All Forum Posts by: Chinmay J.

Originally posted by @Pat L.:

Mines a bit different. 

I had a pro-account with HD & we did the new cheap carpet with the free tear out remove & install deal. The guys show up with all the new carpet, haul all of it up 4 flights of small stairs to the attic apartment. As they start tearing out the carpet they stop, declaring the place a health hazard due to the blood spatter stains on the plywood flooring. I tell them It's wood stain you morons, but they leave the rolls of carpet & bail so now I have to get rid of the carpet & fight to get a credit. 

I went to a carpet store nearby, get a better price for the tear out, removal & install. Everything goes smoothly & they struggled to get the HD carpet down to the patio for HD pick-up. I cancelled the HD pro-account after I got stuck with a $90 charge they refused to reimburse because the carpet was cut to order. That year I dropped >$70k at Lowes so sent a copy of the Lowes year end statement to HD corporate & got the $90 reimbursed. But I rarely go there anymore.

Pic of the 'crime scene blood spatters' they bolted from.  

 I am surprised that a multi billion dollar company like HD is not able to keep these contractors in line. Now if I am a small time contractor and I get business from HD, I am going to go above and beyond to ensure that the client is happy, and moreover HD is happy so I keep getting more and more business from them. 

Usually that's what I do as well, but my guy was on vacation due to holiday season. 

When things are not going your way, something as simple as replacing a dishwasher can prove to be a nightmare. I am sure there are more people here who have experienced same total incompetence and lack of professionalism from Home Depot. I mean its a multi billion dollar company for crying out loud...

So follow this with me if you can....

11/18 - Tenant calls me and informs that Dishwasher is not working.. It won't turn on

11/18 - Send my handyman to look at it. The dishwasher is 11 yrs old. He recommends not wasting any money on repair, and just replace it. He says, I can order one from Home Depot/Lowes for $400.00. I am paying for installation and hauling away of the old dishwasher as well. 

11/19 - I place the order on HD website.  ETA is 11/25. 

11/25 - The given ETA is 2:00 P.M. - 6:00 P.M. He has my order as the last one to be delivered. Delivers it to the tenant, and apparently does some cursory check and informs my tenant that there is no grounding underneath the sink, and so the dishwasher cannot be installed. Tenant doesn't know any better. The truth is that there is grounding there and the place was built in 1995, and has had dishwasher ever since. He literally drops the box in the living room and runs for the door.  The dishwasher is still sitting in the box (This is very important detail). 

11/26 - I call up Home Depot and talk to the lady, and she says this is terrible it has happened to you. I will send another guy to do the install. The earliest possible date is 11/30. So we schedule a visit from HD tech on 11/30. OK No problem.. I can be a bit patient and so can my tenant. 

11/30 - The tech comes in as scheduled, and when he takes the dishwasher out of the box, we discover there is a huge dent on the door- like it was used as a punching bag by Mike Tyson damage. 

Now, since this was not reported within 2 days of delivery, HD will not replace it. Per HD, tenants or I should have removed it from the box and inspected it Now we have to deal with the manufacturer. HD arranges for the manufacturer to come in and inspect the dishwasher and then they will make determination of what's to be done. 

12/10 - The manufacturer sends their rep. He inspects the damage and reorders the part. He informs the dishwasher can still be used despite the damage to the door, and he will come and replace the door on 12/27. I should call HD so they can come and install. So the ball is back in Home Depot's court.. 

12/17 - Another HD rep comes to do the install and calls me with a completely ridiculous story. According to him this whole ticket has been a big mess. and these door parts cannot be ordered at all. So he has gone ahead and put in an order to get the whole Dishwasher replaced, and I should call Home Depot to get the order number and date of the delivery. For a moment I am elated that someone finally did their job right.. 

So I pick up the phone and call Home Depot and talked to the same folks that I have been dealing with. They tell me that there is NO such order, and I was conned by the guy who came to do the installation. So I get the store manager (top guy for the store) on line and have a long chat with him. According to him, this is not an isolated incident, and not at all Home Depot's fault, but the company who has been hired to do the installations has been dropping the ball left and right... Apparently it is same company for all the DC-MD-VA residents, and if even I would have bought the dishwasher from Lowe's, I would have been subjected to the same risk.

According to this store manager, things are so bad that Home Depot had to form a new company just to deal with the consumer complaints.

I am not sure if there is any truth to background info the manager gave me or this is bunch of BS as well..

Moving Forward..

12/27-   The door will be replaced  as promised by the company. 

12/28-   The dishwasher will be installed, and someone from HD will be there.. I will be there myself.. 

Anyone else experienced this kind of nonsense? 

If they can pay the whole amount security deposit and are 100% sure they want the place, why would they even talk about fee in the first place..

That is a little too far out.. I have held the property for prospective tenants, but for a week or so. This is like 3 weeks. You should only do it if you feel you can't find someone in 3 weeks to rent it and move in. You can create a document stating that you will not market the property for the time frame for a non refundable deposit of  X.  The only way you will refund the deposit is if you can't deliver the property (for some reason... Lets say the water pipe bursts and it floods the basement for e.g.)  If they do sign the lease then make the holding deposit part of the security deposit. 

During the course of meeting him, did he mention any of his hobbies? Anyone who talks to me for even 10 mins know how much I love baseball, so I would much appreciate a ticket to Nats game even of a lesser dollar value than cold hard cash.  It sends a message that the person cares about what I deeply care about. If you really feel like you owe him something, send him a gift certificate or something like that.  The other side of that is you can get away with shelling less out of your own pocket !!!  LOL 

Also, going forward its best to have an upfront understanding of the fee for his service. 

If you financed with FHA loan you have to move in within 60 days. I hope you were made aware of that by the lender. If you violate it and get caught, you can get prosecuted for mortgage fraud, which can mean that you would be at least made to refi your property as an investor, which is least severe of the punishments.

https://www.fhaloans.com/artic...

Based on purchase date of October 2019, you should move in somewhere around Jan 2020. What am I missing? 

Whatever word you want to use, you are right.. I think $5000 is way too much. That's the bottom line. Not a big fan of semantics

It seems you came up with the 25 hrs by dividing $5000 by $200/hr.  For a trained eye, it shouldn't take 25 hrs to provide me with guidance . It shouldn't take even an hour actually if you have a system where you have created templates (EXCEL Documents), which you can provide me to fill up. Even if I am the most disorganized person in the world, if I can fill up your templates properly, you should have data you need to provide me with meaningful feedback. 

 I am looking for meat here.. I am not looking for all the fluff and song and dance with fancy PowerPoint presentations and abridged versions of Tolstoy novels. A simple 1 to 2 page PDF document would more than suffice. 

What I am willing to pay is $300-350 per hr. This is what a typical lawyer and CPA would charge you for "typical" work, and my finances are pretty typical. A few rentals, Real Estate Earnings, Stocks & Bonds, W2 job.. That's it.. This should not take more than couple of hrs to compile. My finances are not that complicated.  Meet up once or twice a yr on as needed basis. If you are my CPA, I am more than happy to get a bundled service from  you where you provide me with tax planning, financial guidance and do my taxes as well. 

So based on the advice above, and my own leaning in this matter, I reached out to a few fee based advisers. Talked to one firm about their pricing, and their cheapest rate is $500. For that they will advise you how to get  rid of your credit card debt..That cracked me up. There must be some really stupid people out there who need to pay $500 to learn how to get rid of their credit card debt. 

For the kind of advice I Was looking for, seems their package is $5000.00  What I am looking for is the following:

How to structure finances to minimize tax liability? How I am doing financially relative to my age? What age will I be able to retire? What would be a good target number that I should work towards if I want to retire at 65 if I want to do XYZ things in my retirement.

CPA who is a financial adviser (fiduciary) would be a great option for me. 

Any suggestions.. I have also heard of "Fee Only" financial planner.