Richmond is flooded with incredibly aggressive investors (whether it's foreign, or just NY/CA, tons and tons  of money is being pushed in), so IMO it's best to look outward.   

Would YOU trust them enough to do business with them, knowing they were dishonest.

They appear to be awesome on the surface and offer some great tools, but their sales practices are dishonest. 1.The sales associate Steve Martin told me on the phone that the access to the online portal would not expire on the phone (I even recorded the call).

Intentional or not, your implecation is that the contractor was dishonest in his pricing and that seems unfair.

There are bad and dishonest people in every profession, if those that are licensed for their trade.

Unfortunately we live in a world full of dishonest people, so we all have go out of our way to protect ourselves and our property.

If everything is not "above board" and this is an inside deal or he wants the house himself, I'm not sure there's anything that can help.I've invested in real estate for the past few years in NC and while I've seen my share of unfair practices, since they were all investment properties, it wasn't terribly disappointing and I was successful with enough offers to keep me busy.But unfortunately, my Mom really wants a house in this zip code (in demand) and I'm shocked at how disrespectful, dishonest, and downright rude realtors have been.

Best case, that's dishonest.

Some of them do not even has a salesman license, never mind professional designation like CPM.I have also found dishonest broker when I first get into GA market in 2012.

Even though it would be extremely dishonest, if the seller were to hire the inspector, there is a chance of the two working together to falsify the report.