New Windows - Good Lesson

[Galen Ikonomov]

Howdy y'all!

 I will have to replace 2 windows in a rental property due to rotting and not having a connection or relationship with someone who understands the window business so what I did is what everyone else would do in my spot, call one of the big Window companies in the city, in my case state.

 First phone call with a girl agent that had no interested in helping or whatsoever - First sign of big corporation ( extra unnecessary charges ).

Second phone call with a guy that was more engaged and helped me to schedule the "free" estimate and "free" consultation. ( They charge the suckers extra money in order to offset the next "free" everything customer who will pay extra to offset for the next one and the cycle goes )

 So day comes where the consultant shows up on time, walks in the property and start geeking out on Windows and how amazing the company the agent works for is. I walk the agent through the problematic windows and the agent confirms that they are bad. I am going to ignore using he or she when describing and I will stick with the agent.

The agent was actually friendly and knowledgeable, also claiming that she/he was a landlord a while back. Started talking about cost effective windows and how that would save money to the tenants from utilities because of the amazing quality windows, which I don't think there is a brand new window in the world which is not going to save some money on utilities as oppose to 60+ year old window. But, at the time I was in the zone listening to good stories. ( My grandma says LISTEN and DONT BE IN A HURRY to believe or judge ).

The moment where the price had to come out and estimates started going down. The agent told me that I would be provided with 2 extra discounts because I am a real estate owner and I would choose that agent and the same company for years to come with my properties which is a fair point, because that is what I would do in general. If someone is taking their "food from the table" to save me money I would return the favor with business and referrals. 

I wanted TWO windows ( remember the beginning of my post ), but the agent said that I should find a 3rd window to replace, because if I make an order for 2 windows the company charges $1850 fee ( second bad sign of a big corporation and the junk fees they charge ), if it is 3 windows, there is no fee. So I go back and I find a window that is perfectly fine to be replaced.

I ordered THREE 1/2 windows not FULL ( 2 DH - Double Hung ) and 1 "2LS" which I still have no idea what it stands for but technically means sliding sideways windows. One of the DH windows was 28 Width 37 Height the other one as 29x61 and the 2LS was 54x58.

After all the "discounts" I was served with a price of the windows of $6000.00!!!

I am Eastern European and I never ever, ever trust what someone tells me until I verify 3 times, but guess what, this time I took it and even applied for very appetizing finance. ( No payments for 24 months and after the 25 month if the $6k is not paid, it turns into a loan with 17.99% interest. ) Oh, I also received a Gift Card for $75, ain't that nice?

After the agent left, I had a terrible gut feeling that I did a major mistake + It would take me 1 year of cashflow to recoup that "investment". So what I did, is started my car and went to a local store which is like Home Depot, but not all over the states. When I found the window people and explained the story + provided the documents, they chuckled, they looked at me and said that was crazy and even ask if they can show that to their manager who was sitting right across the check out area and when he saw it, his expression was " O M G " and shaking his head. I ended up purchasing decent windows for $1000 including installation. I am even sure that I could have done better on the price.

What point I was trying to come across here is fellow future and current small landlords, PLEASE, do your due diligence and don't trust anyone who is being nice to you out there and throwing discounts and "free" stuff at you. Every product for a house could be found in the big retailers such as Home Depot in a very reasonable price as oppose to these "family owned" businesses for 100 years in town. I don't want to think that the person today was bad and had the best intentions at heart ( trying to work on being more trustworthy ) or bad mouthing small businesses. I completely understand that the cost of everything is going higher and higher including hiring people and in order for the small business to be successful and profitable, they have to charge a lot more than the big store. 

 Hopefully that helps! Happy New Year!