others who were competent in their trade and devoted my time and effort to run my building company in a business-like manner.
I have taught my sons also, to live by the golden rule. Eric is on the job every day to ensure that the subs are performing up to expectations. He works with our customers making suggestions as to how the drawing of their home can be translated into the finished product that is desired.
You can be sure that big ads, and fancy claims don’t ensure a quality home. Honesty, integrity, and reputation are more important in choosing a homebuilder than any other aspect. In past articles, I have mentioned some of the little things we do that make for a quality home, but the most important ingredient is integrity. Precision Builders prides itself in being honest in all our dealings.
Oh yes, and pictures have eliminated the fish tales.
Defective sheetrock
Monday, May 18th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICES
I’m old enough to remember the “good old days” when almost everything we bought was made in the U.S. In fact, anything made in Japan was considered junk– something with a very limited life expectancy and destined for the trash heap in short order. We would laugh at the cheap trinkets shipped to us from Japan and wonder why anyone would be so foolish as to even consider purchasing such useless and fragile things. What a waste of good money.
Even as recently as the 1970’s, Wal-Mart was running a “Made in America” ad campaign. Today, I feel like I need a passport to walk their isles with all the foreign merchandise. According to a survey by the National Labor Committee, of 90,000 pieces of clothing and shoes, 85% were not made in America. The travesty of the whole thing is that when comparing American-made items with those made elsewhere, the selling price was less for the American products in many cases. As an example, the Master Lock combination lock made in Milwaukee sold for $2.96 while the knock off made in Taiwan sold for $3.67. In the case of many clothing items, the American-made article sold for the exact same price as the imported product.
You may not be as old as I, but I remember very well when Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon visited China in 1971-1972 for the express purpose of establishing relations with the Chinese so we could become trading partners. During the Carter administration, in 1976, Deng Xiaoping became China’s leader. In January, 1979, Deng made an historic trip to the US during which he talked about how China could leapfrog the lost years with America’s support. And leapfrog they did.
For years I refused to buy products made in China, but now, it is nearly impossible to find anything that is made in America. This trend is a fact of life in the homebuilding business as well. Lights, plumbing fixtures, cabinets, flooring, etc. in many cases are made outside our borders.
Recently, an issue involving Chinese-made drywall has come to the surface. Usually drywall is made in the US, but during the shortages of 2004 through 2006, Chinese-made drywall was shipped into the Florida area. This material emits a rotten egg smell similar to sulfur. Whatever is causing the smell, results in breathing difficulties. It seems as though it also causes copper wiring, copper pipe, and air-conditioning evaporator coils to fail. Fortunately, this material did not make its way into East Tennessee to the best of my knowledge.
By now you are probably asking why I have brought up the world trade situation. The answer is this. It’s good to know the quality and safety of things before they are put into use. Precision Builders has been involved in discovering technology that can make your home a safer place in which to live. We can help you discover ways to build your new home in an environmentally safe way. If you are afflicted with allergies, we can show you how to make your home more comfortable and less prone to cause your allergies to rage. We do understand the high cost of low prices and strive to build quality into every home we craft.
Electricity rates would skyrocket
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
“ELECTRICITY RATES WOULD NECESSARILY SKYROCKET”
My first car was a 1956 Chevrolet two-door hardtop. Do you remember how the little chrome flap over the door window would flip up when the door was opened? Pretty cool. This meant that the door did not have a frame of metal surrounding the window which made it look very streamlined. You also had to know the secret access to the fuel filler which was hidden behind the rear taillight. Back in those days we didn’t give much consideration to fuel economy since gas cost 29.9 cents per gallon. This particular car delivered only 12 to 14 miles per gallon, but that didn’t bother me a bit.
My, how things have changed! A car that gets only 14 miles per gallon today is an albatross. A vehicle for the wealthy. A car that can hardly be sold. P.T. Barnum wasn’t exactly right. There aren’t enough suckers to go around these days to snap up a vehicle like that.
In the same way, homebuilders weren’t very interested in energy costs in the early 70’s when I started building. We didn’t think about ways to build an energy-efficient home. Energy costs were low, especially in the areas where TVA furnished power. TVA rates were the second lowest in the country.
Did you know that 62% of TVA’s energy comes from coal-fired steam plants? Why is that important? President Obama said, “So, if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can–it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.” He went on to say, “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
Are you ready for that? Everyone I know was complaining this year because of the high electric bills they experienced. Are you ready for those bills to skyrocket even more?
When energy costs rose dramatically in the mid 70’s, I worked hard to find ways to make my homes more energy efficient than those of my competition. These techniques I still use today along with other innovations that have been developed recently.
For example, do you realize that your home, even though built by a good reputable builder, has an air loss which is the equivalent of your front door being open 24 hours a day? The framing system of the average home takes up about 22% of the exterior wall space. This 22% is uninsulated. There is a framing technique that reduces the amount of uninsulated space to about 12%. It’s called “advanced framing technique.” This one technique alone results in up to a 5% energy savings.
Today, homes can be built so that the amount of air loss is reduced from the size of the open front door to the size of a 3 inch circle. As you can imagine, the cost to build such a home carries a price tag of about 15 to 20 thousand dollars. Looking at the future through the eyes of our president, this may be a very wise investment.
There are less costly approaches as well. The next best system, called “flash and batt,” utilizes a closed-cell poly foam on the inside surface of the wall sheathing along with regular fiberglass batts. This system adds only 2 to 3 thousand dollars to the average home price and should result in good energy savings. The closed-cell foam effectively seals the exterior against air loss.
An even less costly system is called “tight-fit.” Cellulose insulation mixed with glue is blown into the stud cavity to make a much tighter seal than standard fiberglass batts. This system adds about one thousand dollars to the cost and can result in energy savings, especially when combined with advanced framing.
This may be the time to trade out of your “gas-guzzler” home and consider building an energy-efficient home that will pay big dividends in the days of high energy costs which lie ahead of us.
Budget cut of 17 billion dollars
Monday, May 11th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I LOST 40 POUNDS THIS YEAR
I lost 40 pounds this year but you would never know it by looking at me. I decided to implement the federal government’s method of reckoning and creative bookkeeping. When the government reports that the budget was cut 17 billion dollars, what they mean is that the next fiscal year’s budget, which is much higher than the current years budget, was reduced by 17 billion dollars. There was no real savings and in fact, the budget is higher than the current budget. In my simplistic mind I see that as an increase and not a budget cut. How about you?
So, I can claim a 40 pound weight loss because I was expecting to gain 50 pounds but only gained 10 for a net loss of 40 pounds according to accepted government reporting practices. You can apply creative accounting to other areas of your life as well. Imagine how your bank balance could be ballooned by applying this technique. Or ladies, imagine the possibilities using this practice while shopping for clothes. You can report back to your husband that you purchased all those clothes and didn’t spend a dime. In fact, you had a net savings. You were expecting to spend $500 but managed to obtain your purchases for only $432.27 for a net gain of $67.73. “Honey, I made $67.73 today by shopping. Do you want me to deposit my earnings in the checking account?” Your bank balance would increase by $567.73 because you didn’t need the $500 and made $67.73 to boot. What a deal!
Unfortunately, in the real world we can’t operate like our elected officials. If we did, we would be put in jail for fraud. Bernie Madoff discovered the reality of that fact. He was simply employing the principles that his elected officials used. The social security system is the mother of all ponzi schemes. Apparently Bernie thought what was “good for the goose was good for the gander.”
Creative accounting can be used in the home-bidding process as well. A contractor may provide you with a bid that is lower than others but he may have left out some critical elements or priced some things on the low side, expecting to come back later with a change order to recoup the monies spent. When getting bids from several contractors, make sure you are comparing “apples to apples.” My advise would be to get bids from two contractors who have flawless reputations and good recommendations from their previous customers. Be specific and clear in what you want priced in your new home and apply the same criteria to both contractors.
Creative building-schedule promises have been used to lure a customer away from contractors who are honest. A few years ago, after spending many hours with a prospect, they were lured away from me because they were told their home could be built in a time frame much shorter than I had told them. The husband wanted to use me but his wife thought the promised shorter build-schedule was more important. As it turned out, their home took about five months longer from start to finish than I had told them. I started a larger home about a month after their home was started and finished it about four months before their home was finished. Ask a builder’s references if their home was delivered on time.
You can rest assured that we will not use creative bidding practices or creative scheduling to entice you to use us to build your home. We will price your home fairly and tell you as honestly as possible how long it will take to complete construction. Our goal is to have as good a relationship with you at the end of the process as we had at the beginning.