Think of it as insurance against substandard work or faulty material.

Hey @Brad Roche - We do a significant amount of renovation loans (both Fannie May & FHA) here in Chicago and prefer the Homestyle loan only because it's less stringent on the borrow about what they have to repair, and they provide the general contractor a material draw at closing which helps the project start on the right foot.I thought the minimum down payment was 5%.

Most material pricing, especially lumbar has come down tremendously from the chart he is using to show the increase.

Price out as much as you can in terms of materials and estimates.

He seemed legitimate at first, and I even had a few friends look over the materials he provided.

I would have been ok with the latter numbers because I have been stockpiling materials for like two months, but...I did not know if I could trust them due to the lack of "professionalism," and my lack of experience. 

Plus the hours of material participation. 

You don't see any actual receipts for materials or invoices from contractors they hired.

There's some excellent relevant & recent material from very high quality individuals on this forum.

We had to repaint the entire unit because the material he used left oil stains everywhere.