Built on Lies: A Tale of Homeowner Horror

The Shocking Tale of a $300k Dream Home Scam | Chicks in Construction

In this episode of The Chicks in Construction, hosts Mikki Paradis and Jessica Abreu dive into a devastating homeowner horror story in North Carolina where a homeowner's dream home project turned into a nightmare. After paying over $300,000, the homeowner was left with an unfinished lot and no house, due to a series of events involving shady contractors, deceitful actions, and unfulfilled promises. The hosts break down the red flags that were missed and provide vital advice for anyone considering building or remodeling their home. Tune in for detailed insights and tips on protecting yourself from fraudulent practices in the construction industry.

00:00 Introduction to a Homeowner's Nightmare

00:55 Meet the Hosts and the Story Unfolds

02:16 The Shocking Discovery

03:17 The Unraveling of a Scam

05:09 The Aftermath and Legal Loopholes

08:19 Lessons Learned and Final Thoughts

24:01 Uncovering Hidden Judgments

24:44 The Shady Tactics of a Fraudster

26:03 The Role of Licensing in Construction

30:41 The Importance of Research and Due Diligence

32:32 The Aftermath and Legal Struggles

38:34 Lessons Learned and Final Thoughts

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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/

31 - Chicks in construction - Nightmare
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[00:00:00] Okay, Jess, imagine this. I'm already scared. A homeowner pays over $300,000 to build her dream home. Contract, sign checks, written, promises made and there is no house, no foundation, no framing, no home. . , Nothing. Just excuses, delays disappearing. Contractors and a life savings gone. This is why we do this show exactly. Today we're breaking down one of the most shocking homeowner horror stories, stories.

We've heard how it happened, the red flags everyone missed, and how stories like this fall into the gray area where people are told, sorry, it's not criminal. If you're building, remodeling, or even thinking about hiring a contractor, this episode could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Welcome to the Chicks in Construction where we talk tools, trades, and real stories.

No one warns homeowners about.

Mikki : well, hello and welcome back to another episode of The Chicks and [00:01:00] Construction. I am your host, Mickey Paradise, and this is my illustrious co-host.

April: Hi, I am Jessica, April.

Mikki : So today we, we are gonna, we have a story and good story. Um, I'm gonna say. I, I, we've been. Playing around with whether we should say names. What do you think? Should we say names or should we not say names?

April: No, never the names.

Mikki : Well, this isn't something that somebody wrote into us. It was a story that I came across based here in North Carolina, in the Charlotte area and like in like there's a lot of juice.

On the Inwes. This is

April: true.

Mikki : So it's not like we'd be the first one naming names, but here's what I will say. What we, what we won't do is name, names. But what I will do is let you, the viewer decide, or, or listener, depending if you want to do your own research. Ooh. So if you were to search, let's say, um.

Builder fraud in Lincoln County, North Carolina. I feel very, very [00:02:00] confident that you would be led exactly to this story today. So

April: if you wanna do your own,

Mikki : do your own

April: little black hole.

Mikki : Yeah. If you wanna go down the rabbit hole of what the actual what, um, that is a great place to start. So I was watching the tube.

April: Always watching the tube. I'm always watching the tube. I mean, you should be watching Eyes on the Tube.

Mikki : I do Watch us on the tube. Um, and this came across like my feet and I was like, oh, lemme just, lemme just see. And I'm telling you I was shook it. So I did go on a rabbit hole of, I mean inwes, deep

April: diving,

Mikki : deep dive.

I literally en enlisted many AI agents to help me scour the intranets for all of the story, the shenanigans on the story. 'cause I genuinely am a little shocked. That this

April: was allowed to happen

Mikki : at how bad it was, and that there were absolutely no consequences. And so there's, there's many layers. So we're gonna try, we're just gonna get into it.

Layers. We're we gonna [00:03:00] get into it, guys? So it's based, it's like, so Lincoln County is like closer to Charlotte, so it is kind of in, in the Charlotte area, like Mecklenburg, Lincoln County are kind of next to each other.

April: She's saying words like, I know what they're,

Mikki : yeah, I, and I don't, oh, listen. Words, words, words and some numbers.

So. It is, it's, it's, you know, Charlotte is one of the bigger cities in North Carolina, and it starts off with this lady driving like, like the, the, the news crew to this lot where there's this, it's like a, the foundation is laid, so like the bricks. And then, um, there is just some, some mild framing. Like, like kind of what they would've laid down for.

Um. Like to get ready to start doing the

April: floorboard. It looked apo apocalyptic. It did it, it looked tic, it looked like, you know, I don't watch any of those zombie movies or shows because I'm, I do love a good zombie moment. I'm scared. Um.

Mikki : I love to go down the doomsday prepping tunnel. Yeah. I [00:04:00] can get real into it, so I try not to watch one.

April: No, we try not to. No, but that's what it reminded me. I'm like, is this a movie set? Yeah, when, when I

Mikki : first watched, and what's crazy is it was like, it was like there was like 16 or 14 lots in this neighborhood, and only a few of them had been built and the ones that had been finished were finished by other builders.

And so like even the ones that were done were not finished by the original builder. That kind of is the devil's work is, we're just gonna say it is the devil's work took

April: the money and run.

Mikki : They did. They took and like a crazy amount of money. So the lady who kind of was bringing the most amount of attention to this, this woman was.

She has the biggest F around and find out energy that I've ever seen. Like she literally bought the domain name of the woman who sold her the lot.

April: Whoa.

Mikki : And when you, when you Google this woman's name, this comes up, this website comes up, that's, and it is. [00:05:00] Just, it's all the receipts. It's all the receipts of everything this woman did

April: that's like 50 cent energy.

Ooh.

Mikki : Oh, this is giving 50, a hundred percent, yes. 50 at a hunch. Mm-hmm. Like this woman was like, oh, and, and the funny thing is like she did everything right. To a point, but when everything got really bad, she, she called all the right people and absolutely nobody was willing to help her. And she was completely scammed out of like 300 plus thousand dollars and they're not being, and she has no house.

She has no house, a mortgage on a house, like a full blown house that is not there is gonna have, I think she actually had to foreclose on it because like, why would she keep paying into it?

April: No.

Mikki : Th they, they're not gonna build the house. Nobody's gonna help her recover the money. And she was just like, fine for, and so it ruined her credit, took her life savings.

'cause I, so it started with, and this is like kind of just an actual absolutely wild part of it to me, so. [00:06:00] It was a husband and wife team, and, and here's my caveat, I'm not gonna say that all husband and wife teams are bad. They're not. But when they're representing more than one piece of the sale, mm. Like the wife was the realtor.

Whoa. And the husband was the land developer and builder. Yeah. And I'm gonna throw 75 red flags on the play because that is, that's not a major conflict of interest. And here's the thing. Mm-hmm. You as the homeowner. Wouldn't necessarily see that as a problem. Right? Because it's like, oh, a husband and wife team, she's the realtor, he's the builder and the land developer.

That's, that makes sense. Keep it in the family. But here's the thing, A realtor that is, does not have a conflict of interest is going to look out for your best interest.

April: You need another

Mikki : real estate agent. They're gonna look into things. They're gonna look into the builder. Mm-hmm. They're gonna make sure this [00:07:00] guy's on the up and up.

But if. They have a conflict of interest, then they're not going to. And this woman, actually, the realtor actually ended up having to surrender her license for only two years, by the way, because when she was investigated, they found that she definitely knew that this builder was not completing the lots that he had already closed on.

She did not disclose that to the buyer. '

April: cause it's her husband,

Mikki : right? A hundred percent. And so and so the real estate agent commissioned whatever they found her to be. Liable, but there was no actual financial consequence. I think there was like, so when she was first investigated, 'cause again, this initial homeowner, Ooh, she was Becky with the good hair.

I mean she was coming for this couple. Mm-hmm. She wanted her money back and she was not gonna

April: stop

Mikki : I a hundred percent. Like a hundred percent. So she goes to the one realtor commission, they investigator find that the realtor was in the wrong. Mm-hmm. [00:08:00] Her punishment was a $3,000 fine and a four hour ethics class for costing this woman three, 300 hundred thousand dollars.

So

April: she would have to sue her personally.

Mikki : Be able to get, oh, we're gonna get to that. We're gonna get to that. Oh,

April: no.

Mikki : Okay. So get back to the story.

April: Okay.

Mikki : Sorry, sidetrack side quest. So the, the lady finds the land, it's owned by the, the land development and the building company.

April: Mm-hmm.

Mikki : Wife is the realtor.

April: Okay.

Mikki : She buys the land. Mm-hmm. And here's another major red flag, and I think this is somewhat common, but I'm going to advise against it regardless. The builder says, Hey. We have a relationship with this bank that does construction loans.

April: No,

Mikki : absolutely not. Y'all absolutely not

April: because that's three now.

Mikki : Oh my God, today. So in

April: that even, I know

Mikki : even Jess is like flag on the plane.

April: No.

Mikki : At that point, there is absolutely [00:09:00] no one who is an independent party that is looking out for your best interest. When you are going with the realtor that's married to the builder and the builder that owns the land and the bank that's in bed with the builder.

Mm-hmm. Who, who looking out for you.

April: Yeah. Should have gotten their own real estate agent, like to

Mikki : work with that one. But to be fair, I don't think a lot of people, and listen, they scammed two dozen people. Out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and they're not in jail, y'all. They're not in jail.

April: They should be in jail.

Mikki : They should a hundred percent be in jail. They were investigated and they, they found to be. I think the, the sheriff's department, and I'm like vaguely quoting here, said something out that, where, this is not a criminal matter, but it is a buyer beware moment.

April: What,

Mikki : what in the, like, who do these people know is the question that I have?

April: I mean, is there

Mikki : hundreds? Is

April: there

Mikki : brother, the sheriff of [00:10:00] dollars?

April: I mean, just the amount of money if it's over. A certain amount money is considered. It's Korean.

Mikki : The larceny. Yeah. Like it, it, the whole thing.

April: Oh my God.

Mikki : Which is why we're talking about it, because this is an outrageous story and homeowners need to be aware of everything in the story that went wrong.

So lady finds the land loves the lot, she's gonna build her dream home on it.

April: Mm-hmm.

Mikki : Buys the land from the, the, the wife realtor goes under contract with the builder slash developer.

April: Mm-hmm.

Mikki : Wires him $158,000 in cash because she was trying to not have that big of a construction loan. Okay. So wires and I, I, they did not go into to great detail on the, in the new, like any of the reporting that I found about the, the depth of the contract.

But. This is again, why your builder, [00:11:00] realtor, and banker cannot all be in bed together because a bank is going to heavily scrutinize right? Your contract, because while the bank is looking out for you, the bank is looking out for themselves. They don't want, right, they don't

April: wanna lose the money,

Mikki : so lose the money.

So they're going to, like, when we did a renovation for, um, somebody that had to get a bank loan, the, the amount of hoops that we had to jump in, jump through to like. Meet the terms that the bank was setting was wild.

April: Yeah.

Mikki : So, and, but you know what, good for them, like they should be making general contractors be specific and mm-hmm.

And check up on them because, you know, general contractors be out here wild in these streets,

April: that doesn't seem, mm-hmm.

Mikki : So

April: that's so much money to wire a person.

Mikki : Yeah.

April: So,

Mikki : I don't know the strength of the contract, obviously. Well, I'm not gonna say obviously, but.

April: I mean, Monday morning quarterback, don't do this.

Mikki : Yeah. Please don't [00:12:00] like the, do not work with, with a. All in one. And I know what you're thinking. You're like, oh, it's easier this way. I get it. And that's the thing where it's like, I don't think the average homeowner would know, like a buyer beware moment because it's like, oh, this is easy. They're gonna take care of everything for me.

Just press the easy button. Don't press that easy button. You need somebody to be completely separate from all of this. So they like a a, an independent third party that's looking at it going, Hmm, that's weird. So lady wires him $158,000.

April: Okay?

Mikki : Nothing happens for three months. She gets word that the builder did a construction, a, a draw on her construction loan.

So she gets the loan through the, the, the bank that he recommends,

April: right?

Mikki : And she gets word after he received the money that he drew another. 160 something thousand dollars off the [00:13:00] construction loan, putting it to over, like total amount into over $300,000,

April: which is the amount that you would expect to have a whole house

Mikki : built.

An entire house built. An entire house built,

April: and there's nothing,

Mikki : right? And so. What's really interesting about that and like in, in doing the detail, like the digging that I did, I was really surprised to find, so when you have a construction loan, the, the, the builder does draw from the bank right now, depending on how you have, how you have the contract set up.

And, and listen, y'all, I can recommend this enough. Do not have it set up

April: so that they can just take

Mikki : the money. That they can draw the money. They have to request the draw through you. And here's why. So when I was listening to this, I was immediately thinking, this is the bank's problem. They gave this money 'cause, so when you have a construction draw, the bank is required to do an inspection.

April: Okay.

Mikki : To make sure that the builder is not overdrawing. And does that makes [00:14:00] sense? Like we have that on, on our jobs. Mm-hmm. So like we, we bill every month. The bank has to come out, make sure that we did the work that we did. Mm-hmm. And even just as a subcontractor in a large project, we still have to, you know, apply like

April: Right.

Mikki : Go with this mode. So it's on all construction loans. That's how it's supposed to happen. They, the bank comes out covering their butts, making sure, okay. Yes. The work that they said they've done has been completed. Bank never sent. Anybody out to investigate because they're, they had somebody on the inside and they talked about this in the reporting, the, this general contractor guy used two different banks.

The first bank that he worked with, this one woman worked there, and then the second bank that he worked with, she went from that bank to that bank. So it was definitely that woman. Yeah.

April: Mm.

Mikki : Let me tell you something like side note, this guy thinks he's very good looking and he is not.

April: Mm.

Mikki : I just want you to know.

You know who you are. [00:15:00] He's definitely very full of himself. And I was like,

April: absolutely not. You're gross. He has to. He's so sleazy. Oh yeah. And like the sleaziest ones, they're so wasting that. They're just like

Mikki : amazing. Yeah. They're like, oh my god, God, I'm so brinny. And like, you're not, you're not. Also go back to up north.

'cause that's where he's from.

April: Hey. As Northerner is not always that bad. Oh, yeah, that's true.

Mikki : Sorry, I got a little southern there. I, it just, it just snuck right in. It just snuck right in. Sorry about that.

April: It's all right.

Mikki : I do sometimes think that though. Um, it's bad. I'm, especially when somebody has northern plates and I'm like, you can't, I can't with you right now.

Anyway, I digress. And also that wasn't helpful. I'm sorry. Okay, so this dude. Has this inside lady at the bank, and I'm thinking the entire time I'm, I'm reading and listening and all the things I'm thinking, okay, well this is on the bank. Turns out it's not. And this is why it's really important. If you're doing a construction loan, you are in charge of approving.

The the builder's draws because [00:16:00] in the fine print of the bank's contract, it states that it's actually the responsibility of the homeowner to make sure that what they're billing isn't aligned with what they have completed. Now, in this case, I don't see how this woman is still liable for this loan because she didn't even get the opportunity to prove it.

Say she didn't find out that it was approved until after he had received the money. But genuinely she's up a creek without a paddle. Like, because of like how everybody's got their contracts written. Mm-hmm. She's the one on the hook for all of this. And so that's where like, 'cause when I was,

April: so that's why they're saying that it's a buyer beware.

Mikki : Right.

April: Instead of a criminal thing.

Mikki : But I'm like, like I still don't, I disagree. I could not disagree

April: more. It's gonna be a war out there somewhere that'll be like, no. Yeah. We can get you

Mikki : a hundred percent. A hundred percent. So that, and that to me was, I was, I was, I was listening to the story about how the bank was like, oh no, [00:17:00] it's your responsibility.

I'm like, what homeowner

April: knows what to do?

Mikki : Knows like, oh yes, those windows are worth $16,000, not 25. Like that is such a level of bs. I

April: wonder if that bank wrote that. That way in their contract, because I'm sure woman, how theyre working with

Mikki : something to do with it. Yeah.

April: And didn't they show like the, the woman working at the bank, not the one that was the issue?

Yeah. But like this other lady and she like opened up this folder and was like, there's nothing,

Mikki : oh, that was other gc. We're gonna get to that.

April: Okay.

Mikki : So like,

April: oh, all the parts

Mikki : I'm telling And, and, and this is where. When I was watching this and reading this, I was like, the importance of doing your research.

Mm-hmm. Before you sign any contract with anybody. And, and that's really the important piece is so many times we get these homeowner horror stories and people come out and they're like, oh, you know, this bad thing happened. And then I [00:18:00] researched them. And I get it right, like we wanna be able to trust people, we want people to be honest with us.

We wanna give people the benefit, the doubt. But I cannot stress enough the importance of researching every person that you are considering working with before you make a decision. Mm-hmm. Because you might. Find things, when you do some research that make you decide against using somebody, maybe their number is the most appealing.

But if you were to do a little bit of research, you might find out. Mm-hmm. Their number's the most appealing for a reason. 'cause they actually have no plans on finishing your project. And so, you know. Sadly, so many people, even after this woman got scammed again, there's over two dozen people. Can't

April: they all just like come together and like sue him together?

Mikki : So yes, but ugh, there's so, there's so many yes buts for this story. So she finds out about this construction loan, which turns out was on her. So again, can't stress [00:19:00] enough the importance of one. Mm-hmm. Having your construction loan be, can only be approved by you. It cannot be. The builder communicates directly with the bank mm-hmm.

And gets their money. You have to approve every dollar. And if the bank's gonna put the responsibility on you, then you need to definitely make sure that you have control over that. Mm-hmm. Um, the other piece of it is. If you're like, 'cause these were new home builds, so it's not like it's a renovation, which I feel like if you are doing a new home build and you, you kind of have that level of liability, you also need to have somebody to help, you know, when somebody does turn in an invoice.

Okay, this is right. So like a third party person. Unless you, you know, like, I don't know this, that might be a stretch, but if you were gonna be like super, super safe mm-hmm. And it was gonna be your responsibility, then I feel like having another person there to be like, yes, this is how much Windows cost.

Because how would you know?

April: You don't know.

Mikki : Yeah. Like, and like, I. I, I, no, like, absolutely not. I

April: feel like you would need like [00:20:00] another licensed general contractor to like,

Mikki : and like

April: double check

Mikki : PCs are like, I don't have time for that. I don't

April: have time for that. It's

Mikki : too

April: busy. But you, you,

Mikki : you

April: do.

Mikki : Yeah. I mean, and that, that, that's kind of the crappy part is where, I think that's where the important piece is working with your bank.

Working with a bank that's like, this is what we do. Yeah, we do. And we're going to have somebody inspect. Because that's the whole point of like the banks having the inspections, is they're sending people out there that know what they're looking at.

April: Yeah.

Mikki : And they're saying, okay, yes, this is, this draw matches, you know, the, the materials that are on the job, this draw doesn't.

So I really think to get a good thing in that case, obviously you want to have a good realtor, you wanna have a good builder, but you also wanna make sure that you're making. That bank work for you. Mm-hmm. And work for your money. And if they don't do a lot of construction loans in like all likelihood, they're not going to have good inspectors and people that are gonna stay on top of every draw.

So really investigating the best bank to get your construction loan through, I think is [00:21:00] part of that

April: would be key too.

Mikki : Part of the, like how you could avoid finding yourself in this situation. Mm. Mm-hmm. So. She finds out that he, he, he did this draw. Meanwhile, at the time of him doing the draw, also having $158,000 of her money, she, there is nothing done on her lot.

April: So is she like calling him now at this point?

Mikki : Like what? Yes. So she's calling him, she's like, on what's going on? He's not communicating with her. She call the realtor. She, she did, and he, she was like, oh, I don't know what's going on. Like, you know, I, I, I don't have anything to do with it after

April: It's your husband,

Mikki : shouldn, after I've sold you the lot.

Sorry. So

April: no one should buy a house from her ever again.

Mikki : Oh, is

April: she still in real estate?

Mikki : So she had to relinquish her her license for only two years. So I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up back in real estate. And I wouldn't be surprised if she changes her name again because she's had multiple names.

But she can't change your face, so everybody,

April: I mean you could, but it costs a little bit

Mikki : more Google. Yeah. I don't think [00:22:00] she's got that kind of money. Well, she might. She

April: might. I mean, she's got all these people's money.

Mikki : She scammed dozens of people.

April: Yeah, she might end up with a new face.

Mikki : Oh God. I mean, she kind

April: of, maybe she should just, maybe she should just move to a new state and like, stop scam these people.

Scam those

Mikki : people. Um,

April: stop scamming the North Carolina

Mikki : people. I was gonna say something about up north, but then I was like, let me not

April: let you

Mikki : not, I've already shown my southernness already today. I'm sorry. Sorry about that guys. So she goes to the builder, she's like, she's now, she's starting to record everything.

She's starting to, mm-hmm. Because at the time of him having over $300,000 of her money, nothing had been done, done on her lot. She goes out to her lot. Then they had started doing the foundation and all they literally had was the cinder blocks and some brick up, and that was it. There was no, no subfloor, no underground, nothing.

Mm-hmm. She starts questioning the builder, and I said [00:23:00] something like four months went by and nothing additional had happened. And he's skirting all of her questions and doing the whole, like, it'll be fine. We're working on it. You're, you're panicking. You know, like mm-hmm. Calm down woman thing. And finally, after four months, she fired him.

So that he couldn't take any more money off of the loan. Yeah.

April: I would also be like, and I want my money back.

Mikki : Well, so as it would turn out, and this is why doing your research is so important and not just like a Google search and because this has happened on On more than mm-hmm. Three that I can think of.

Homeowner horror stories. Where they had a previous judgment against them. So I don't know about in every state, but I know in the state of North Carolina you can search whether someone has a judgment against them, which is a public judgment where, where basically you have been sued, you were found guilty, and you owe so-and-so.

Many X amount of dollars. And that [00:24:00] is public record. So like of the one case that we had after the guy had screwed her over, she found out that he had a judgment against him to the IRS.

April: Yes.

Mikki : And so like this has happened in multiple cases where after the fact you do the research, you find the judgments.

Mm-hmm. And the sad part about that is if somebody has a judgment and they've won the judgment before you, it means that absolutely no one else can get paid until. That one, they recover their money. So in this case, oh Lord, this guy mm-hmm. Had an $800,000 judgment against him.

April: So that's not gonna get paid for years.

Mikki : 0% like and 0%. And he's obviously shady and he obviously knows how to move money around so that it's not like he's got, you know, all this money he stole from these people. It's not like it's sitting in his bank account. Mm-hmm. Like he's being shady about it. It's not a situation where that company's just gonna recoup all the money he stole from [00:25:00] somebody else.

April: He's gonna in LC

Mikki : somewhere. He's got it in all kinds of different names. Offshore bank accounts. I don't know that I'm making that up

April: because he's a sleazeball,

Mikki : but he's a sleazeball for sure. I'm not making that up.

April: Nope. Easy. So, so even she sues him, that's not gonna get paid. And that's the thing, because he has to pay

Mikki : 800001st and thing about civil

April: lawsuits.

Mm-hmm.

Mikki : Is that you can't get blood out of a rock if somebody is really good at hiding money and hiding assets. Mm-hmm. Which obviously if you're a shady human being, you know how to do this. Mm-hmm. Um, then it, they can't, like, we don't have debtors prison in the United States. You sound like you're gonna go to jail for not paying a judgment.

You're just gonna have that judgment. I mean, he has terrible credit. It's not like he's. You know, opening Anex has card, but he's got cash. Cash,

April: so

Mikki : much

April: cash.

Mikki : He's scamming the everliving God out of people and he is got all

April: cash because he probably still has his company and still allowed to work. So [00:26:00]

Mikki : the, so here, here's, here's the other piece.

So the wife was a realtor.

April: Mm-hmm.

Mikki : He had a land development company. He was working with a licensed general contractor. That licensed general contractor backed out. Um, his name was all over all the permits until all of a sudden it wasn't.

April: Mm.

Mikki : Then he started a, a home building, LLC, and he got some, I'm gonna say random woman who is not at all a licensed general contractor, and this is a really important point.

Technically, she was a licensed general contractor. But I need everybody, I need everybody to understand that the licensing is a test. It's not like the licensing board is like, okay, how many years of construction experience do you have? They don't care if you pass the test. [00:27:00] You don't have like a wild criminal background.

You can, you're a license. You can get your license in North Carolina. Now, not to say that the test isn't hard, it is, we know a lot of people who just can't seem to pass it

April: or quit trying,

Mikki : you know? Or just, or,

April: or just the books and we're like, nah, maybe that's too much work. I'm not that smart.

Mikki : Right? So there's a lot of people who can't even take the test.

So I don't wanna poo p, if you will, on somebody who passed the test. Mm-hmm. But. I have been in construction for 20 years and there are still projects that I don't feel like I would be qualified to do as a, as a licensed general contractor. Mm-hmm. That is just, just reality. Unfortunately, a lot of people go and take the TE test they pass, and next thing you know they're licensed general contractors.

This woman that he got to qualify his company as a licensed general contractor. I think they said that she was a, an insurance agent. Oh, so [00:28:00] she owned, she met this guy because she wrote insurance policies mm-hmm. For his other companies. And so somehow, somehow

April: he got her to take a test, well,

Mikki : I think she was already a licensed gc.

Okay. He found out and was like, Hey, do you wanna be my qualifier? Now a qualifier is somebody. And again, the, the, the nuance here is extreme. When you are looking for a, a general contractor to build your house or to do your renovation, you wanna know that the person who is the license holder actually has experience.

Because it matters. It matters how many homes someone has completed. It matters how many renovations somebody has completed. It matters how much money they're making. You know, if you are, you're working with a general contractor and they've, they've had losses every year. Questions we, that, that should red

April: flags,

Mikki : that should be a little bit of a red flag.

So [00:29:00] this woman then became like the guy that he was working with as a general contractor before. Seemed pretty legit. Like I did a little, so,

April: so the, so the first lady, so the, the woman who didn't have her house built, she couldn't go after that general contractor?

Mikki : No, because technically he never got paid.

So she paid

April: the land

Mikki : developer. The land developer.

April: Why was he drawing from the account, not the general contract.

Mikki : Again, like, this is why the whole story is like. W. Wild. Wild. It's wild. Like there's so many points of failure in this story and how every single entity is coming back and essentially blaming the homeowner is absolutely wild to me.

Yeah, and they didn't just interview one of the homeowners. They interviewed multiple of the homeowners, like having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars that they cannot recoup because absolutely nobody is [00:30:00] saying, you know what? This is a crime. At least, at the very least, like they may not get their money back.

'cause again, once it's gone, its gone. It prevent these

April: people from doing

Mikki : it. Other people, it would prevent them from doing it to other people. It would prevent, like them taking away this woman's realtor license for two years.

April: Oh, it's like,

Mikki : like, oh, crime me a river

April: Poor thing.

Mikki : Yeah, just nuts, sauce. So, so the, the, the builder.

She fires the builder. She, she starts to find out that, you know, so the general contractor has been changed. He starts another company. And that was the point that I was trying to make is, sorry. No, you're fine. I mean, come on, we do side quests here. It's important to know how many different company names has this person had, and you can do that by going to the North Carolina, at least in our state, going to the Secretary of State and seeing how many companies are in their name.

Mm-hmm. For me, like I own my drywall company, I own a consulting company. [00:31:00] I own chicks and construction. Mm-hmm. Like you can go online and see all of the companies that I own because that is public record. And so sorry,

April: but something sneaky they can do is you can file an LLC in a different state even if you don't live there.

Mikki : Oh, can you?

April: You can. I don't know how it's legal, but that is a, you can, I could right now go file an LLC in Wisconsin.

Mikki : Wisconsin.

April: I don't know why I picked that. Just most random place I could think of it

Mikki : is a random place.

April: Or maybe North Dakota that might be, oh,

Mikki : that's a random place too. Not to hate on you if you're from Wisconsin or North Dakota.

It just seems random

April: cold.

Mikki : It does seem cold also. So I mean, that's the thing is like, again, you can only do so much research on like. Pro protecting yourself. But if somebody has multiple companies like that are in the same industry,

April: that's a red flag.

Mikki : It's a red flag, and they've closed and it's like, and you know.

They opened one, they had it for a couple years. They had it for a year. They closed it. They opened another one. I had a painter that would actually do that. [00:32:00] It was really shady. I had to end up firing him. He didn't wanna pay his taxes, so he kept just closing his company and opening up a new one. And finally I was like, bro, I don't want this kind of heat.

I don't mess with the government. Mm-hmm. No.

April: They're gonna come after and find their money

Mikki : one

April: way or

Mikki : another. Yeah. I'm not gonna be on the receiving end of it, but that is a. It's a red flag. So doing your research and finding out how do does this, and I know this sounds like my God today, why should I have to do so much research?

Mm-hmm. So that you don't end up on the show, so you don't end up on the news. Because that this story, it's been going on for years. Like, I think it started in like 2019. Oh my God. And the last of reporting was in 2025 where the, the only thing that had happened was to the wife, to the realtor, because apparently.

Realtors have more strict guidelines and regulations than general contractors, which to me is bananas. So, mm-hmm. [00:33:00] The, the way it all played out, this dude was so insulated. So his wife was the realtor. She got her, she had to turn in her real estate license for two years. Um, but because he himself was never the licensed general contractor.

There was nothing that the licensing board could do to him other than I think for one of the companies that he started where he got that second, the lady gc. Yeah. They obviously revoked their general contractor's license. Well, I think not even they revoked it. I think she removed herself. From their company as their qualifier.

So now they're no longer licensed.

April: Yeah. So because he was never really licensed, it's nothing,

Mikki : nothing happened. And that, that is the tricky part. When you're dealing with somebody mm-hmm. Who is licensed and they mess up. There are some things that can be done, but when it comes to just stealing money, like the, the licensing board is like, if you build it wrong.[00:34:00]

We'll step in and try to help you, but if they just took your money, like that's a criminal matter. So she goes to, the sheriff's department, tries to get them to investigate. They say it's not a criminal matter. They, they literally said something along the lines of, this is more an issue of consumers needing to be, you know, be more careful.

What? And I'm just like, what? It's

April: gotta be his brother.

Mikki : I don't even know. So, so he's

April: paying off the sheriff too.

Mikki : Here's what is wild too. And you know, this is when Josh Stein was the attorney General. He's now the governor. Um, she filed a, to me, this blows my mind. I kind of like lose, lost a little bit of faith in like.

Are like the consumer protections. Mm-hmm. She files a complaint against this dude with the North Carolina Attorney General Consumer Protection Division. They investigate it, and I'm right hand to God because the guy did not [00:35:00] respond to the complaint. They dropped the complaint.

April: Wait. Yeah. Wouldn't that, yeah.

Wouldn't that,

Mikki : wouldn't that be even more reason to Investig

April: investigate? What does that prove? Guilt, right? Not innocence. Like if I'm innocent, I'm going to respond clearly. Don't.

Default_2026-01-20_1: Clearly

Mikki : this dude knows how the system works because he just 'cause, can you imagine? Okay. Okay. Could you imagine so you

April: don't respond

Mikki : getting a letter from the North Carolina Attorney General's office if you're on the up and up and you get that letter.

April: Oh, immediately

Mikki : you're going to, you're in a fullblown panic. I have to defend myself. Like I've gotta, like, I have to explain the situation, but if you shady, shady shader. You're just like, oh, toss in the recycle bank. Okay. When we put that in the, in the circular filing cabinet, and I, I just could not believe it, we're talking about 300 plus thousand dollars and.

Because he didn't respond. They just dropped the investigation and like that's this news crew went so far [00:36:00] as to confront Josh Stein at an event when he was running for governor.

April: And what'd he say? They

Mikki : showed up. He literally said, we can't sue all the people that file complaints with us. And I'm like, can't you?

Oh really? Your job? And I get, I get what they're saying 'cause he said something like, they get 16 to 20,000 thou thousand complaints a year, and they obviously don't have the capacity to, to, you know, sue everybody, but

April: a certain dollar amount. I

Mikki : feel like this is, and the fact that it wasn't just one person.

Like there were multiple, and that's, I think what this homeowner is doing now is she is working on getting all of the people affected so that it can be like a class action situation. Mm-hmm. But at the end of the day needs, they're not gonna get anybody. It needs to be a criminal issue. Mm-hmm. Because.

There's no money for them to get. Now this reporter showed up at Homeboy's house.

April: Ooh.

Mikki : And he's in the,

April: does he have a nice house?

Mikki : It was an okay house, but he had [00:37:00] one of those Super Duty trucks on the Monster Wheels. Oh.

April: I'm

Mikki : like, take that right there. Like that's

April: suspension

Mikki : alone is like 50 grand.

April: Yeah.

There's like at least 200. Right?

Mikki : Yeah. It was insane. Mm-hmm. And like so. There's so much to this story that is just devastating.

April: Devastating. I see those trucks. I'm like, Napoleon Complex.

Mikki : Yeah. You're like, mm-hmm.

April: Overcompensating for something.

Mikki : We see a lot of those trucks in construction and I'm just like, cool.

Now we know what you're packing. Or

April: not.

Mikki : Or not. Um. So again guys, you can, obviously this story is all over the internet. There is the real, the wife's name. Mm. The woman bought her domain name and literally has a webs. It has a popup. When you click on the link. It has a popup that says, stop. Have you been scammed by this woman?

Like this woman did not [00:38:00] spend small amounts of money for this website. It is on a rinky-dink website. It is. She spent money putting this website together, so like the receipts and literally the receipts are there. Like she posted, 'cause I guess during one of the investigations was during COVID and so they did it virtually.

And so she had the recording. She posted the recording.

Default_2026-01-20_1: I

April: love it. It's so much. 50 cent energy.

Mikki : All 50. It's so 50.

April: You have to check it out.

Mikki : Yeah, so I, I do highly recommend that everybody go look it up. But the key takeaways are do not. Allow your realtor, your builder, the land developer, and the bank. To all be in cahoots, have a separate realtor.

And we've talked about this when we had, um, a realtor on the show in the very beginning. Um, the importance of that separation of having somebody who mm-hmm. Is legally obligated to represent you. Um, and to be fair, this [00:39:00] woman regardless was legally obligated, but it doesn't mean that they're going to follow that.

Mm-hmm. So. Making sure that your realtor is separate, that they are the working for you, that they don't have any skin in the game anywhere else? Mm-hmm. Nope. Absolutely not. Your, the land developer should not be, or your builder should not be recommending, like they can give you like, oh, we've worked with these banks before.

They're great, but still that is just a recommendation. Mm-hmm. Like your bank should be your choice. And that bank that you're choosing that's going to give you that construction loan should be completely independent, should be working for you. They, and

April: they should be doing the inspection to make

Mikki : sure your money, the inspections just go the door and you have to make sure that you are reading the contract with them from the lens of.

If this goes wrong, what responsibility does the bank have? And that's the piece that I don't think this woman was thinking [00:40:00] about when she set everything up, when she signed this loan agreement, because the bank had wording in there to protect themselves. Mm-hmm. From the builder drawing money that they hadn't done anything for like, it was, one of them was like.

$16,000 for custom windows. There wasn't a window in the, and this was another, another, another person, person. Mm-hmm. Um, they had framed it, um, and it was just sitting there and it was like $16,000 for custom windows. There were no windows, which all honestly, $16,000 is not enough for custom windows. So I'm just like, what was this amount of money?

And they even tracked down the order to the supply company and it was never filled. So like. Just shady shenanigans. Um, I think having, doing your own, like doing a lot of research, especially for something as like a building a house, making sure that that work has been done, um, is really important. Keeping them separate, covering your butt.

Mm-hmm. And making sure [00:41:00] that nobody can get money out of your construction loan without your approval. And if you don't feel comfortable taking on that role of saying, yes, this amount of work has been done, finding somebody who can help you with that. Um, I'm trying to think of like who that would be, um,

April: to help with it.

Mikki : I, you know, you know who I think would be a good place, a resource to ask is your bank. I would ask your bank, Hey, listen. I wanna make sure that these draws, if you like, if you're not gonna do these hardcore inspections, who can I use that will?

April: Yeah, they probably have some.

Mikki : I would assume that unless they're shady and so that's a red flag to me.

If the bank one isn't like, yes, we are going to inspect these draws and make sure that they're going, they're, they're solidly drawing what they need. Mm-hmm. Then that's a little bit of a red flag.

April: Yeah. What about a real estate agent? Like if they were. I think think estate

Mikki : agent would be able to look at and give you a gist.

Like they'd be able to look at it and be like, okay, well yeah, a [00:42:00] subfloor costs roughly this much foundation roughly costs this much. So they would be able to look at it maybe. Um, that's a good question. For a real estate. Yeah. We can ask some of our past real estate agents. I how to ask because we have a couple

April: Figure it out.

Mikki : So guys, um. Again, I cannot stress enough, like the craziest part of this story is this woman has not been able to recover any of her money. None of the people involved in this story have, and we were talking about hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars, there have been no criminal actions taken against this company or this, this man.

The, the, the slap on the rest for the wife was she had to voluntarily turn in her realtors. Mm mm-hmm. Like absolutely crazy. So cannot stress enough. Do your research before you decide on a builder. Research judgments because really at the end of the day, the fact that that guy already had a judgment against him is what's keeping her from being able to get her money back.

If he can't pay the $800,000 make, he's certainly not gonna be able to pay her back. And [00:43:00] because that judgment has to be paid before her judgment, it's not even like they can garnish his wages or like take his any, any if he had a tax return. 'cause that can happen,

April: right?

Mikki : Like if you have a judgment against you and the federal government is aware of it.

If you do get a tax return, it will just get automatically sent to whoever has the judgment against you

April: as it should, as it, it should. I feel like it should just, it should not, not get a single penny.

Mikki : Yeah. And so, but again, if, if, the only means of him paying that back is the government seizing funds, he's not filing taxes and he's smart enough to know to not put things in his name a hundred percent.

So. If she had known before signing that and sending him $158,000 that he had an $800,000 judgment against him. It'd

April: be a hard No.

Mikki : It would've been a hard no. So that's where like doing your research and making sure that before you go with a builder, like you have gone girls, him. Mm-hmm. I'm talking, you got on that anger net and went deep.

Everybody has that friend. Everybody has that friend.

April: Oh yes.

Mikki : I have that friend. Like [00:44:00] whenever I need to know. I'm like, Hey friend, I need to know everything about so and so, and they're like, gimme five minutes. And I'm just, I'm getting texts in my face. Like, they're just like, B boop, B here's screenshots that friend if, if you don't have the capacity to like do the dirt, the dirty dirt on a builder.

Find the friend. We all know who she is. Mm-hmm. And it is a woman. It is a woman. Mm-hmm. It's always a woman. 'cause we know how to find shit on the internet, everything. Mm-hmm. These are facts. With that being said, I will say, um, when you post nasty comments on our, on our channel, first of all, thank you, because it does help the algorithm.

But second of all, you know, we can click on the link and see who you are. Right. Hold on.

April: Because we saw,

Mikki : take a sip of my tea real quick. I just did wanna make sure that you all know that as you go to write out your nasty comment. Listen, we appreciate the engagement. We'll take what we can get. If all you can post is [00:45:00] something nasty, that's fine, but just know that it won't be that hard to find out where you work.

I'm just saying. Just saying, I'm just putting it out there. You know, you might wanna think before you type or don't. Your choice, dealer's choice. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't do enough of a deep dive, and that's how so many people ended up really screwed out of this whole situation. Half of the people that did buy lots from this guy had to hire another builder.

To finish the house. Um, and that is because they had the capacity to do it. They had the capacity to take a $200,000 loss

April: and still,

Mikki : and still build. Mm-hmm. And still finish the house. This woman didn't?

April: No.

Mikki : So last I checked, she was receiving foreclosure letters on the lot because there was no house on it.

There's

April: no

Mikki : house. And here's the thing for the bank. That's a $300,000 loss for them.

April: Mm-hmm.

Mikki : Because the lot's not worth that much. There's nothing on the, [00:46:00] on the property that's going to increase the value

April: and who wants to buy it now it's like,

Mikki : oh, it has to be demolished. It's been sitting out in the elements for so long that it's not structurally sound anymore, but

April: you really wanna live somewhere that somebody has such a horrible experience.

I feel like there's bad. Yeah. All bad vibes. Wouldn't wanna live there.

Mikki : We don't want bad vibes, not up in here. So guys, do your research. Can't stress that enough. And listen, don't be a statistic.

April: Mm-hmm.

Mikki : I don't know where that came from, but the more you know, the more you know. All right. So with that said, we're gonna wrap it.

Um, you could obviously, if you have a similar story, we would love to sh shine some light on that. Mm-hmm. So please, if you have a homeowner horror story, go to chick construction.com. Leave us a little clicky clack. Um, we will. Respond to you as best we can. Um, try to at least give us an email that we, if we have questions, we can [00:47:00] respond back to you.

April: Mm-hmm.

Mikki : I would say don't be weird, but I feel like you guys are gonna do what you want. So I'm not gonna tell you how to live your life. Just, just know if you get weird, I can get weird too. Just saying. Just saying do what you want with that. Mm-hmm. All right. Just where can they find us? On the socials?

April: Yes. At, on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. It's at Chicks Construction Podcast. And on TikTok, it's at Chicks Construction.

Mikki : Oh, yeah. All right, guys. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.