Back in August my roommate* [*name withheld to protect my rent from increasing], who happens to be my landlord, decided to have the house painted.
Learning of his plans, I quickly stepped in, volunteering my Angie’s List membership to help locate a good painter. I pulled three names from the List, all highly rated of course, and gave their contact information to my roommate. But he decided against using any of them. The result? The painter started in September and just finished last week.
I’m not knocking Billy** the painter [**name changed to protect his self-worth] as a person. I just think he should find another profession. My roommate is a commercial real estate agent, and Billy worked on some of his properties in the past. The main reason he rolled with Billy was the price. Billy came cheap.
But Billy completely underestimated the job. He didn’t know how to deal with dry rot, failed to scrape or control a power washer properly and was just physically unable to perform the job in a timely manner.
Warning: If you ever hire a painter and he shows up limping with a cane, find someone else.
Billy: I feel bad telling you this, but you need to find another profession. Physical labor isn’t for you. Plus you smoke, play loud music and my yard looks like you took a cheese grater to the outside. Not only does it look like you failed to clean up, it looks like your goal was to leave the exterior paint in bacon bits across my front and back yards. Plus, you should consider covering up some of those drug-related tattoos. Now that I’ve lambasted Billy, I have something for my roommate.
Roommate: Please listen to people! Now what’s the point of having the List as a resource if you don’t use it? It stinks that I don’t own this home. I would’ve used the List to get this job done in a three days rather than two months. And don’t ever go with the lowest estimate! Lowest estimate typically means the lowest quality. I’m sure he was the cheap choice, but I’m convinced Billy brought down the neighborhood property values at least $100,000.
Look for this report on Angie’s List Indianapolis.
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