From Digital Designs to Real Defects: Welcome Homes on Trial

Hosts Mikki Paradis and Jessica Abreu of The Chicks in Construction discuss a homeowner horror story tied to alleged lawsuits against Welcome Homes, a PropTech startup founded in 2020 by DigitalOcean executives that promised custom homes built in about six months through an online design-and-build platform. Citing a vetted New York Post article, they describe claims of long delays, permit issues, construction errors (including flooded basements and hidden mistakes), and disputes over deposits and cancellation fees, including one couple who reportedly ended up with only cleared land and a pit. They note former HGTV host Anthony Carino joined as VP of Design but left in January 2024, saying leadership wouldn’t follow construction best practices, and that only one customer was living in a completed home when he left. The hosts highlight red flags like guaranteed timelines and inexperienced leadership, and advise homeowners to vet contractors carefully.

00:00 Experience Matters

00:27 Podcast Welcome

01:48 Pet Debate Begins

03:19 Cat Cafe Chaos

07:49 Allergy Aftermath

09:55 Babysitting Confessions

11:27 Water Cooler Horror

15:04 Legal Preface

16:13 Tech Meets Construction

19:58 Prefab Versus Hype

22:21 Six Month Promise

27:57 Welcome Homes Lawsuits

28:52 Price Too Good

29:57 Permits and Delays

31:04 Mud Pit Fallout

33:17 More Lawsuits Surface

35:14 HGTV Credibility Boost

40:16 Tech Bro Leadership

42:03 Business Model Pivot

48:27 Red Flags Checklist

55:57 Construction Is Hard

01:00:50 Final Takeaways

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/

39 Chicks in Construction
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Mikki: [00:00:00] If you have absolutely no experience in construction, that is not, you don't just wake up one day and decide. Mm-hmm. You have an idea and then you're a contractor. I have said this on so many of our podcasts, and I will say it again. You have to have experience or you have to hire someone with experience, and then if you hire someone with experience, you have to actually listen to them.

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

Jessica: Hi, I am Jessica Abraham

Mikki: and we are here today as we are every episode to help you, the homeowner or the potential homeowner to learn about things. That you wouldn't necessarily know to help you have better experiences.

Experiences. I'm gonna find my words when you're hiring contractors, when you're doing a renovation, when you're replacing your roof, when you're adding an addition onto your house, whatever it is, when you have to [00:01:00] delve into the wild world of construction, we want to arm you with the knowledge that you need to go forward and have a great experience.

So that is what the podcast is about. And welcome to the Chicks tribe. We love that you're here. We love having you here. We would love it if you would like and subscribe. And I don't know, leave a gently. A gently, lovely comment.

Jessica: Not a spicy one.

Mikki: Not a spicy one. Do what you want. I just want you to know people can see the things that you comment, and also it is not hard to find out where you live or where you work.

Jessica: Yeah,

Mikki: take that as you will.

Jessica: My goodness. That's why I have to tell you something.

Mikki: I was like, what are we gonna talk about today? And Jess was like, oh, I have a story.

Jessica: So if you may or may not know, I do not have pets.

Mikki: Yeah. Jess doesn't do that. We do. I have all the pets. Jess has none of the pets.

Jessica: I have all the children.

Mikki: I have none of the

Jessica: children. None of the children. It works out.

Mikki: [00:02:00] It does. Yin yang.

Jessica: Yes. And like, it's not that I don't like animals, it's just that we are never home. And I don't want to be like, oh, I have to leave early because I have to go walk an animal. Or,

Mikki: yeah.

Jessica: Oh, I can't go on vacation for two weeks because my cat will be by itself.

No, but my youngest,

Mikki: yeah, she is hardcore pushing for a pet.

Jessica: Oh my God.

Mikki: Hardcore.

Jessica: Like every day she makes me feel bad that we don't have one. Like every day. It's like, mom, how good. Do I have to be to get a cat like right now? For the

Mikki: longest time there's no amount of good.

Jessica: No. For the longest time she wanted the dog and I started getting all these cute little

Mikki: Oh yeah.

Jessica: Um, miniature dachshund. Oh yeah. Videos on my Instagram feed and like I was slowly breaking down. Yeah. I was like, oh, it's so

Mikki: cute. I was, I was part of the problem too. I was sending her all the rails. Look at this dog. Look at this dog. Look at this dog.

Jessica: [00:03:00] Yep. But now she is

Mikki: join my dog gang.

Jessica: Yeah. Now she's like, oh, I want a cat.

And I was like, Hmm. And I think it's because my aunt has cats, so when we go visit her, which is like two times a year, um, she loves,

Mikki: yeah.

Jessica: She loves the cat. So being the great mom that I

Default_2026-03-16_2: am,

Mikki: you are a great mom. That's true.

Jessica: Um, I decided to take her to a cat cafe.

Mikki: Love this.

Jessica: Now I am slightly allergic to cats and I've been my whole life.

Okay. Um, 'cause my aunt has always had cats and like sometimes I would go to her house and I break out in hives.

Mikki: Oh God.

Jessica: And other times I'd be perfectly fine. Like we stay at our house. Like she changes all of the bedding. Okay. So that encloses the door so that there is no animal in my bedroom, so I don't have to worry about it.

Yeah. And just being in her house, like I don't get,

Mikki: you're fine. Sometimes,

Jessica: most of the time,

Mikki: sometimes you almost die. It's a real, it's a real shake.

Jessica: Shake of the stick. Real

Mikki: flip of the

Jessica: coin. What's gonna happen to Jessica today? Um, and I've been taking the supplements so that like my allergies aren't bad.

Yeah. But now [00:04:00] when the idea of a cat cafe, like cats serving everywhere.

Mikki: Yeah. I was like, well,

Jessica: so like, do you, 'cause they serve drinks and I'm like, so do you are like the cats where the drinks are being made? 'cause that's kind of unsanitary.

Mikki: Oh God. I

Jessica: have a story about that. If they're not, they're not. Yeah.

They're in a separate room, so you have to wear socks, which, okay, great. You

Mikki: told me about it. You had to like buy

Jessica: cat socks if you don't, so it's warm out like, oh, okay. Luckily I knew that we had to mm-hmm. Have socks. Mm-hmm. But like if you show up in flip flops and you don't have your own socks, you gotta buy socks, buy you have to buy socks, cat socks.

And they all have cats on them. So like when would you ever wear that again? Although people love cats. So I mean,

Mikki: depends on if you're a cat person,

Jessica: which I am not. Um, yeah, so we go, we go into the rooms that where the cats are, where the cats can be in.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: And they are everywhere.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: Like

Mikki: you would think at a cat cafe, they would be everywhere.

You were hoping for like a mile, like a,

Jessica: I thought like

Mikki: maybe [00:05:00] there'd be like a medium density cat situation.

Jessica: Two, three cats,

Mikki: cat to person ratio, one to two. Yeah. Not so much.

Jessica: Not so to 18. They were, I mean, it wasn't that bad. There was probably like 12, I think.

Mikki: Wow.

Jessica: But it's, and they were, there's a lot of cats.

They had all of these things for the cats to be on the cat cows. Oh yeah. And hammocks. Oh. And like these things that attach to the window.

Mikki: Yeah, yeah. So they can like almost kill the birds, but not really,

Jessica: really just

Mikki: tempt them.

Jessica: Yeah. And just like lay up there and

Mikki: just watch, here's what you could have if you lived outside, but unfortunately you're an inside cat.

Jessica: So I sit near a window that's open.

Mikki: Mm-hmm.

Jessica: Lovely. And I'm just drinking my drink in the window sill. So I put my drink down there and now my, my child is in all of her glory.

Mikki: Oh,

Jessica: she is. She is living

Mikki: her

Jessica: best life. She is living her best life. Petting the cats, playing with the cat. She finds a hair tie and is like throwing it for the cat to like go chase, like it's a dog.

And so I had my cup on the window, sill just, just chilling, sitting, just sitting there. And I'm just sitting there. I'm taking a few pictures of her and then I'm like, all right, well she's playing and I'm wearing [00:06:00] scroll, you know, phone and do your

Mikki: own business. As one does.

Jessica: As one does. And this cat.

Mikki: Cats are such dicks,

Jessica: jumps up onto the window sill and walks over to my cup and sticks its face.

Mikki: No, it did not even,

Jessica: so like it has a top on it, so it's like a to go cup, but it stuck its face where I would drink out of.

Mikki: Oh, so it was, it was actually trying to kill you. It

Jessica: was like, it was trying to, I was like, it

Mikki: was a murder moment. And you're like, so that cup is gone. And it's not just because like the cat, it's not like we're saying cats are dirty.

I don't know about cat's like hygiene situation, but it's your allergies. Like,

Jessica: and like now I can't, I was like so I'm like, like I don't wanna like

Mikki: shoe fly.

Jessica: Like what? I don't want it to scratch me or kiss at me or like, come at me.

Mikki: Don't come for me Kat.

Jessica: I'm like, no, no. Just like go,

Mikki: no, no, no, no, no.

Jessica: Hoo.

Mikki: She jazzes are all nice. I'd have been like, boom, [00:07:00] move yourself. But that's, I don't have cats. I'm, and I'm, listen, if you're a cat person, don't come for me.

Jessica: We don't. And so I was like, okay, well. Great. And it kept coming back.

Mikki: He was like, no, I really want that coffee man.

Jessica: And it would, so like I'm sitting there just like cross-legged, so like one of like,

Mikki: oh, he wanted to lay in the lap?

Jessica: No, he would, he was batting at my foot.

Mikki: Rude.

Jessica: I was like, okay. So I then I stayed still.

Mikki: He was trying to play it with you and you were just like, absolutely not.

Jessica: Yeah. It was like, I know that you don't really like me. I'm going to make you like me.

Mikki: Yeah. He was like, I really wanna get adopted. She said, you're the one I have to convince here I am trying to convince you

Jessica: not happen.

I was not happy.

Mikki: Meanwhile, Jess is like, oh, ah, horrible. This is horrible.

Jessica: I was like, when can't we leave?

Mikki: Why did I have to be such a good mom?

Jessica: So then I start sneezing.

Mikki: Mm-hmm.

Jessica: As one does when there's,

Mikki: when you're allergic to cats and you're with 18 cats

Jessica: and. One of the, there, I think it was a [00:08:00] grandfather had taken his granddaughter there and he's like, oh, are, are you allergic?

I'm like, yeah, little bit. A hundred percent. That's why we don't have 'em. That's why I thought I would just take her here. This is our first time. He's like, oh, we've been here so many times and she knows all the cats. And the, the girl literally did like, she was naming all the cats. 'cause they have a

Mikki: book.

And meanwhile Lana's watching all this going. Really? Mom? I've only been here once and she's been here 17 times. Oh yeah. And knows all the cats by name and their backstory.

Jessica: Yeah. She's like, so when do we get to go again? And I was like,

Mikki: never

Jessica: ask your dad. She's like, do you think that you can take the cats home?

Mikki: Mm-hmm.

Jessica: I a hundred percent not.

Mikki: Yeah. No, they definitely live here forever. This is their forever home.

Jessica: This is their, no, actually you can rescue them, but I'm not telling, we're not

Mikki: telling her that. Or you'll have a cat and an allergy

Jessica: problem. I'll not have a cat. I think if it was just one.

Mikki: Yeah. You probably.

So my sister is wild in these streets and she's allergic to dogs and cats. Does she have four [00:09:00] cats and three dogs? She does. Does she just always have allergies? She does.

Jessica: Ah, no.

Mikki: She is, she's just like, listen, she's a, she's a true gangster. Mm-hmm. Like, she's just like, listen, I love a cat and I love a dog.

And she does, she loves a cat and a dog and she's got many of them.

Jessica: I went home, I had to take my contacts out, I just threw them away.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: I was like, ah, I'll just get fresh ones.

Mikki: You're like, be with the Lord.

Jessica: And then I'm like, Lana, you need to change out of these clothes, but them immediately I'll

Mikki: die if you don't change.

And then you're definitely not getting a cat.

Jessica: Oh yeah. Just all, I was just like, get all that for, but yes, that is,

Mikki: it's funny when you were talking about like the sanitation of the Cubs, I immediately thought of I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't think Hector and I were like, made to be unsupervised.

Like we're, and most people, like there's one. Person who's not

Jessica: supposed to, they're not meant to be unsupervised. I'm going to let them watch my children

Mikki: that that's a life choice. She [00:10:00] asked me to watch her kids, and I was like, are you sure? I mean, I'll do it, but like, are you sure?

Jessica: We'll report back next week, see how it goes.

Mikki: This is like the month of my friends asking me to watch their kids because my best friend Laurie asked me to watch her kids, and I was like, okay. She came home and her youngest, who's like four, she was fake crying. And I, listen, I'm not, I'm not a mom. I dunno what to do when you fake cry. I know what to do when my employees fake cry, which has actually never happened, but I'm prepared

Jessica: for it.

Mikki: I essentially did. So she's fake crying. And I was like, no, unless you can produce a tear, I'm not gonna take this seriously. So then she produced a tear and she's like, see? And I go, okay, but I know that you're female,

Jessica: but I have a tear.

Mikki: Yeah. So like I am, but I'll do it. But like, I don't know that you should let me watch your kids, but I'll do it and I'll try to keep them alive with all the tries.

I was like, should I bring Hector? He's probably [00:11:00] good at like keeping the kids alive. So we'll see. We'll report back and let you know how it goes. But, so like I've said, it, we're normally like one person marries like a slightly incompetent person and then together they become like a mostly competent person.

And I'm not saying Hector and I are incompetent. We're just really good at like. Business and building things. But like, like housekeeping things is not where we shine. So we have a water cooler. Um, we've, we never keep anything in the house other than water and not 'cause we're healthy. I don't wanna like, I don't wanna trick you guys.

Jessica: I'm not,

Mikki: I'm not healthy. It is not 'cause like, fitness is our passion or health is our passion. It's just like, it's easy. So we have water delivered so I don't have to go get it. It just shows up at the house like magic and then somebody else not me, puts the water in the cooler and then the water's available.

It's really just again, 'cause I'm not suitable for general. Mm-hmm. Gen pop, [00:12:00] it stopped working. So Hector takes it apart.

Jessica: He's like, I have a piece of special trash that can fix this.

Mikki: Oh, a hundred percent. Which he actually did. So of course he did. It needed a, it needed a pipe. And he's like, I got just the thing.

He goes into the special trash shed, he brings out the pipe. It fits perfectly. And, which is terrible because this, it like makes his special trash collection worse. When he sources an item in his special trash shed that fixes a problem that he did not have to go buy. It reinforces that he needs

Jessica: his

Mikki: special trash.

How amazing the special trash is. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, absolutely. Nobody needs to enforce the, the collection of special trash with Hector. It's pretty solid. So, but when he takes it all apart, he was like, it was so dirty. It was so disgusting. And I was like, let's burn it. Like,

Jessica: like the part that like is bringing the water to you.

Mikki: Yes. It was disgusting. And I was like, Liz, I didn't even think, because again, we're not [00:13:00] suitable for gen pop. We don't know about these things. Normal adults know you have to clean your water cooler.

Jessica: How long have you had your water cooler before? Oh, do I not wanna know?

Mikki: You don't wanna know. It's been a very long time.

I just thought, who is water? It's fine. It's clean. Why would it, it was a problem. So Hector cleans it and fixes it and he's like, oh, it's fine now.

Jessica: Does the water taste different?

Mikki: I won't drink it. I was like, something

Jessica: fixes it. You're like,

Mikki: no, don't bother fixing it. I'm not touching that. I'm buying a new one that hopefully has a self-clean feature.

I don't, um, I, I would say I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do about it. So it just is what it is. But yeah, like that's. Apparently if you have a water cooler, it needs to be cleaned pretty frequently. Um, I'm just gonna start over. I'm that one. I'm just gonna

Default_2026-03-16_2: burn

Jessica: it. No, I'm like, do I wanna drink from someone's because like the one that you have, I have seen at.[00:14:00]

Mikki: Yeah, like places,

Jessica: everywhere, places that I go to

Mikki: offices, like, it's like literally like one of the coolers that you would see. It's like the water cooler. It's that like we have that. And now I am never gonna be the same. I'm never gonna be the same.

Jessica: I'm never gonna be able to drink from ACO and be like, when did you clean it?

Mikki: What right

Jessica: do

Mikki: you know you need to clean it? When did you clean your Joe? Like, ah, Joe's like never. He's like, shoot, are

Jessica: you drinking water from there? Don't die.

Mikki: Don't die guys. Like, apparently it is it, it was so, Hector didn't even take pictures of it because he knew that if I saw the pictures, I would probably never consume water again.

And he knows that I need water to survive. And so he did not want me to see it. So he just told me it was bad and I knew was a really bad, really bad, bad when he didn't even take a picture. I can't. And I was just like, I can't, um, nope. How am I alive? Nobody knows.

Jessica: Nobody knows.

Mikki: So listen,

Jessica: listen. You weren't feeling good.

There is your reason.

Mikki: [00:15:00] Oh, there we go. It's a fucking water cooler. Awesome.

Jessica: All right. All

Mikki: right. So we have a story for you today, and I do have to preface some things for legal purposes.

Jessica: Oh, Lordy

Mikki: one. The lawsuits in this case are still ongoing, so they have not been settled, so they're fault has not been determined.

Um, so by saying that we are, we're cl making sure that you, the audience know that these are alleged. Claims they have not been proven to be wrong. They have not been proven to be at fault. They have there no harm has been proven. So we do wanna be very clear that these are alleged, and that is for legal purposes,

Jessica: don't

Mikki: for us, don't come for me company.

I will also say that, um, everything we are sharing here came, came from a vetted New [00:16:00] York Post article. Mm-hmm. Um, so it's not even, we're not even the first people to talk about it. So again, don't come for us. But it is a, it is a homeowner horror story that is based out of upstate New York. Um, so just to set this up, one, one thing that is really interesting to me is that as technology continues to grow, one of the places that is really slow to adopt technology is construction.

I always joke that the, the only. Industry that is slower to adopt technology than construction is the federal government. So like in construction, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's, there's a bunch of, you know, people that have been doing this since Jesus was a baby and they've been doing it the same way and they're going to keep doing it the same way and they don't care that this new invention is gonna make things better.

So it is really tough to integrate technology into construction. I actually [00:17:00] have, one of my many side hustles is I consult for companies that are like integrating technology into construction because one thing that is very, very common is the tech bros of the world mm-hmm. Will come up with this brilliant idea because there is, because we're so slow to adopt tech new technology, there are so many opportunities for tech companies.

In the construction space.

Jessica: That makes

Mikki: sense. So everybody sees all these opportunities. Mm-hmm. They have absolutely no construction experience. They see dial signs. Right. They see cha ching, chaching, chaching. Mm-hmm. And listen. Is there cha-ching, cha ching, cha-ching. In construction. When it comes to technology, there is the opportunity for that for sure.

But one of the mistakes that I see these companies make is not bringing on people who have construction experience. Hmm. You know, one of the, one of the first companies I did consulting work for. I was really surprised, like they had a great [00:18:00] idea, but they came to me and I was like, I'm just like, first conversation.

I'm like, okay, what about this? And they're like, what's that? I'm like, oh, you know, it's, it's like for one of the things in, in especially what I do in walls and ceilings is called a UL design. So everything, especially in multifamily that is built. Has a UL design, meaning that it has been tested, especially for fire and fireproof and fire resistance.

And so

Jessica: what does UL stand for?

Mikki: Underwriter's Laboratory. Oh, so they, when you have a new product, you go to Underwriter's Laboratory and you say, okay, use my product to construct this wall and then set that bad boy on fire and we gonna make sure that it lasts an hour or two hours or three years, however.

Long, long you are trying to make your product stay intact for like you presented to them. They put it together.

Jessica: So fire a spread,

Mikki: set it up. Yeah. Okay. So it stops the spread of fire. Got it. And there's smoke barriers and fire barriers and all kinds of different barriers. And there's all kinds of different [00:19:00] products.

And a UL design is the number one thing for me and what I do that we have to pay attention to. We have to build the walls. Mm-hmm. With exact products that they specify in the exact way that they specify. It's a really important thing. So this one company, the first company that hired me, comes to me and is like, oh, you have this great product.

And I was like, all right. What uls does it mean? Huh? They

Jessica: were like, they're like, they're like me. What is a ul? What's

Mikki: bad? And I was like, oh my God. And so absolutely not. I tell you this story, not to throw shame on them. They were obviously smart enough to call me and hire somebody to consult them, but that is the standard practice.

These tech companies have absolutely no construction experience. They see an opportunity and they don't know enough about how that opportunity will actually work in the real world in construction. And so I see that all the time. And so this is kind of a story about that. It's about a tech company [00:20:00] who came up with this really brilliant idea where you can design your home online and it could be built in a very short period of time.

So this is also a thing. So there's something called, um. Prefab homes. There are, they're, they're like, people have a really bad perception of manufactured homes. 'cause they think that they're all trailers, but there's not, that's not necessarily the truth. Like they're just essentially homes that are built inside of a warehouse and shipped.

Jessica: Is that like the modular homes too? They're

Mikki: modular homes is another one. They're kind of built in like shippable pieces and they kind go to together like Legos. And one thing we see a lot of in, in multifamily is something called penalized, where it's not necessarily the entire thing is constructed in a warehouse.

Mm-hmm. But the walls are constructed. So like you don't have a framing crew out there like stick building. Mm-hmm. They construct all the walls. They come out, they get craned up and installed and it [00:21:00] makes it move really fast. So that is the thing. And, and not all of those things are shady or unrealistic or are.

You know, a tech company trying to sell you, you know, used goods. It is, they have a warehouse, they have a factory, they have a facility, and these products are made in the facility and they are shipped either fully constructed or partially constructed, and that saves time in the construction of these homes.

This was not that. And so one of the things I want you guys to look at when something like this comes. You know, along your feed, if you're looking to build a new home and you see something like this, and they say, okay, you know, we're, because of technology, we're using technology to make these things faster and better.

Okay, well, but how? Do you have a warehouse where you're constructing these things? The reality is that technology is not gonna build a house faster. Um, [00:22:00] unless there is a warehouse. Maybe they're using robots, I don't know. But it still has to be built somewhere and then brought to your property in order for it to move faster.

There's no technology in the world that unless it is being built in a factory somewhere and shipped, is going to slow down the timeline of your property. And I probably jumped the gun a little bit on telling you that, but whatever.

Jessica: That's okay.

Mikki: So in, in this whole thing, they would, um, you'd log onto a website, you would choose the land, you would pick the floor plan, you select the faucets, the cabinets, the flooring, and then the company behind the platform tells you, um, something almost heard of in construction, which is your brand new construction home will be built in six months, which is completely and totally unheard of.

On this story, on this show, we have shared stories of remodels taking a year. So an entire new construction house from, you know, undeveloped land to move in ready being six months, that is unheard of and [00:23:00] that is a hundred percent a red flag. Um, many homeowners in the New York Hudson Valley, um, that promise sounded revolutionary, but according to multiple lawsuits.

What some families actually got was something very different, a muddy pit in the ground. Homes with flooded basements, incorrect electrical installation, two year delays, and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent. Today we're looking at the controversy surrounding a tech startup called Welcome Homes and the homeowners who say the company turned their dreams into a nightmare.

Jessica: So what's wild to me is. If you listen to our last episode, that company was started in 2020. You wanna guess when this company was started?

Mikki: Was it 2020? Jess? It

Jessica: was

Mikki: 2020. Oh my God. Swear. It feels like people were sitting around doing nothing during the pandemic and we're like, Hmm, how can I scam people out of their, out of their pencil stimulus [00:24:00] checks?

Jessica: Um, yeah. So today we're diving into the lawsuits surrounding Welcome Homes, a tech startup founded in 2020 by digital ocean executives, Alec Hartman, Mark Hartman, and Ben. I'm not even gonna try to say his name.

Mikki: I saw that name and I was like, absolutely not

Jessica: for et Ski. No, that sounds about right.

Mikki: Oh, yeah.

You were a teacher. You can read better than me.

Jessica: It's phonetically, I'm sounding it out phonetically. If it's wrong, don't come for me.

Mikki: I mean, don't come for us at all, Ben.

Jessica: Their idea was digitizing home building by, I don't even know what that means. By technology promised didn't match the reality.

Mikki: So welcome homes positions itself as a PropTech disruptor, which is a property technology.

In case you didn't know what PropTech was, 'cause I didn't PropTech disruptor. Um, their platform allowed buyers to design homes online, purchase lands, select finishes, and track the build digitally. Digitally [00:25:00] the company promoted bold promises. A custom home completed in about six months.

Jessica: So like, I mean, it's great that everything can be done online and I understand like in 2020, well it'd be great, right?

It

Mikki: would be

Jessica: great. And in 2020 when like, you couldn't go out and yeah. See things, so like, you'd be like, oh yeah, this makes sense. But now I'm thinking about, I'm like, I would wanna see things.

Default_2026-03-16_2: Hundred

Jessica: percent. Yeah. Yeah. And like know what the materials were and whatever thing was, I don't wanna do. Like there's a lot of things I wanna do online.

Like I hate going to the store.

Mikki: Oh my God.

Jessica: I

Mikki: hate

Jessica: it. Just it's things are disorganized. Yeah, they, Costco drives me nuts because they keep rearranging where they put stuff in. They really do. Nobody knows. A single person knows what aisle it

Mikki: isco employees are like, I don't know, man. Just like, good luck.

Jessica: Good. Like up north we used to have a BJ's membership. And on the sides of every aisle they would label.

Mikki: [00:26:00] Yeah.

Jessica: The things they were here, they've given

Mikki: up on that. They're like, well, it used to

Jessica: be Costco. Not so much. They like, no ma'am, you can go up and down every aisle because we hope you find something else that you didn't even, even don't know that wanted what you want, like a hundred.

I got $150 chocolate bunny. I did not buy the $150 chocolate bunny, but she

Mikki: did send me a message. I was like, who? Who buys a 50 bunny? And I was like, social media influencers. Yeah.

Jessica: I threatened my husband to buy two for our girls.

Mikki: I'm sure he was like, Jess, I swear to God.

Jessica: He's like, you

Mikki: better

Jessica: not.

Mikki: His forehead of vein started popping.

Jessica: But what's funny is that I went. To Costco like weeks later and still the same bunnies were

Mikki: Yeah, there. They be spending in this economy $150 chocolate bunny.

Jessica: I'm like, I'm gonna wait till after

Mikki: start. We Rockefellers when they're

Jessica: like

Mikki: 10, they're $22 and 50 cents. Sorry,

Jessica: we side

Mikki: quest

Jessica: side. Questing it.

Mikki: Alright, . So a custom home completed in about six months, which is lies that somebody told you. The timeline was dramatically faster than typical. Custom builds. [00:27:00] Industry averages often exceed a year, especially for a custom home.

You can be looking at two years. Mm-hmm. Because like for it to be done right fast is slow and slow is fast. Y'all like, we, you, you gotta take your time to do it right? Mm-hmm. And I'm not saying it should take two years, but if you have a really complicated house, it could take up to two years. Um. But for buyers, especially tech savvy professionals, the idea of a streamlined digital home building process was appealing.

Um, and that appeal helped. Welcome homes attract Venture Capital by 2022. Hmm. The company had raised about $29 million in funding, which is like low key, terrifying, but behind the scenes, according to lawsuits of former employees and former employees, the construction process wasn't keeping up with the promises.

Jessica: So by 2024, multiple lawsuits had been filed against the company. Three cases involving five plaintiffs accused [00:28:00] welcome homes of fraud, breach of contract in delivering faulty or incomplete homes. One of the most detailed cases involves Rena and Miriam Adams, a couple who wanted to leave their Brooklyn town home.

It moved their family upstate. They signed a contract with welcome homes in July, 2022. Their plan, a 46,

Mikki: 4600 square foot house

Jessica: on first of all acres.

Mikki: How many children do you have? That is a huge

Jessica: house. I'm like, I could fit.

Mikki: But then again, if you got Brooklyn townhouse kind of money, you can afford a 4,600

Jessica: square.

Yeah. They were like, oh, I'm going to take this little tiny townhouse. And like we, like, they probably in their mind, couldn't even really fathom with 4,600 square hills for just. These little,

Mikki: yeah,

Jessica: I mean, their town home probably was a lot of square feet. Probably substantial, but

Mikki: it was probably all stack, 4,600 square feet is also

Jessica: and five

Default_2026-03-16_2: acres.

Mikki: So substantial.

Jessica: Oh, the model was called the Oasis four grand.

Mikki: [00:29:00] So grand.

Jessica: It's sounds so luxurious, so

Mikki: fancy,

Jessica: fancy pants

Mikki: for the tune of $1.132 million like you

Jessica: guys. But it's, but like in like, think about like the size of that house.

Mikki: Oh, that honestly, and

Jessica: five acres

Mikki: is wildly underpriced. Underpriced, like wildly underpriced.

And actually they end up spending something like over $2 million to build, not, it's a 3,500 square foot house for $2 million for it to be what they wanted. Mm-hmm. At the end of the day. 'cause they, it, we'll get to it, but, so. Yeah, because

Jessica: I would imagine that they want all luxury finishes too. Oh yeah. So like, this is, this is the, the math ain't math thing.

Mikki: The math ain't math. And that, that was like the first red flag is like, okay, you're, they're, they're about. $2 million under on the price that they sold this house for.

Jessica: Um, so they paid the initial deposit of 113,000 under their contract. The house was supposed to be completed [00:30:00] within seven months after the building permit was issued.

But that has not ha was that what happened?

Mikki: No,

Jessica: it is not. Not at, at all. And I feel very bad.

Mikki: Yeah, it, it does suck for them. So according to court filings, the Adams family waited months for their construction to begin by June of 2023. Now, mind you, it was May of 2022 that they went under contract. So they're a full year from when they went under contract to when the permits had still not even been pulled.

Welcome Homes had still not obtained the building permits. I watched. Um. A video about this and apparently, um, the, the homeowner eventually goes into the inspection department and is like, Hey, what's the permitting department? I was like, what's going on? Why hasn't the permit been pulled? Mm-hmm. And they're like, oh, we've been trying to contact this builder for six months.

There's one document that needs to be signed. So, which is just, again, just because you know how to use technology does not mean you know how to build things. So [00:31:00] by September of 2023, more than a year after signing the contract the site. Reportedly contained over cleared land and a four foot hole in the ground.

That was it. No house, just a pit. And the Adams family ended up terminating their contract in 2023 after they themselves are the ones who got the permits. So eventually they just got the permits themselves and were like, okay. Mm-hmm. Welcome homes, build the house and then welcome homes. Apparently over cleared the lot, which I don't exactly know what that means, but they over cleared it.

Jessica: They were probably allowed to only clear so many trees and they over, over went beyond that. Went over,

Mikki: okay.

Jessica: Because in those upstate areas, like I know where my aunt and uncle are, not in New York, but like, they are not allowed to like,

Mikki: disrupt, disrupt the land that they're not allowed. So they give them like a Okay, you're allowed to

Jessica: disrupt this much land.

Yeah. Because they need to have such a Yeah. Much buffer between the other house. Yeah. Like they can't subdivide their

Mikki: Yeah.

Jessica: Space because it has to be so many acres. Yeah. So like, [00:32:00] they probably told them they, they can't.

Mikki: Yeah. And they did, they over cleared the land and then mm-hmm. They just left them with this mud pit.

So there was just a pit, no house. Um, they terminated the contract and here's what gets me. So they had paid $113,000 of a deposit. They, the only things, they did not even get the permits themselves. The homeowner got the permits. The only thing they had done was clear the house they, or the land they had not.

Put in the undergrounds. They had not billed, you know, the foundation, none of that was done. So they had paid $113,000, which essentially they needed some of that money back. Mm-hmm. Um, so welcome homes turns around and sends them a bill for another 200 plus thousand dollars and says, okay, well if you're gonna cancel your contract, then you owe us this money.

And the homeowners were like, absolutely not. For what? Like,

Jessica: no.

Mikki: So. Um, so yeah, it was 212,000 164. Um, according to the New York Post their lawsuit now seeks more than $2.8 million in damages. Um,

Jessica: that's [00:33:00] insane. So they're like, oh, you're gonna cancel your contract, but you didn't read the fine print. You still owe us more money for canceling that.

Default_2026-03-16_2: And

Mikki: they were like, oh, we owe you money. How about this $2.8 million lawsuit, you know, just for funsies? Oh

Jessica: my gosh. And the Adams family wasn't the only one. Ooh. Other lawsuits described similar problems. In one case, homeowners William and Aaron SLO claimed they waited years for a house that was supposed to only take months.

During that time, they reportedly paid mortgage loan extensions that sucks about $30,000 in interest while waiting for the bill to finish. Their lawsuit also described multiple construction errors, subcontractors, allegedly, this

Mikki: makes me laugh.

Jessica: Allegedly installed the wrong windows, place an electrical box in the wrong location, and then attempted to hide mistakes with insulation.

Mikki: Insulation. You guys like what? Just put some

Jessica: insulation. It'll be fine. You'll never know. You'll never see [00:34:00] it. It's fine. They

Mikki: never know.

Jessica: Another homeowner claimed their welcome homes took over two years y'all to finish despite the seven month timeline. I mean, I don't understand how people really thought that like these houses of this size and the land that needed to be cleared was only gonna take a couple months.

Like, is this just wish I'm like wishful thinking?

Mikki: I guess so.

Jessica: Um, at one point that homeowner said they had to personally manage the subcontractors on site every day. When the home was finally completed, they discovered another major issue. The sump pump had been installed incorrectly, causing the basement to flood.

Mikki: Of course it did.

Jessica: Allison, you need a, so like, oh yeah. So

Mikki: pump, if you have a basement, you need a sub pump. Mm-hmm. Like, especially in North Carolina, we don't really do basements, but every once in a while you'll, your lot will, like, the only wait it makes sense is to have a basement. Mm-hmm. One, one of the thing we see a lot is like, so elevator pits, they, they go deep into the ground and so you mm-hmm.[00:35:00]

Every single elevator pit in the state of North Carolina, I guarantee you, has a sub pump because our, our, mm-hmm. Our soil is very moist. So one of the things I thought was really interesting was the HGTV connection. Mm. So the company's credibility also came from a surprising source in 2021. Anthony Carino, a former HGTV host of Kitchen Cousins, which I used to love that show and I know exactly who Anthony is.

He's, he's a real snack, um, sorry joined the welcome homes as the Vice President of Design. For the company, Carino brought major recognition. Recognition. He had more than 25 years of experience in construction and design. But Carino left the company in January of 2024. And when asked why, he gave very blunt explanations.

He said that the founder had a direction they wanted to pursue that did not align with construction best practices. And here's the thing, [00:36:00] he wouldn't listen to Anthony. So like Anthony comes in as the expert in construction. Mm-hmm. And is like, Hey, you have great tech ideas and that's great, but here's how construction actually works and these are the best practices that we have to meet.

And he was like, nah. That doesn't work. So Anthony ended up leaving

Jessica: and Anthony's probably the reason why they got a bunch of clients,

Mikki: $29 million of funding plus a bunch of clients because people are like, okay guys, I,

Jessica: this is legit.

Mikki: I hate like, look. And I'm not, I'm not throwing shade on Anthony. I've never met him.

He seems like pretty legit guy. He left for the right reasons. But I cannot stress this to you enough. As someone who almost had an HGTV show twice I am seen behind that curtain to the point where I, it's like genuinely scary. These people frequently have absolutely no experience that they are on these shows because maybe they worked in construction or maybe they did a home renovation for themselves and now they feel emboldened.

And if they're cute, they gonna end up on a [00:37:00] TV show like. It is wild how these TV shows come to pass. And there has actually been so many legal cases against H gtv mm-hmm. Against their, the shows against the contractors. There have even been claims against people on Chip and jojo's new network, um, whatever it is, on whatever channel it's on.

But they have their own network now. And they had, they had this one show where this family turned a church, so they had their own home and they turned a church into their house. So they renovated the church and that made them qualified to be contractors. They did, qualified to have a h an HGTV show or whatever.

Chip and Jojo's network show. Ended up getting the, the bejesus suit out of them, the show removed from the network. Like just because someone has a TV show does not mean that they know what they're doing. And that seems ridiculous to say, right? Because like, why would this be on tv? And I [00:38:00] will quote you.

It's called TV Magic. When I was talking with the producers of the show, we went so far as filming a pilot. Um, and when we were in that process, they would say TV magic all the time. And I was like TV magic is the problem. Yeah. And I'm honestly so grateful that we did not get the show because I wouldn't have had control over TV magic things that, that they made seem like, oh, this is normal and it's actually TV magic.

And so

Jessica: you would've been fired if Oh, God had to, let's be honest,

Mikki: they've been like, let's, they'd have been like, Mickey, we're replacing you.

Jessica: We had to remove Mickey. 'cause

Mikki: Mickey is no longer with us. So, um,

Jessica: we had creative differences.

Mikki: We had creative differences as one does. So. He also said that one thing to note is that Anthony is not accused of any wrongdoing, but, um, one thing that he noted was that only one customer was living in a completed welcome homes when he left, [00:39:00] despite them having dozens of contract.

So that's something really important to notice. This guy had been with the company since 2021, and he left in 20, 24, 3 years. And when he left, now this is a company that is selling their houses saying, Hey, we can build this house in six months business. He was there for four years. Well, he

Jessica: was there for

Mikki: three years.

They've been in business for four years. They had only completed one home. A red

Jessica: flag

Mikki: and I could just see, like obviously I am, I am adding my own spin on this, but I could just see this guy going in and talking with the tech bros and being like, Hey, this isn't how construction works. And they're like, it's fun.

It'll be fun. Don't worry about it. We're doing this anyway. And eventually he was like, I'm not gonna get tied up with

Jessica: this. I'm not gonna get sued. Yeah.

Mikki: He peaced out. He was like, Hey, by the way, just so everybody knows, they've only completed one house.

Jessica: Holy moly. Yeah. So. A former employee told the New York police be

Default_2026-03-16_2: leaking

Mikki: leaks.

Mm-hmm.

Jessica: They're like, they're not paying me enough to stay quiet. Thank you. You know what? I actually don't like them that [00:40:00] much. I will spill the tea. Um, I don't actually know if that's the case.

Mikki: We don't know. Allegedly,

Jessica: allegedly. I'm just putting my own creative spin on that. Yeah,

Mikki: yeah, yeah.

Jessica: You're welcome.

Mikki: You're welcome.

Jessica: A former employee told the New York Post that many of the company's problems came from leadership decisions

Mikki: from Tech Bros.

Jessica: According to that source, the CEO allegedly

Mikki: allegedly

Jessica: ignored advice from experienced construction professionals.

Mikki: Hmm.

Jessica: Key operational roles. Were reportedly never filled.

Mikki: Jesus.

Jessica: For example, the company allegedly,

Mikki: allegedly

Jessica: leaked a procurement manager

Mikki: lacked. They

Jessica: lacked. Oh, lacked. Sorry. They didn't leak it. They

Mikki: lacked it. Only, I wouldn't correct her. Like I would just roll with it, but I did just want you to know it was lacked. There was no leak.

Jessica: There was no leak. They lacked it.

I just can't read today. It's fine. The person responsible for getting materials to job sites, I'm glad that there's a definition there because I didn't even know what that was. Yeah, that's

Mikki: a good one.

Jessica: Um, architects were also [00:41:00] reportedly pushed to produce home plans quickly without enough time to finish them properly, which meant contractors sometimes received incomplete or confusing designs.

Well, listen,

Mikki: that does happen. All the dang on time.

Jessica: Yeah.

Mikki: I'll get these plans. I got this plan. I was working on this set of plans, I think it was like two weeks ago, and I called the general contractor and I was like, I. Who's drinking? Am I drunk or was the architect drunk? Are we all drunk? Did I breathe?

Did I breathe in mushrooms by accident? Like, what's happening? These plans were nonsensical. And he was like, yeah, you're like the fifth person that's called us today. My God. I was like, okay, well Lisa, it happens a lot. And so not giving an architect enough time to like make sure everything is like fully written appropriately and is like fully okay.

Mm-hmm. Is a really big thing. So that, that, it's funny 'cause they were pushing so hard, the architect, but then it seems like they didn't push anybody else. Um. So here's one thing that I thought was really interesting. [00:42:00] Um, is welcome home still operating? And the answer to that is yes, which is why unfortunately, unfortunately we have so many disclaimers in this that we, no wrongdoing has been proved, don't come from us.

Welcome home.

Jessica: They're just alleged.

Mikki: This is all alleged. But one thing I think is really interesting is that they have changed their model. It no long, they no longer manage construction directly. Um, instead it connects customers with third party contractors to build their homes. I actually went on their website and saw that and I thought that was like, so, okay, lemme just finish this and then I'll get into my thoughts.

The company's website no longer also no longer advertises guaranteed pricing or timelines for the building homes. The lawsuit against the companies also remain ongoing. So listen. If you have a technology idea, that's great. Bring it to construction. See if the people who know how to build things can make it work.[00:43:00]

If you have absolutely no experience in construction, that is not, you don't just wake up one day and decide. Mm-hmm. You have an idea and then you're a contractor. I have said this on so many of our podcasts, and I will say it again. You have to have experience or you have to hire someone with experience, and then if you hire someone with experience, you have to actually listen to them.

It's funny that he shared the Anthony's guy from HGTV shared that he basically was. Arguing, beefing. Mm-hmm. If you will, with the CEO, because he's saying, Hey, this isn't how construction works. And the guy's like, no, no, we'll be fine.

Jessica: It'll be fine.

Mikki: I have worked with so many people who had absolutely no experience.

Some of them were Abso, you know, like the, the company I was telling you about with the uls. Mm-hmm. When I told them about the uls, yes. They had absolutely no idea what they were, but they also paid attention and were like, thank you for sharing this with me. Let me take this back to my team. Mm-hmm. And see what we can do with it.

They [00:44:00] employed that knowledge and that advice that I gave them. It's like a year or so ago, I was working with a person who couldn't pass the general contractor's exam. And so we were working together and she had absolutely no experience. Um, she, you know, I'm gonna say she had good intentions, um, but she also didn't wanna learn.

And so that became a real problem. We were eventually, I was like, okay, I'm out. Because when you have this idea of like, Hey, I wanna come into the construction industry, I wanna disrupt the market, I wanna do things differently, that's great. There's a lot of room in construction for that. Mm-hmm. But if you yourself are not interested in one either learning how construction works and getting the experience and putting the time in and putting the effort in, then you have to hire somebody who has those things.

And this is the key part guys. You have to listen to them.

Jessica: Yes.

Mikki: And so if you bring like, this person brought me in 'cause she couldn't pass a general contractor's exam. Just so we're clear about one thing, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the general [00:45:00] contractor's exam. The general contractor's exam exists.

To be a barrier for people who don't know enough about construction to pass that exam. Mm-hmm. So if somebody just can't pass that exam, it doesn't mean they're neurodivergent, it doesn't mean they're stupid, it doesn't mean they're incapable of, of reading or they're not book smart, or whatever spin you wanna put on it, it means they don't have enough experience to pass those tests to understand the terms, to understand how construction works.

Mm-hmm. So, you know, this chick brings me in, I'm advising her on like how construction works and she didn't listen to anything I said, so I pieced out. 'cause I was like, listen, you're not gonna cost me my license because you don't know how construction works. And that's exactly what happened to welcome homes.

Mm-hmm. So like. It's great to bring technology into the industry. Mm-hmm.

Jessica: We need it,

Mikki: but you have to do things in a way that makes sense and you have to work with people that know what they're doing. Mm-hmm. And this idea of like construction, [00:46:00] I'm just gonna be a contractor one day. That's just not how it works.

Jessica: And like, I feel like you need, if you're going to be the tech side of stuff, you need a subject matter expert for what you're trying. Yes. The problem you're trying to solve, you need someone there to be like, yes, that can work. No, this can't work. I mean,

Mikki: yeah. Yeah.

Jessica: It's the same in all industries. If you're going to try to fix something, you need to know how it works.

Yes.

Mikki: What could

Jessica: possibly be a fix?

Mikki: Right. And again, I don't wanna discourage people from trying to solve problems in construction, but this company has created more problems than they have solved. And now they're not even, you know, offering to build the houses they're offering. They're essentially offering the, you can design your home online, you can pick your finishes online, and then we will connect you with a, with a general contractor who can build your house, which I'm gonna be honest is smart.

It is smart, like ish, ish, ish.

Jessica: Then you have

Mikki: to, you still have to vet that general contractor. Just because they're recommending a general [00:47:00] contractor does not mean that you don't have to do everything We have told you guys to do, you have to research them. Mm-hmm. You have to check their licenses. Don't assume that just because this company is recommending them that they've done that work.

You have to check to see if they have judgments against them. You have to do all the things that we have told, told you guys on all these episodes about, but it makes a lot more sense than a tech company trying to build houses.

Jessica: Oh yes.

Mikki: They understood after a couple of years, I guess, and several lawsuits that they,

Jessica: four years and a few lawsuits, you

Mikki: know, I'm just a female lawsuits that they are not capable mm-hmm.

Of actually producing these homes. So now they're, they have the process, but they're farming that, that out to other general contractors. Um, I would, like you said earlier, I would like to see the finishes. I would like to put my hands on the product. Mm-hmm. So selecting that online, I feel like

Jessica: I like to, to be able, 'cause like, if the handle doesn't feel good,

Mikki: yeah.

If it's not a good grab, you

Jessica: gotta have a good grab. It's not, or like, it's too little or,

Mikki: yeah.

Jessica: Like you're, you bear

Mikki: claws for hands,

Jessica: daintily, [00:48:00] grab the, I don't know. It's a whole

Mikki: Yeah. And I get it. I'm

Jessica: very sensory.

Mikki: Yeah. Yeah. And I guess some people aren't and they're just like, just put the house, build the house, put the things in it.

I don't care. So this is an option for those people.

Jessica: There you go.

Mikki: But. Absolutely not. Should somebody who has no construction experience be building houses? No. Again, we can't stress this enough. So let's talk about some of the red flags.

Jessica: Yes. Let's,

Mikki: um, red flag number one, guaranteed timelines for a building.

Mm-hmm. Now we, Nicole is one of our favorite kitchen and bathroom remodeling general contractors that comes on the show, and she has a guaranteed timeline for her renovations because she, this is all this woman does. Mm-hmm. Is kitchen and bathroom, mostly bathroom, but also kitchen renovations. She has a formula.

She can walk into your house. She's building in contingency, she's building in time for like oopsie whoopsies that she might find when they tear the shower out. Mm-hmm. She has a timeline. She's like, I'm gonna get it done in this amount of time. That is a bathroom [00:49:00] renovation. There is no guaranteed timeline for a new construction home.

There's just so many things that are outside of your control, how long it takes to get permits, if there's problems, like there was this one project we were working on and it got delayed by a year because after they bought the land, they discovered that there was a bunch of granite underground

Jessica: Goodness.

Mikki: And so they had to blast. Like with Dynomite?

Jessica: Yeah.

Mikki: Dynomite

Jessica: boom.

Mikki: For a year. In order to be able to put the undergrounds in for this neighborhood,

Jessica: I'd be like, eh, we're just gonna cover this bag up. We'll go else. Like,

Mikki: let's sell this land to somebody else and it's not our problem. I get it. So there's all kinds of things that happen that could push a timeline.

Mm-hmm. So when any builder, especially for a new construction build, is coming at you with one a timeline guarantee, that is a huge red flag. You should be like me. How come nobody else is doing that? Mm-hmm. Do you wanna do the second flag?

Jessica: Sure. Second [00:50:00] flag. The tech founders without construction background software experience doesn't equal construction experience.

How many times stay in your lane?

Mikki: Stay in your lane. Susan, like, I can't, I, I. So this is my biggest pet peeve

Jessica: mm-hmm.

Mikki: In the entire industry, is people waking up one day and being like, I'm a general contractor now

Jessica: tomorrow I'm gonna text you and say, I'm gonna be a general contractor.

Mikki: Hey, you should wake up and be like, Hey, guess what?

I just decided. New business idea. I'm a general contractor now, isn't me. Here's the thing that happens every single day. Every single day in just the state of North Carolina and all over the Dagon world. Somebody wakes up and they're like, you know what?

Jessica: And I'm

Mikki: be an designer, designer,

Jessica: interior designer, and general contractor

Mikki: and a project manager.

And I do all the things. And I'm all the things and I'm so great. Let me tell you all the reasons why. And a lot of times these people can talk a really good game and they hit all, they, they, they know all the buzzwords and they know all the things to say because [00:51:00] Shot GPT told them they actually have no idea how construction works.

Mm-hmm. And that is where using that judgment of, okay, this is a great idea, but how much experience of boots on the ground. Mm-hmm. Hands on the tools of doing the actual work. Do you have? And if the answer is none, then the answer is we're not going to go with you as a contractor, you, that is a must and it doesn't have to be.

Oh, I, you know, I've been a general contractor for 25 years. It could be, Hey, I used to work for a general contractor. Mm-hmm. I was the superintendent, or I was the project manager and I learned everything about the construction industry from working with a general contractor. Yeah. And then I decided to start my own thing.

Absolutely. 'cause you have experience. You have seen it done, you know how it works.

Jessica: You have been trained.

Mikki: You have been trained. So many stories that people write in on, on our channel mm-hmm. Is about, oh, they had really great [00:52:00] social media. Oh, they, they, they, one of the most common ones is they confident.

They were so confident. Mm-hmm. That's great. Show me the money, honey. I wanna see the years of experience that you worked in construction and not hosting events in construction or not. I go to networking events or not. Oh, yes. I once managed a project for somebody else's job or,

Jessica: yes, I own this company yet.

Right. I don't do any of the work.

Mikki: Yeah, we don't do any work yet. We have no revenue. That's another interesting one to ask. I was just thinking about this the other night. When you're going, when you're talking to a general contractor, how much in revenue do you do every year? I wanna see that, listen, that, that has to go on your tax return.

I wanna see what your revenue was on your tax return. If it's zero, don't walk, run, don't walk, run. And if they have some reason as to why, like, oh, I just started my company. Okay, check that out. I know this person who owns a general contract company, they've been in business for a couple of years, zero projects, zero [00:53:00] money in revenue, but they out here in these streets selling this, the, the crap out of it.

Now, luckily nobody's buying yet, but eventually some poor person is going, going because they're, they don't want the chicks construction. They don't know the things that you need to check out. So

Jessica: that's why you have to send this to everybody that, you know,

Mikki: send to your a

Jessica: renovation,

Mikki: like, and subscribe.

Yes.

Jessica: So let's see.

Mikki: On this one, obviously we talk a lot about deposits. Mm-hmm. But one thing I think. Where this is a little tricky is I actually don't think the deposit that they were asking for was crazy high, because the, especially for the one the one couple that is like over a million dollars, they only asked for a $113,000.

Jessica: Yeah. So it's like 10%

Mikki: a deposit, which is 10%, which is actually pretty reasonable. Mm-hmm. I think in this case, what was really the red flag was the one, the timeline. Mm-hmm. And two, after [00:54:00] they canceled the contract, they turned around and asked for another 200,000.

Jessica: I mean. Of course. Um, another red flag was their construction mistakes being hidden.

Um,

Mikki: and that's tricky because like how would you as a homeowner know that? But it's one of those things where it's like, if you're seeing like, oh, I went out there yesterday and they had put the electrical box in the wrong place and I went out today and the electrical box just has insulation put in it like that seems if your gut is telling you something's off here, trust your gut.

Jessica: Yeah.

Mikki: The other one,

Jessica: it's okay to ask questions.

Mikki: Yeah. It please ask all the questions. Mm-hmm. Be annoying. Ask all the questions because it's gonna cost you a lot of money to not ask us questions. The other one is homeowners forced to manage sub contractors. And this actually happens in so many of our horror stories where.

Like the, one of the ones a couple, a couple weeks ago was she had a list in her phone of all of the things, the mistakes needed, mistakes to get done and all the mistakes that had made. And she said it was vast. So if you are [00:55:00] finding yourself in a position where you are the one tracking the materials, you are the one tracking the work.

You are the one paying attention to the schedule. You are the one who knows what's happening on the job, and your builder doesn't. That is a major red flag. Now, it doesn't necessarily have to be, 'cause we had a. Homeowner horror story where they kind of wrote in where they were still in No, it wasn't a write in.

It was, they hired me to come in mm-hmm. And do a little consulting for them. And I, I don't know if it was because they hired me, but they ended up being able to work it out with the general contractor. Oh, that's

Jessica: good.

Mikki: So it ended really well. They were really happy with the build, but halfway through it, they were panicked and they came to me and were like, Hey, can you help me?

And I was like, I'll try. So,

Jessica: but if you don't have a Mickey in your life,

Mikki: if you don't have a Mickey in your life, which very few do, um, you definitely need to be we weary of if you are running the job site, something is wrong there. So in closing,

Jessica: it started as a bold idea to revolutionize home building.[00:56:00]

Ended up in courtrooms

Mikki: and it's a reminder of something every experienced builder knows construction is hard. And I can't say that enough. Construction is hard and you have to know what you're doing. You can't simply design the process and expect everything to work perfectly because at the end of the day, homes aren't billed by software.

They're built by people, experienced people, hopefully. And when that process breaks down, the consequences can be devastating. And that like, this is just something I see over and over again. Lack of experience, people who don't, they just woke up one day and decided I'm a general contractor. Okay, so when you are hiring somebody, you wanna know how many years of experience do you have?

Where did you get that experience from? Is it? Mm-hmm. Oh, I worked, you know, at this, I did an internship, I worked for a general contractor. Um. I worked with my family business. There's a lot of different ways [00:57:00] that somebody can learn how construction works, but construction is complex and it requires. A level of understanding that, listen guys, you are not gonna get this from a book.

You're not gonna get this from a YouTube channel. You get it by hands-on learning. Mm-hmm. I have spent 20 plus years in this industry, and there are a lot of claims that I am not even willing to make because I don't feel like I have that level of experience. I have been working specifically in multifamily construction for more than half of my 20 plus years in construction.

And a couple of months ago somebody came to me and they were like, Hey, we wanna do an all women, um, apartment complex. Oh. Like using all women trades. And I was like, that's great. Who's the general contractor? And she was like, oh, it's so and so with, you know, this company. And I was like, um, she, she does renovations like that.

Oh my god, [00:58:00] y'all. There are levels to knowledge and understanding. And it is great that this person, this woman is out here doing renovations and I support her and I think she's amazing and I want her to continue to do renovations that does not make her qualified to do a new construction, multi-family building.

These are people's lives that we are talking about. Mm-hmm. And, you know, with this tech company, these are people's lives that we are talking about. It's their lives. The, the house could literally fall in on them. That has happened. We don't want it to happen, but it can. Mm-hmm. It is also their livelihoods.

So many of these stories end in hundreds of thousands of dollars that these people have lost and they cannot recoup. Now again, as we've said in the beginning, none of these lawsuits have come to completion. I do think that $2.8 million, I read a little bit about it. I don't, I don't think they're gonna get that money because essentially what [00:59:00] they're trying to recoup is the cost to build their new house.

So,

Jessica: okay.

Mikki: They went under construction with welcome homes to build a 4,600 square foot home. Mm-hmm. For over, like just over $1 million.

Jessica: Right.

Mikki: They ended up building a 3,500 square foot home for just over $2 million. On the

Jessica: same land.

Mikki: On the same land.

Jessica: Oh, well that's good.

Mikki: So they're trying to turn around and say, you need to pay us for the entire cost of our home build because you didn't build our house.

The way you said you were going to, and I'm just gonna tell you, as somebody who has spent more time than I'd like dealing with lawyers, that's just not how that works.

Jessica: They get your money back for the deposit that you paid,

Mikki: right? You they, I think they could legitimately get their deposit money back, but for them to sue welcome homes because they had to pay another builder to build their excessively large house, that's just not how law works.

But. Good [01:00:00] on you for trying. I will say that the other lawsuits in the case like that, that have been filed mm-hmm. Are a lot more legitimate. Like they're all less like $500,000 or less and they're just trying to recoup the cost, the money that they spent, that, of money that they spent when it took two years instead of six months for living in apartments.

You know, like for the temporary housing

Jessica: probably sold or got your house under contract.

Mikki: Right.

Jessica: Or you were like told your landlord, Hey, I only need another six

Mikki: months. Months and I'm gonna be living the good life in my, in my fancy house.

Jessica: Ugh.

Mikki: Yeah. So. That I, I do think, like, to be fair and balanced, um, I, I do think like that, that amount is, is really ridiculous.

But it is important to know, like if somebody's coming to you with a great technological idea, that's great, we love that, but you need to make sure that the people behind building it actually have that experience. So if you have had a similar experience or a homeowner horror story of [01:01:00] your own, we would love for you to go to our website, chicks and construction.com to share that with us.

You just scroll a little bit down, you can fill out the form. You don't even have to send us an email. We got you. Um, we'll take your story. We'll take. You're a story of you're a general contractor and you wanna rat on your clients. We'll take your story if you know of a lady down the street who had a really bad experience, because the whole thing is the more stories that we can share with our audience that is growing.

Thank you for liking and subscribing. Um, the better experience they're gonna have when they have to do a renovation, when they're gonna hire a contractor. And that's really important and that is what we care about. So, Jess, where can they find us? On the socials,

Jessica: on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram is at Chickson Construction Podcast on TikTok.

It's at Chickson Construction.

Mikki: All right guys, remember, like, and subscribe. We love you. Thanks for joining us.

Jessica: Bye.