Sniffing out scammers: How to recognize flawed home improvement offers

Sniffing out scammers: How to recognize flawed home improvement offers

By Mountain America Credit Union

July 28th, 2014 @ 10:33am

Home improvement measures can be great methods for enhancing the overall value of your home, or to take advantage of a home equity line of credit opportunity. As long as they're done with careful consideration and research, they're generally successful in establishing equity and garnering a greater resale price on a property.

A significant element of that research is in choosing the right contractors and service providers. There are a lot of scam artists out there, and not being duped has as much to do with knowing what to look for as it does knowing who to choose. Some signs of an impending scam are obvious, while others are very subtle. Either way, they should draw red flags.

The less subtle scammers will generally present themselves in an overly aggressive, often pushy manner. If your first and only manner of contact is via cold call or they're dropping by the house because they were "in the area," that's probably not the beginning of a beautiful professional relationship.

There are certain traits and proof legitimate businesses and contractors will present, often without request. Illegitimate service providers can't or won't provide things like in-state licensing, proof of insurance, accessible contact information, written contracts or customer references.

If you're skeptical of a prospective service provider, try looking up their contact information or calling the phone number they list. If those lead you to a rented mail drop box or a voice mail service, that's not a promising sign. Similarly, if a contractor can't produce a contract upon request, or isn't willing to draw one up and return with it, that should immediately call into question the validity of their enterprise.

Remember, most successful businesses have more formal ways of marketing themselves. This is especially true of contractors that provide services fostering interaction with their customers and word-of-mouth recommendations. Chances are, the good ones will present themselves without showing up at your door or calling you. Anyone who can't produce customer references is probably hiding something.

Some of the more obvious tendencies these scammers exhibit should have you politely shooing them off your property within minutes. If a sales pitch includes the words "leftover materials," "in the neighborhood" or "coming from another job," turn it down immediately. Legitimate businesses have plenty of jobs, and they don't go seeking them out randomly. Furthermore, they have ways to utilize their excess materials.

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Sniffing out scammers: How to recognize flawed home improvement offers