Avoid Scammers with this Homeowner Horror Story

Hosts Mikki Paradis and Jessica Abreu of The Chicks in Construction share a South Carolina homeowner horror story about a long-saved kitchen remodel that went wrong after hiring a contractor who seemed confident and came recommended. The project suffered from missed schedules, constant add-on invoices, delays that stretched an 8–10 week timeline to nearly six months, and failed electrical inspections that required reopening finished walls. The homeowner later discovered the contractor wasn’t licensed and ended up researching codes, confirming inspection requirements, and managing ordering and scheduling herself. The hosts warn viewers to verify licenses and business status, ask about contingency plans, confirm permits, watch for scam-like pressure tactics, and never pay for rework caused by faulty work or failed inspections.

00:00 Contractor Liability Truth

00:19 Show Welcome and Mission

01:51 Subscribe and Support

02:19 Scam Calls and Tax Threats

07:57 Anti-Scam Safety Tips

09:51 South Carolina Horror Story Begins

12:20 Kitchen Reno Dream Setup

14:03 Red Flags and Disappearing Act

15:36 Contingency and Code Talk

19:54 Change Orders and Inspection Fails

26:00 Cabinet Price Hike Scam

27:29 Code Upgrades and Licensing

28:19 Feeling Trapped Mid-Reno

28:57 High-Pressure Scam Tactics

30:54 Budget Creep and Delays

32:45 Living Without a Kitchen

33:24 Inspections Reveal Bad Work

37:07 Never Pay for Rework

40:11 Unlicensed Contractor Shock

42:29 How Permits Get Pulled

46:35 Deep-Dive Contractor Vetting

53:49 Wrap-Up and Where to Find Us

Submit your homeowner horror story:
www.chicksinconstruction.com

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Creators and Guests

Host

Jessica Abreu

As a social media expert, Jessica has a knack for identifying what makes each business unique and translating that into powerful, engaging content that resonates with clients and customers. From crafting tailored strategies and managing accounts to recording on-site content and boosting engagement, Jessica and her team handle it all so their clients can focus on what they do best.

Host

Mikki Paradis

President & CEO at PDI Drywall Inc. Mikki founded her first construction company, PDI Drywall Inc, in 2005 while she was still a student at NC State. After growing PDI into a multimillion dollar company, she has become an accomplished entrepreneur, speaker, and advocate for innovation in business and leadership. With a passion for empowering others, she has built a reputation as a forward-thinking professional dedicated to driving growth and fostering meaningful connections. Known for her dynamic energy and ability to inspire, Mikki is deeply committed to creating positive change in her industry and beyond. Whether through her entrepreneurial ventures or speaking engagements, she consistently challenges the status quo and encourages others to reach their full potential.

What is Chicks in Construction?

You plan your renovation with excitement, trust your contractor, and hope for the best...until things start going sideways. That’s when most homeowners realize they didn’t know what they didn’t know.

From permits that were never pulled to “contractors” who ghost after demo day, the construction world can feel like a maze of hidden costs and shady shortcuts. Too many homeowners end up confused, overwhelmed, and out of a lot of money.

The Chicks in Construction Podcast is here to change that. Hosted by Mikki Paradis, a licensed general contractor with 20+ years of experience, and Jess Abreu, a homeowner turned construction content creator, this show breaks down real renovation horror stories and teaches you how to protect your time, money, and home.

After building a multimillion-dollar drywall business and helping countless homeowners recover from construction nightmares, Mikki is on a mission to make sure you go into your next project informed, not blindsided. And Jess brings the perspective of someone who’s been in your shoes and now knows exactly what questions to ask.

Submit Your Construction Horror Story: https://chicksinconstruction.com/

37 Chicks in Construction
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Mikki: [00:00:00] Their faulty work is never your financial responsibility if the general contractor cannot find a proper subcontractor to do that work.

So it is right the first time. That is never, and I cannot say this with more of my chest. It is never your financial responsibility. They need to keep trying until they get it right, and that is not your cost to bear

Mikki: Well, hello and welcome back to another episode of The Chicks in Construction. I am your host, Mickey Paradise, and this is my illustrious co-host.

Jessica: Hi, I'm Jessica Abra.

Mikki: So today we have another homeowner horror story for you. And we are very grateful for everyone who takes the time to write in their stories because it helps so many people out.

Um, you know, just to learn from other people's mistakes. Mm-hmm. To help kind of spread the knowledge of like, bad experiences. It helps us kind of point out areas that, you know,

Jessica: maybe [00:01:00] do something

Mikki: better. Maybe we could have just done something different in the future. Mm-hmm. I will be fair though, to everybody watching, we're not gonna shame you.

We're not gonna home renovation. Shame you. You don't know what you don't know. That's why we're doing the show and that's why we're asking you to please write in. Mm-hmm. And share either your homeowner horror stories or if you know of somebody or of a story like in your local town, you could share that.

We can do some research and use that. 'cause we have done a couple of

Jessica: write

Mikki: stories in the

Jessica: news

Mikki: that were in the news, and I'm not gonna lie to you. Those ones palpate the heart.

Jessica: Yeah. They were bad.

Mikki: They were bad. I mean, they're all bad, but I'm talking like hundreds of thousands of dollars bad, which just feels like that's a, that's a next level.

That's,

Jessica: that's, yeah,

Mikki: that's the next level.

Jessica: We hope that you never

Mikki: Yes.

Jessica: Have to experience that

Mikki: ever, and that is the whole point of the show. We do have some new subscribers to Thank you very much for. Going to the channel. Thank you. Liking and subscribing. We appreciate you. Keep it up guys. I can't stress enough the [00:02:00] importance of how much I wanna retire early.

I know that none of you care, but you could help me out just by liking and subscribing. Um, it's free. It is free. It's so funny when I hear influencers say that. I'm just like, doesn't everybody know that? Apparently they don't. No, apparently you don't have to pity they can click that button. I was thinking about this on the way over, so we have an IT guy.

That manages like the, the computer, all the, all the things.

Jessica: The

Mikki: stuff,

Jessica: the interweb.

Mikki: Yeah. Like the nonsense that I don't have time for.

Default_2026-03-09_1: Right.

Mikki: Um, and he sends me messages all the time of like scams that are happening and like things to watch out for with ai. And apparently it's like tax return scam time.

Jessica: Yes. Because it's that time of year

Mikki: because people have money and, and I'm, first of all. First of all, I, I know that probably scammers aren't gonna watch our podcast, so I'm probably just speaking into the void. But if your job is to just scam hardworking [00:03:00] people out of their money mm-hmm. Um, you're going straight down.

Let's just, let's just call it like it is.

Jessica: They're not even in this country. Most of 'em,

Mikki: you're gonna go straight to hell, no matter whether you believe in it or not, and you gonna burn. And I just want you to know

Jessica: mm-hmm.

Mikki: Get familiar with Satan. That's all I'm saying. So I bring this up because not only did the IT guy warn me about it, but I joke that Hector's cell phone number has to be.

On a bathroom stall somewhere in India. 'cause it's always a very thick, thick Indian accent.

Jessica: Oh my God.

Mikki: And this man, it, it must say like, for a good scam, call this number on a bathroom somewhere.

Jessica: Somewhere.

Mikki: Because he gets at least once a day like, and I'm talking like. The, the, like the real threatening ones mm-hmm.

Where they're like, oh, we're gonna, A sheriff is on their way to your house right now. I've gotten that one before. I was

Jessica: like, really? I can't wait to see him. Is he cute, Hector?

Mikki: He is like, so used to it at this [00:04:00] point that, so I was, we're in the truck and he gets a call and he answers it, and I was like, first of all,

Jessica: why do you answer it?

Mikki: I never answer. I barely answer my phone when I know who it is. I never answer my phone. Mm-hmm. So I'm just like, why are you doing this nonsensical thing by answering a number you don't know? He's like, you never know who it could be. And I'm like, 90%, it's gonna be somebody trying to scam you. So he answers the phone and the guy does the whole thing.

He's like, you have unpaid, and it's like always taxes or something like it.

Jessica: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: Something. And if you don't pay it, the sheriff's on your way to the house right now. And so he says to the guy, does the sheriff drink coffee? It just, the roll is the guy off so hard. 'cause he's like, well, like, he's like trying to find words.

He has no

Jessica: idea. He's, this is not in the script

Mikki: that, yeah. He's like, oh crap, this isn't the, the generated response. And that guy's like, I I don't know. And he's like, well, can you. Call him. 'cause obviously you have his number 'cause he is on, you know that he is on his way to my [00:05:00] house.

Jessica: Right.

Mikki: So can you call him and find out how he likes his coffee?

'cause I'm happy to just make him a fresh cup and the guy, this is very serious and actor's like, oh, I'm sure it is. Yeah. No, very serious. Like, just find out. I, I, he's like, I take coffee. Very serious.

Jessica: Yeah.

Mikki: So please find out how he likes his coffee and I'm happy to make him a cup.

Jessica: We don't wanna ruin his day.

Right? By giving him a cup of coffee with milk if he doesn't want milk.

Mikki: Right. If he likes his coffee black, how dare I?

Jessica: Right.

Mikki: Is it two sugars? Is it three? Does he have Splenda? Man, I need to know these things. Right? Like God gets so, so like, I don't know how many times Hector has been hung up on by a scammer, but I'm like.

Wow.

Jessica: Yeah.

Mikki: That's impressive.

Jessica: That is a skill.

Mikki: It is a skill.

Jessica: I saw on Instagram that people, when they, when they call, they take their phone. Mm-hmm. And they see it's a scammer and they put it on their counter and they take a. Skillet pan? No. And they put it over it and they answer it. Yeah. When the person says hello, they [00:06:00] bang on it with a spoon.

No. Do you know how loud that's gonna be?

Mikki: I can only admit that's a good one.

Jessica: I was like, that's gonna stop a lot of calls.

Mikki: That is a good one. I feel like it will either stop a lot of calls or they'll definitely write your phone number on the bathroom stall somewhere in not America. How dare you. And you're gonna get a lot of spicy phone calls.

I will say one of the times it was the tax one where there's like the sheriff was on his way. And like, listen, I'm not trying to like toot toot the horn, right? But like we own a pretty large business. We don't do our own taxes. Like TurboTax ain't handling my company's

Jessica: No. You hire a professional,

Mikki: like we have like a team, a soccer team at least of like people who do our taxes.

Mm-hmm. So like. Calling us and threatening the tax thing is like laughable. 'cause it's like, first of all, you have any idea how much money I pay in taxes? You're cute. Trust me. The IS isn't throwing me in jail anytime soon. 'cause they're trying to get that money on me, right? So I'm like going, I really like lean into [00:07:00] it with this one guy.

And he's like, he's, he's going hard. And then finally I was like, I was like, so if you know this is the way that you make your money. You are like, is this how you want your kids? You want your kids to grow up and like scam people. I just start like really shaming him. Mm-hmm. I am. I am thumbs downing him over the phone.

Love it. And I'm just like laying it on thick. Next thing I know, he's calling me a dog and a beggar apparently in India. These are very sick burns.

Jessica: Oh, it's probably like the

Mikki: C

Jessica: word. Oh,

Mikki: you, oh, it's the C word. Hmm. It's all the words. A dog and a beggar is like, there's nothing more insulting. No. And I was like, first of all, I love dogs, so I was like, sir, if you're gonna call Americans and insult them, you should probably do a little bit of research on how to actually do that.

Jessica: Chat. GPT, what are some good insults?

Mikki: Source open ai, sir. He hung up the phone on me. So I love it. So I felt like, well,

Jessica: so

Mikki: the point of this Chicky chat, my friends, [00:08:00] is to just be vigilant. Um, please never give your, like your pho, your any, don't pay anybody if you have not confirmed from like a third party.

No.

Jessica: And a sheriff, they don't call you to tell you he's coming. He just shows

Mikki: up. He just show up. And also now he's

Joe Woolworth: never shown up at my house, but like.

Jessica: That's how it works

Mikki: on tv. No, I haven't had any, so, yeah. Yeah. The other thing too is we don't have a debtor's prison. Y'all like, unless you have done something shade day on your taxes and like tried to, you know.

I don't know, break the lock

Jessica: fraud, some

Mikki: sort. Just 'cause you didn't pay your taxes doesn't mean you're going to jail. Mm-hmm. So I can't stress that enough. Like I, I feel like we all know that, but just to be on the, on the up and up, it kind of goes in with, you know, shady contractors, shady humans be abundant.

And we as the chicks in construction, we just wanna help you be safe out there. So just know right now. The scams be scamming, they be, they coming pretty [00:09:00] hard for people and like I, my sister-in-law got it, got scammed once because she didn't understand how the system works. And so she got a call and it was like saying that she hadn't paid her energy bill and her electricity was about to get cut off.

And she has have little kids at the time, so she was just like, oh my God. And so she didn't put the pieces together in her head when they were asking for a prepaid. She had to go get a prepaid Visa card, put the money on that, because then you can never get it back. Like you can't, you can't contest that charge.

No. So she went out and got it and it was, what sucked is like it was, it was 300 bucks, but like for her that was like a lot mood money to feed her kids with.

Jessica: Right.

Mikki: So it was a really big deal. And so if, you know, if it feels shady, it probably is shady. So we just wanna. We wanna protect you. We wanna help you help yourself.

Jessica: There we are. So today we have a, yeah. Homeowner Horror story coming in from a South Carolina, south

Mikki: cac.

Jessica: Yes. One state

Mikki: away. [00:10:00]

Jessica: Oh, no. State. A little bit warmer down there.

Mikki: It is. It's just slight bit, you know, North Carolina and South Carolina are essentially the same size, but North Carolina has twice the population in South Carolina does.

Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Wrap your hand around that if you can.

Jessica: Well, we have bigger cities, I guess.

Mikki: I guess. I don't know what it is. I'm like, people are just like, yeah, North Carolina, and I'm like, people keep moving here. I might be in South.

Jessica: I might just move across the.

So this poor woman, she says, I don't even know where to start without my blood pressure going up a little. Ooh, that's always a

Mikki: terrible story. I literally, when she sent that in, I stopped what I was doing to read it. 'cause I was like, you started talking about blood pressure. I'm locked in.

Jessica: I mean, I

Mikki: wanna hear because I know, I know about the blood pressure.

I know when I can feel the pulse on my forehead. We're on the cusp of a heart attack.

Jessica: That's not good.

Mikki: No, it's not good. Listen, Jess, I'm doing the best I can.

Joe Woolworth: And I'm like,

Mikki: I do be feeling the heartbeat and the forehead sometimes. And you [00:11:00] can see the vein. Oh, like it starts bulging. And I'm like, oh, cool.

Great. This is probably fine.

Jessica: It's normal.

Mikki: It's normal. It's, it's totally fine.

Jessica: We're doing great.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: We live in South Carolina. Our kitchen was straight out of the early two thousands.

Mikki: Yes.

Jessica: Which

Joe Woolworth: sadly, when I first read that, I was like, that's not that old. And I was like, oh

Jessica: yeah. I was like, oh, I graduated high school that year.

Mikki: Yeah, so did I.

Jessica: Yeah.

Mikki: And I was like, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

Jessica: I was like, oh, I should have had my 25 year reunion last year. Nobody organized it, so I guess we don't care. Oh, that

Mikki: makes me happy to hear, it's not just my school. My school be doing these reunions at like parks. I'm a honey child. I'm not getting on a flight.

Jessica: Two park

Mikki: to sit in a park and eat Sonny's barbecue. And if you live in Florida, you know

Jessica: it is hot in Florida.

Mikki: It is. I don't know what they're thinking, but I'm like, yeah, I'm not catching a flight date to sit in a park and eat barbecue. I could do that here.

Jessica: Yeah. I don't know if I just wasn't invited or they just didn't have one.

Either way, I'm okay with it.

Mikki: I, well, you can imagine [00:12:00] the level of jerk I was in high school. It was high. It was high, so I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't invited.

Jessica: No, I was, I was even quieter than I am now.

Mikki: Oh no, you're, you were fine. I was the whole problem.

Jessica: Yeah, I can see that.

Mikki: Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent.

It's not surprising at all. You're like, yeah, you,

Jessica: you

Mikki: being the problem. Shocker. Sorry. Sorry about that. We're

Jessica: back on

Mikki: track.

Jessica: So we're early two thousands with honey Oak cabinets. Yes. Laminate counters. Oh

Mikki: yeah.

Jessica: Fluorescent light. Oh, here we go. Light box. It functioned, but barely. We saved for years to redo it.

Mikki: Mm.

Jessica: It wasn't some impulsive project. This was our, we worked hard for this project. Ooh. Which, you know, we all work really hard. So when you're saving that money for something special that you want, want, you're

Mikki: squirreling the money away. You're like not doing trips. 'cause you just want this kitchen so hard.

Jessica: Yes. Like not eating out that, oh man. All right, we get it. So we hired the wrong guy, even though he came recommended, he talked [00:13:00] confidently, showed us photos, knew all the right words. His price wasn't crazy cheap, just a little lower than the others. Enough to make us feel smart. Mm

Mikki: mm.

Jessica: See again, and somebody said before, we've had another story where they said that the guy was like saying all the right things.

Mikki: This has happened in, I'm gonna say all but two or three of our home in our horror stories. Like this is almost like, but it's like, how do we advise you the, the, the, the renovator, right? Like, what do we say? Like, don't trust somebody who's confident. Like,

Jessica: I mean, you want him to be confident and like he's peacocking because

Mikki: Yeah.

Because I think it was the last homeowner horror story, and she kind of talked about how, like he said all the right things and he was so confident. But honestly, I, this has come up in, in multiple homeowner horror stories. Yes.

Jessica: So let's not take confidence as a Okay, this is a person to go with.

Mikki: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica: It's great that they are, but it needs to be, there needs to be another levels of

Mikki: checking. We still check on them. Yeah.

Jessica: I remember thinking this feels [00:14:00] right.

Mikki: Mm.

Jessica: It wasn't,

Mikki: oh.

Jessica: The demo started and I was excited, like giddy. I took before pictures, I sent updates to my friends. I could see it coming together in my head.

Then the disappearing act started. He wouldn't show up when he said he would. Workers would come late. Materials wouldn't be ordered if I didn't text. Nothing moved. I'm not exaggerating when I say I was managing the schedule from my phone while trying to live my normal life,

Mikki: which is why, why are you paying for a licensed general contractor if you're managing the job like.

Jessica: They should be the ones telling you who's going to be right. Showing up or what's going to be happening. Yeah, or

Mikki: something.

Jessica: At one point, I had a running notes app list title, things he forgot.

Mikki: Oh my God.

Jessica: I just love how organized she is. I'm like,

Mikki: she's like, hold on, let me check my notes of all the stuff you forgot.

'cause you're the worst

Jessica: because you're [00:15:00] the worst. And then you can cross it off. Oh, he fixed this now. Um. It was long, man. The budget gone. Every week was something new, and it was never presented like a mistake. It was always presented like this is just how it goes. Which I feel like as a homeowner, you don't know.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: If things are going a certain way, just because that's just the way construction goes. Yeah. Like problems happen or when it's a shady contractor who's just effing up every single time.

Mikki: And we've talked about this because there is a difference between. Having a contingency and 'cause you, you just don't know, especially if your house is 20 something years old, you have no idea what you're gonna find when you open up, you know, the drywall and you're looking at the plumbing and there's, there's always rot.

Like there's always something water. There's always water damage somewhere. So like any. Good [00:16:00] contractor is going to build in a contingency. So like I feel like one of the things that you can do as a homeowner when you're negotiating with a general contractor is specifically asking how much of this budget is the contingency?

Is there a $2,000 contingency of $5,000? Like, how much are you planning in this number? For a mistake, because if the answer is none, then I'm sorry that's not an experienced renovator because there's n never nothing. Never. Like I've had friends who had brand new homes that like they listen, they had more money.

I. You know, then me, if we just put it that way, and they would, they bought a new house and they wanted to change like five or six things in this house, and so it was like, I'm just like, I'm sorry you spent a million dollars and you're gonna spend it. Like, okay,

Jessica: why don't you just tell it when they're working?

I'm

Mikki: like, what industry are you in? Maybe I can get,

Jessica: are you hiring?

Mikki: It's like, clearly you're not doing drywall. So. And they have [00:17:00] brand new houses. I'm talking, they haven't even moved into them yet. They brought in people to renovate things or to change a tile or whatever. And there was problems like so, ugh.

To say that you have a 26-year-old house. Mm-hmm. And you're gonna open that up and not expect any kind of problems. That is just a wildly inexperienced general contractor. So I would think like one way that people can. Fight against this. Mm-hmm. Or like protect themselves against this is to specifically ask the general contractors all of the ones that you're interviewing.

Okay. And what's your contingency policy? How much money do you build into the budget for contingency?

Jessica: Right.

Mikki: And then you lost like, like, listen, if they put five grand into the contingency and they open things up and it's like, whoa, Nelly. Whoa. It might blow through your $5,000, but at least that's not $5,000.

That's straight out the gate is coming outta your pocket.

Jessica: Right,

Mikki: because it's in your contingency.

Jessica: So you've already budgeted and planned for it.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: And like you have to bring [00:18:00] things up to code too, right? Yes. If you move things, so like electrical codes, I know like change every mm-hmm. Few years. So if you're a house is 20-year-old, you're going to have to,

Mikki: oh yeah.

The building codes change every couple of years too. So like. I actually had a, a cousin who. Listen, he does renovations, but it takes him his whole life, like multiple years. And so he got a permit to do this renovation and it took him so long that his permit had expired. So then when he went back to renew the permit, the building code had changed and he had to change.

He had to bring all the stuff up because it was a new permit. And they're like, sorry, guy. Like if you had kept the permit active, Ooh. Mm-hmm. You'd been fine, but because it's a new permit, like you have to bring it up to the changed like building code and like, and so you have to change this and that. It was crazy.

So yes, you do have to bring things up and it can be a lot.

Jessica: Um,

Mikki: but side note to that, your general contractor should know that they should. So [00:19:00] if, if you've got a house that's 20, 30 years old and you wanna do a kitchen renovation and your general contractor's not talking about, okay, well you know, the code has changed since this house was built and we're gonna probably have to upgrade this and we're gonna probably have to upgrade that.

And they're not talking about those building code changes, flag on the play. Flag on the play.

Jessica: Maybe don't hire that one.

Mikki: Yeah. Like, because you want somebody that isn't gonna be surprised when the inspector comes in and says, oh, well that's not up to code. 'cause we, you know, the, the code the code has changed.

Has changed. You want somebody who expected that and then because they expected it, they built that into the price.

Joe Woolworth: Absolutely.

Mikki: Yeah.

Joe Woolworth: This person did not,

Mikki: sadly, sad. I mean, 'cause she, she just started watching the show, so now she knows.

Jessica: But now she knows

Mikki: sadly.

Jessica: It's all right. She's gonna help somebody else.

She's gonna help you. That's not make

Mikki: this mistake. That's You're not gonna do it.

Jessica: No,

Mikki: you're not gonna.

Jessica: All right, so this is just how it goes. The first one was, we didn't plan for this going right into what we were saying. Yep, yep. Apparently, when [00:20:00] they removed the old cabinets, they discovered the drywall behind them wasn't in good shape, which, okay, it's an older home.

That didn't shock me, but what did shock me was that there was no contingency plan.

Mikki: Mm.

Jessica: No conversation ahead of time. Like, if we open this up and there's damage, here's how we handle it.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: So,

Mikki: yeah,

Jessica: exactly what we were saying. Yeah. She, she knows now. Yeah. So it was like, yeah. We'll need to redo this whole section.

That'll be another 2,800 in a text.

Mikki: Oh, look. Good for him.

Jessica: Mm.

Mikki: What Great communication skills. Yes.

Jessica: A text then came, this will cost a little more. The little more. And she has quotes all over. Like, she, I can feel her like,

Mikki: yeah, her, her blood pressure. We can, we

Jessica: feel it. Feel the vein in her head drawing. It's going up and up with every.

Every quote, every quote, every quote that's there, [00:21:00] oh my gosh. Um, the little more was never little. The tile install was suddenly more expensive because the floor wasn't level enough. The vent hood required extra duct work. The island needed additional support that somehow wasn't accounted for in the original estimate.

And the frustrating part as if none of that was frustrating. Right. It felt less like surprises and more like poor planning.

Mikki: Yeah. And poor estimating and poor, like a lack of understanding. Like he probably didn't realize. That that island was gonna require additional like structural support underneath their kitchen.

It was probably the inspector that was like, Hey you planned on putting it, and he was like, oh no, I was not. You know

Joe Woolworth: what times you

Mikki: said

Jessica: it.

Joe Woolworth: Well, since you mentioned it.

Jessica: Okay. Or could it be that like he knew that all these things were going to add up and he wanted to make sure that he was the lowest bid?

It could be both so that they would go with him.

Mikki: It could be both. And that's where like [00:22:00] asking these questions like, what's your contingency plan? Like what, and I think it's like, this one for me is, is not a question, it's a statement, right? Like, to be clear sir, um, if you fail something. I am not paying for it.

That was in the last Homeowner horror story. Mm-hmm. That is still bothering me to this day. So I think it was two or three times they failed an inspection because they did the work improperly and the inspector failed it, and they charged her, not the reinspection fee, but for the faulty work Y'all. Look at me right now.

Look at me, look at me. Look at me right now. Absolutely not. Absolutely not you. You pay for that one, one time. If it takes 'em five times, you pay for it one time

Jessica: and then you find a new contractor

Mikki: five times, and then you immediately find a new contractor like. Absolutely not. Their faulty work is never your financial responsibility if the general contractor cannot [00:23:00] find a proper subcontractor to do that work.

So it is right the first time. That is never, and I cannot say this with more of my chest. It is never your financial responsibility. They need to keep trying until they get it right, and that is not your cost to bear Now. A contingency is really important. So asking questions like, what's the contingency plan, but stating with your whole chest if you fail an inspection, any work that needs to be done for you to fix that failure is on you, sir.

Mm-hmm. Or ma'am, it is not on me. And be very clear about that. Honestly, make sure that that is in your contract because. I can't imagine the world where I go mess somebody's drywall up and then I go back to them and say, oh, well if you want me to fix it, it's gonna cost us,

Jessica: it's gonna cost you extra.

Mikki: My clients would be like, we will make sure you never work again.

You like that is not a thing.

Jessica: Yeah. And it's one of those things where homeowners [00:24:00] we don't know. If

Mikki: you don't know and you just think, okay, and like to that lady's point, she was like, I was afraid that they would just leave it. Here's the thing. In every story we have told, that would've been the best thing that happened to that lady because it was, it was right out the gate.

It was right out the gate. They came in and, and, and did that to her a couple of times. If she had just been like, you know what, actually get outta my house. It'd been the best thing that ever happened to her. Right? So if somebody is coming to you. And saying, oh, we failed an inspection and it's gonna cost you X amount of dollars to fix it.

Oh, pack your things up and leave like,

Jessica: and gimme back my money.

Mikki: Yeah. It's not even a conversation and I know that it feels really overwhelming because you're like, in this situation, her bathroom is completely tore up and she's like, I'm, you know, I'm living at my parents' house. I only had the one bathroom she felt like she had, but at the end of the day she still had to fire him anyway.

Jessica: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: So. It's like, do it now or do it later. Like do it before it costs you 50 grand. Right. Or, or do [00:25:00] it after it costs you 50 grand. But like when you find yourself in that pickle, it not going well.

Jessica: No,

Mikki: it's not. I'm so sorry.

Jessica: It is not.

Mikki: Sorry we went on a tangent There. We're rolling back in side, side quest.

Jessica: It felt like poor planning then the one that really made my eyes twitch. I,

Mikki: okay. Listen,

Jessica: prices went up.

Mikki: Oh yeah,

Jessica: the prices went up

Mikki: when she wrote that. I immediately did any, did anybody watch the movie French Kiss? I know Jess did it. No, because she didn't watch movies. I

Jessica: don't watch movies.

Mikki: But the French kiss, it was like Meg Ryan, I can't remember the actor, the, the male actor's name, but he played a Frenchman.

Jessica: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: And he was like, every time. You come around and makes my ass twitch.

Jessica: When I saw the accent for me,

Mikki: when I read the, like my eye twitching, I immediately said, my ass twitch.

Jessica: Sorry.

Mikki: I don't know guys. Nobody knows what's wrong with me.

Jessica: We're still trying to figure it out. We

Mikki: are trying to figure it out.

We'll, never will.

Jessica: No. [00:26:00] The cabinets were delayed. When they finally arrived, we were told the supplier had increased pricing and we have to cover the difference.

Mikki: Okay? That's also not a thing. So a supplier will not ship your cabinets until they have been paid, so they're not going to arrive to your house and there'll be a oopsy whoopsy.

Additional costs, like they don't ship those cabinets until they have been paid. They don't ship. Especially for renovation work, like maybe if your builder has a really good relationship with a supplier, they will ship and have like a 30 day payment terms. But in a renovation, no cabinet company in the history of cabinet companies is shipping cabinets that have not been paid for no.

Jessica: 'cause. They wanna make sure they get their money

Mikki: because unlike so many homeowners, they've been doing this for a long time and they understand how shady. Renovation contractors are and they're just like, Nope, nope. You're gonna pay us first. 'cause we're not gonna be the ones [00:27:00] trying to collect money from you bums.

Jessica: Nope. We're not gonna go after you.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: So don't, if they get delivered, they've been paid

Mikki: for, then that's the, the price you paid is the price that was paid.

Jessica: I remember thinking, but we already signed a contract. How is this my responsibility? There was ano, there was always a reason, always an explanation, and always an invoice attached to it.

Mm. This guy just like, was like, saw her and was like, money, money,

Mikki: money, money, money, money.

Jessica: And then the classic, the city requires it. Suddenly we needed additional electrical work to meet updated code. Suddenly the spacing on the outlets wasn't right. Suddenly the inspector wanted a different type of breaker, and I kept wondering, shouldn't you have known that a

Mikki: hundred percent?

Jessica: Isn't that. Your job,

Mikki: literally, it's your only job.

Jessica: Like you're suppo, like if you're licensed, you have to get [00:28:00] Yes, like continuing ed credits and learn about all the changes, right.

Mikki: I mean, we do here in North Carolina, so we have to, every time there's code changes, we have to take classes on it, and we are required to take eight hours of continuing education every year to be able to renew our licensing.

So yes. Yeah.

Jessica: Yes.

Mikki: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Jessica: Mm-hmm. Definitely should have known. It felt like we were paying for his learning curve.

Mikki: Mm. That is the worst feeling ever.

Jessica: Just being like, why am I paying you?

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: Why? No, I could've, I could've paid a handyman down the street. Every one of these moments came with the, with this subtle pressure.

Our kitchen was torn apart. We had no sink, no stove cabinets stacked in the living room.

Mikki: Oh, that's sexy.

Jessica: It's not like we could say, let's pause and get other bids, but they should have,

Mikki: you can, it doesn't feel like it. 'cause your life is in disarray. And here's the thing, guys, that's what [00:29:00] these guys are counting on.

Mm-hmm. One, they know exactly what to say to get the job. They've been doing it long enough. They're absolute narcissists. They're total scammers. They know exactly what to say. Mm-hmm. They know exactly how to be confident. They know exactly how to get the work, but then they also know exactly how to put you in a position where you feel like with your back against the wall.

Mm-hmm. Like, I can't fire this person because my house is torn up. Yes, you can, because guys. Very few of these homeowner horror stories ended with the person finishing with the same contractor. Honestly, I think it was one, right? It was the other lady in South Carolina who yes. Had the, the porch. Mm-hmm.

She added the porch on the back and like, I wouldn't call it, she, she wouldn't even have called it a ho a horror story. She just wanted to share, you know, the things that she learned, which we appreciate. Go to chicks and construction.com, but. It, it, every single one of them have ended with them, them firing the guy, the, the, the homeboy not showing up.

Like [00:30:00] just be, just

Jessica: disappearing,

Mikki: gone. Not answering the phone. Yeah. Like changing his number. You are going to end up there anyway. So when you feel like, okay, my back is up against the wall if I don't pay this extra money. Mm-hmm. That is all you need as the homeowner to be like, mm-hmm. Immediately stop.

Immediately stop. Because you are getting scammed and they're putting you in that high pressure, like high sales position. Mm-hmm. To make you feel like you don't have a choice. You do. And you're gonna have to go that direction anyway. They're just trying to see how much money they can, like how far they can push you to that breaking point.

Yeah. Eventually the breaking point is gonna come whether it's your choice or it's theirs, but it's gonna come.

Jessica: It's going to come and it, if you do it earlier, you can save yourself. Yeah. Some money and some headaches. Yeah. And your blood pressure not rising as much as this one is.

Mikki: Yeah. No.

Jessica: Um, so every week I look at my husband and say, I guess [00:31:00] we have to,

Mikki: oh my God, every week,

Jessica: little by little, the budget stretched.

Then Snapped was started as a carefully saved renovation, turned into us pulling money we had set aside for other things, and the worst part wasn't even the money. It was the feeling of constantly being caught off guard. I don't mind paying for quality work. I do mind feeling like I'm being. Drip fed bad news.

Mm. Because someone didn't plan properly. Yeah. In the first place.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: And when your entire kitchen is torn apart and your cabinets are sitting on your living room floor, what are you supposed to do? Fire him. Start over. Lay live like that longer.

Mikki: Live like that

Jessica: longer. Oh, that I

Default_2026-03-09_1: might,

Jessica: yeah. Sorry. No words were just not wording, they weren't wording.

Mikki: It's Monday, I guess.

Jessica: Yeah. You're watching this on a Tuesday, right? You'll

Mikki: watch it on a Tuesday before it's Monday.

Jessica: We [00:32:00] felt trapped, so we kept going.

Mikki: Mm.

Jessica: It was supposed to be like eight to 10 weeks. Oh, I don't even wanna, I don't even, I don't even wanna let you know how long it

Mikki: was. I'll die. I'll probably follow right out the chair.

Jessica: It took almost six months.

Mikki: Holy crap.

Jessica: Six

Mikki: months. They went from two months to six months.

Jessica: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: Holy. Honestly, that's actually not as bad. Remember the, the last one, nine months for her bathroom?

Jessica: Mm.

Mikki: For her bathroom. This was a kitchen that's more involved.

Jessica: Right.

Mikki: Oh,

Jessica: but it's still like, I can't imagine not being able to cook for six months.

Mikki: Oh yeah. No,

Jessica: that's, I mean, I would love being able to not have to cook

Mikki: like, oh, sorry, I can't

Jessica: cut guys, but my waistline would not just, I'm gonna say I gave

Mikki: up on that a long time ago, guys.

Jessica: Six months of no sync. Washing dishes in the bathtub. Oh, cooking in the air fryer and microwave. Like we were in college again.

Mikki: Ooh, reminiscent.

Jessica: We didn't have air fryers when we were in

Mikki: college. No, we didn't. That's how old me and Jess are. They didn't [00:33:00] exist yet.

Jessica: We had ramen noodle in the microwave.

Mikki: That's right. Cup noodles, y'all. Yeah.

Jessica: Air fryer. She fancy, fancy, um, kids asking when it would be done. Never. Never. This is, this is our new life.

Are we there?

Mikki: No.

Jessica: This is our new life kids. Me pretending I wasn't stressed when I absolutely was.

Mikki: Mm.

Jessica: The inspections was where it got really stressful. Plumbing passed on the first inspection. Good job Plumbing. And I remember thinking, okay, maybe I'm just being anxious. Then electrical failed.

Mikki: Yeah. No, it's not you, hun.

Jessica: The inspector literally looked at me and said, who did this work?

Mikki: Who did this? Oh God. That's like as bad as it gets. Yes.

Jessica: That's what I would expect if I had my husband tried to do anything in my house.

Mikki: Brad, that's who did it. Brad did it. I told him not to touch it. Did he listen?

Jessica: He didn't. No, he didn't. He never does.

Although he is starting to now our. Refrigerator stopped [00:34:00] making ice.

Mikki: Oh, okay.

Jessica: Which it does

Mikki: as one does.

Jessica: You know,

Mikki: it's had enough.

Jessica: It's like, no, absolutely not. Not going to make any i'll,

Mikki: I'll

Jessica: not, and it just makes this noise like it's trying to make ice, but it's not. He's giving him a shot, I think maybe the line is frozen.

And I was like, okay, so who are we calling to fix that? And he's like, well, let me just get behind.

Mikki: Oh God, Brad. So he moves the refrigerator? No.

Jessica: And gets like behind it, he is like, oh, there's Dusty back here. So he gets the vacuum and he's cleaning it. Okay. And I'm like, oh, great. Thanks

Mikki: for that Great job.

Cleaning it for the repairman

Jessica: so he doesn't get dirty. And he's like, I can't figure out where. I was like, then don't touch it.

Mikki: Don't

Jessica: touch it. He he touch

Mikki: it, don't touch it.

Jessica: Yeah. And then he's like, I can't figure it out. So he pushes it back and he opens up. The fridge with a little freezer box thing is Yeah, for the ice.

The ice thing.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: He takes it out and he's looking and he's touching things. I was like, can you not?

Mikki: He was like, I swear to God.

Jessica: I swear to God. I'm like, just call the guy who [00:35:00] fixed our washing machine. Yeah. Maybe he knows how to fix refrigerator. He too, I'm sure does. Sure he does. So he texted him, he's coming this week, and I was like, oh

Mikki: yeah,

Default_2026-03-09_1: just.

Jessica: Don't, you're like, I swear to God, Brett, if I come home

Mikki: to our house flooded because you decided to fall out the ice line. I swear to God,

Jessica: like this is not, this is above our pay grade, okay? There are things that we can do. This is not, this is

Mikki: not it.

Jessica: This is not it.

Mikki: Like guys, if it involves water and you're not a plumber, please don't, like, I cannot, I cannot stress this enough.

No water. Whilst we need it to fuel our bodies.

Jessica: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: Can be the devil's work inside a house like the, oh my God. The levels. The levels.

Jessica: It's just terrible.

Mikki: Please don't, please don't. Yeah.

Jessica: So, yes, he listened to me and we went and bought a bag of ice. 'cause we don't have ice cube trays, so,

Mikki: oh, look at you guys.

Jessica: He needs, I don't

Mikki: even use that much ice.

Jessica: My husband has to have the water freezing like Arctic. I take a sip and my teeth hurt.

Mikki: Oh God.

Jessica: Like I, I don't [00:36:00] like that. But he's, me and my kids both like it too, like that. Hmm. So now I'm perfectly fine just getting the water from the fridge. Oh yeah. It's chilly.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: Yeah. But it's not

Mikki: crisp.

Jessica: My kids are like, Ugh, mom, my water's not cold enough for me to drink. I'm like,

Mikki: okay, listen. Listen. When you problems,

Jessica: we up on the streets.

Mikki: The water is the water and you drink it. This

Jessica: is how you're

Mikki: gonna drink. You're like, it's not outta the puddle. I'm doing good today.

Jessica: So first, we're all problems.

My water isn't cold enough.

Mikki: Mom. Mom, why not go? You better tell them not to pull that stuff when I'm watching 'em. Because I'll be like, I'll boil that water.

Jessica: I'll have all their stuff filled.

Mikki: I will put that water on a stove and boil it and make you drink it. Jess is like, I'm regretting asking you to watch my kids

Jessica: now.

I'm like, I thought you were gonna say I was gonna fill it from the bathtub, but if you boil it, it's fine.

Joe Woolworth: That's fine.

Mikki: Kill all the germs. Right? That's right. Sorry. Side quest.

Jessica: Um, so the inspector said, who did this work? That's when I started to feel that pit in my stomach. Wires weren't done correctly.

Things weren't up to code. [00:37:00] We had to reopen parts of the wall that were already closed. More time, more money.

Mikki: Uhuh not your money, not your money, you guys, if they did the work in properly. 0% of that comes outta your pocket. And, and like, and like, think about the world that you live in, like whatever job you have, whatever career you have, whatever it is, this is a universal thing.

Mm-hmm. If you didn't break it, you don't pay for it. Like. I can't, like, I can't imagine in what world that is a thing, but this is a reoccurring theme in homeowner horror stories, right? Where they do something improper. You paid for the electrical work to be done. You are paying for that one time. You're not paying for that three times.

You're not paying for that twice, you're paying for that once. Mm-hmm. And as many times as it takes them is as many times as it takes them. But again. [00:38:00] You're paying for it once. Yep. From now on, we are not paying for rework. We are not paying for that. The homeowners, that is the job of the general contractor.

And that should be in his personal contingency plan. So,

Default_2026-03-09_1: right.

Jessica: And that should be like with his sub, like if he subcontract to that, then

Mikki: his go after them come back and fix it. Right. Like that's just, and, and here's the thing, if we mess up drywall, like here's a, here's a perfect example. Every once in a while when we are installing a drywall, a wire will get pinched.

Like it will get in between the drywall and the wall and it will get pinched. Mm-hmm. Or they'll put a screw through something. It happens. And so the, the, the plumber or the electrician or whoever it is that we, you know, damage, the thing has to come out, they cut a hole. Now listen, I normally get pretty spicy about cutting holes, but when it's my guys that did the damage, like that's on me.

I don't get to mess it up. Then bill somebody to fix the hole. [00:39:00] That's not how that works. Not in any arena of construction. I the sub, the, the sub, the subcontractor will come back and fix my faulty work at no cost to anyone but me. That's why when you have that level of accountability, do it right the first time where it's gonna cost you money, not me money.

You'd be surprised at how quickly. People figure out how to do their jobs. Mm-hmm. But if they think they can get three or four goes out of you, oh, we're just gonna keep messing this up until

Jessica: Right,

Mikki: because they'll keep paying for it. You are just a blank check at that point. And if somebody doesn't have integrity, that's not gonna end well for you.

So we're stopping that right now, y'all. We don't pay contractors for messed up work. If they messed it up, they fix it.

Jessica: Period. End of story. Period.

Mikki: Period. Period. Okay. Continue, period.

Jessica: And then, and then [00:40:00] the framing needed to be adjusted because something else wasn't vented correctly. It felt like every time we passed one thing, two more issues popped up. That's also when I found out our contractor wasn't licensed.

Mikki: What?

Jessica: Shocked.

Mikki: I forgot that part of this. I was like, at least he's a licensed contractor.

Mm-hmm. What the world?

Jessica: Mm-hmm. I couldn't understand why things were going so badly. So when? When he came recommended.

Joe Woolworth: Yeah.

Jessica: Oh, she doesn't say where he, where? Um,

Joe Woolworth: last time I was a friend

Mikki: of a cousin or a cousin.

Jessica: Yeah. She didn't say where he got recommended from.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: So hopefully it wasn't Facebook. Um, I was telling a friend about it and she said, sounds like he's a crook.

That night I looked up his name to see if he had a license, and what I expected was true.

Mikki: Mm.

Jessica: He did not.

Mikki: Y'all.

Jessica: I cannot explain the anger I felt in that moment.

Mikki: Yeah,

Jessica: and here's the part that still blows [00:41:00] my mind. I let him finish.

Mikki: Oh, mama. Oh,

Jessica: but only because I stayed on top of everything.

Mikki: So she did his job for him,

Jessica: basically.

Yes.

Mikki: Happy International Woman's Day, I mean.

Jessica: She had her list in her notes and I was like, okay,

Mikki: she's paying him to do his job for him.

Jessica: Job. Of course.

Mikki: Cool. Love, love that.

Jessica: I was the one researching South Carolina building codes at 10:00 PM

Mikki: Ugh.

Jessica: I was the one calling the county to ask questions. I was the one confirming inspection requirements.

I. I was the one making sure materials were actually ordered. There were moments when I thought I could probably do this job myself. At this point.

Joe Woolworth: You should

Mikki: listen. We need more of you than we need of this dude.

Jessica: Like you could be a project manager.

Mikki: Oh God, don't get me started on that. We'll tell you about this story someday, guys.

Someday it's not, right now we're still in litigation,

Jessica: but just

Mikki: one day we're gonna

Joe Woolworth: spill the tea. [00:42:00]

Jessica: All the tea. Um, I didn't want to be the contractor. I hired one, so I wouldn't have to be,

Mikki: yeah,

Jessica: I don't blame myself. Good. Good. We weren't careless. We weren't reckless. We asked questions, we got references. We trusted someone who sounded like he knew what he was doing.

Mikki: Mm.

Jessica: But we didn't verify the license.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: We didn't double check permits. We trusted words instead of proof. So now I have a question.

Mikki: Okay.

Jessica: How is he able to get a permit if he's not licensed? I

Mikki: don't know about how it works in South Carolina, but I know that you, like, you can pull permits for things like, it depends on how you present it to the permitting department.

Jessica: Okay.

Mikki: So if you are like, if you're like, oh yeah, we're gonna, um. We're just doing some mild stuff [00:43:00] in their house. It's nothing major. Depends on how you sell it. But I know that like I know several people who try to get away with like flipping houses here. Mm-hmm. And they're not licensed GCs. So like this one lady in particular?

Yeah, go ahead.

Jessica: So they buy a rundown house.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: And then update it themselves?

Mikki: Yes.

Jessica: And they're not a contractor.

Mikki: Nope. Yeah. And not what

Jessica: would go wrong

Mikki: y'all? That's so common. 'cause like. HGTV told everybody once that they could just be house slippers. You know, when there was like every channel, every show on HGTV mm-hmm was house slippers

Jessica: and they made so much money.

Mikki: Oh man. According to them, according to Chip and jojo, it only cost $500 to tile your entire house. So it, you know, it depends on what you believe, but there was a huge amount of people just flooding the market. Like, oh, we're house flippers now. And so like, we had this lady reach out to us and she was like, oh, I got in trouble with the city because.

She is, she wanted to do the right thing to a degree. She wanted to get [00:44:00] permits because she knew that if to sell the house she needed permits.

Jessica: Right.

Mikki: So she went in and said that she was, um, I think she said she was changing out her sink.

Jessica: Okay.

Mikki: That was the permit. She applied for inspector shows up and is like, the house is gutted.

This isn't a changing the sink. This is a whole house renovation.

Jessica: Well, why would she let him in when she had the whole house? Gut? Because she thought, I dunno

Joe Woolworth: what she

Mikki: thought. I, I just think she thought the inspector was gonna be dumb and just be like, all right, plumbing looks great for the new sink.

Have a great day. He like different

Jessica: inspectors for only

Mikki: ma'am. Absolutely not. He was like, you need a general contractor. This is a complete renovation of this house. Like, it was like, it was gutted. Like all the drywall was down. It was crazy.

Joe Woolworth: People are wild.

Mikki: Yeah, they're wild. So like. She was smart enough to know that she needed the permit in order to sell the house, but just like didn't care enough to like, I'm gonna go and like get my general contractor's license.

'cause like, listen, not everybody can take [00:45:00] pass that test. So she was just like, nah, it's fine. It's gonna be great. We'll just do it this way. It wasn't Now did she keep flipping houses? She did. So like, you know, when you're buying a house that's been renovated, make sure everything that. Is inspected.

Jessica: Yeah,

Mikki: please.

Unless you're in Chatham County. And then it's just like, whatever. See, see our home and our horror stories two episodes ago. It'll change you, it'll change your whole life.

Jessica: Change everything.

Mikki: It will.

Jessica: , We trusted words instead of proof. That part still frustrates me. Mm. Because like that's like, you could have done something about that.

Mikki: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jessica: So I get that. 'cause like you can't change what you did.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: The kitchen is beautiful. Now, if you walked into my house today, you'd have no idea what it took to get there.

Mikki: Mm.

Jessica: But I know

Mikki: she knows.

Jessica: And if I go back, I wouldn't change the design. I wouldn't change the layout. I would change who we hired.

.

Jessica: Because no homeowner should have to become an expert in construction just to survive [00:46:00] their own renovation.

Joe Woolworth: There it is.

Jessica: And then she says, thank you. Love the show, and wish we had this before we started our kitchen renovation.

Mikki: Mm.

Jessica: We are now a cautionary tale and hope to help someone else from becoming one tube.

Mikki: My God, today. Okay. So I've been thinking about this. Mm-hmm. We had a couple episodes ago, a situation where. This homeowner did everything right and it was a brand new build and he did everything that we, we tell you guys to do all

Jessica: the things

Mikki: and he still ended up on the wrong side of things, but I've been thinking about this and here's my thoughts as we know you can do everything right and things still not work out.

Mm-hmm. What the chances are of that are a lot smaller than Right. If you don't. Take the steps. Like if you don't do the research, they're like, can I, can I tell you? Can I guarantee you that if you research the contractor and you make sure they don't have judgements against them [00:47:00] and you see their previous work and you talk to past people, can I guarantee you that you're gonna have a great experience?

No. Obviously I can't. I wish I could, but I can't. However. E every single story, every single story that we get is, oh, I didn't check. I didn't check if they were licensed, and we know mm-hmm. Of someone claiming to be a licensed general contractor, that if you go to their website, you can click on a link that shows their license number and it is not valid.

They're still actively promoting that on their website. It's not just, you know, did somebody pre preve present me with their license? Did I check that the license was active? Mm-hmm. Because this person just redid their website and they still have that link to that license that is not active on their website.

And I'm gonna let y'all know right now, I actually try to report this [00:48:00] person. North Carolina licensing, general contracting license board could care less, could care less that she's presenting herself as a licensed general contractor when she's not. So unfortunately, it really falls on us, the homeowners, to make sure that we are.

Deep diving, like

Jessica: take the license that they give you and go check that number. Yeah. With the licensing board in your state,

Mikki: making sure that it's active. Checking to see with the Secretary of State for your, for your state, if their company is active with the SEC, secretary of State, if they have a legitimate company, if it's active.

Um,

Jessica: can't you? I think that most of them too, you can put their. Their name, not the company name, but like their name in and see like how many businesses they have. Yes,

Mikki: yes. So that's the other thing, like, that's the other part of like checking to see, you know, has somebody started three different companies that are like, the names are [00:49:00] very familiar sounding, like they sound just like the other, like there's just a few words in

Jessica: different

Mikki: places.

Or they words, right. They just add a little word. It's fine. That's suspicious, is it not? Mm-hmm. Like, why would you have three different companies, almost the exact same names that are in the same industry if there wasn't something suss about that? Because like, listen, you can, when, when I first went into business.

I was 22 years old. I didn't know what I didn't know. So there was one time where our company got dissolved by the Secretary of State. 'cause I forgot to file an annual report.

Jessica: Yeah, it happens.

Mikki: Was it a pain in the butt? It was. I had to go and I had to get it reinstated. I didn't start another company, y'all like, I went out and just did the work that I needed to do with the Secretary of State.

To get it fixed.

Jessica: And it's not that hard.

Mikki: It's not that hard. They tell

Jessica: you exactly what

Mikki: to do and it's fish. Mm-hmm. If you're just like, oh no, he started another company and that's their excuse. Oh [00:50:00] yeah, we forgot to file a report. Okay. Um, get it undissolved it, it's possible. So doing that kind of research and looking for things that are weird, like I, and I think if we've learned anything over the last two years, it's that checking to see.

Whether somebody has judgements against, against them is one of, I feel like the biggest ways that you can prevent yourself mm-hmm. From ending up in the situation. But why does it matter if they're licensed or not? Because I feel like, and this doesn't go for everybody, right? If somebody's gone far enough to get their license to do the right thing.

You are more than likely not guaranteed, but you're more than likely gonna have a better experience because they took that step. Mm-hmm. Like, they understood the importance of being licensed and they studied and they took, it's a five and a half hour test. Y'all like, that's, that's like you're committing to, like, this [00:51:00] matters and this is important.

Jessica: Right.

Mikki: So more than likely that's gonna be, you're

Jessica: gonna have some integrity,

Mikki: right. With a higher level of integrity because they had enough integrity to just. Study to take the test? Mm-hmm. To be doing things the right way. Is it a guarantee? No, but checking to make sure that license is real and also active.

Not just that it exists, but it is current and active. Those are two steps to like weed out the people mm-hmm. That aren't acting with integrity, that are lying about being licensed, that are lying about being, being eligible to do the work in your home. So between that and absolutely not paying for rework, like.

Jessica: Yeah,

Mikki: I can't, I can't stress that one enough like that. That to me just completely and totally blows my mind. Um, but yeah, like unfortunately, I think just the way that it shakes out is no, but no recommendation is safe. Like. We've had so [00:52:00] many stories and it was like, oh, this is a really good, I have recommended people.

Mm-hmm. That screwed over the people that I recommended them to. You can't trust a recommendation people are gonna do, you know, if something changes in their life, they could have at one point had integrity and then all of a sudden not so much anymore. Like things change. Mm-hmm. People change. You have to do that research.

You have to get on the inwes and have your chat, GPT, your AI assistant, if you will help you do a deep dive. We're not sponsored by OpenAI, but listen, we're available. Um. Because, yep. It's so much, it's so much, it's so much. And there's, there's so much stuff that every single story is like if I had only looked every single story he said, he said he was licensed, and then when everything started to go bad, then I looked into it.

Yeah. And it turns out he wasn't

Jessica: licensed and insured.

Mikki: Yes. And insured. Now again, is license. Is a license gonna guarantee a great experience? Is insurance gonna guarantee a [00:53:00] great experience? No. No. But if somebody's gone so far as to have a license and they've gone so far as to have the right insurance, you're better off there than with somebody who doesn't think that stuff matters.

Mm-hmm. Because they don't think, in that case, that integrity matters. They don't think that doing things the right way matters. Do you really want somebody who doesn't think it's important to get a license? To do your plumbing or how about the electrical that could set your whole house on fire. Like, nah, we're not about that life, y'all.

Mm-hmm. We're not about it. So thank you so much. I don't think she even shared her name, but thank you so much. Yeah. Delightful watcher or listener. From South Carolina for sharing your home or horror story. And listen, if you guys have had a similar experience or you know, someone who has, we would love to hear from you.

So if you go to chicks construction.com, you can just scroll down, there's a little form, you can fill it out, and we'd be happy to share your experience so that other people can, can, can [00:54:00] learn from your experience. Because learning the hard way is in fact overrated.

Jessica: It is.

Mikki: So where can they find us? On the socials?

Jessica: On the socials. So Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn is at Chicks Construction podcast on TikTok. It's at Chicks Construction.

Mikki: And listen, we be blowing up on the talk, so check us out. Mm-hmm. And please be sure to like and subscribe guys. 'cause the more you guys subscribe, honestly, the juiced I get, the more juiced I get, the more excited I am to do this.

Alright guys, thank you so much and we'll see you next time. Bye bye.