How To Avoid Being Ripped Off By Lawton Contractors

In the same way as hit & run accidents are a defining and aggravating theme of Lawton, so is getting ripped off by a contractor that sold you on what turned out to be NOT their own workmanship. Just like how everyone with a truck and a lawnmower can suddenly become a landscaper, it only takes a few tools to get someone to believe they can do what seasoned professionals do, and sometimes you have to pay the price for it.

How many times have you seen a post like this on facebook? "Does anybody know anything about ___________? We hired them to __________ and they A) disappeared without finishing the job. Or B) did a terrible job and is now ghosting me."

It's not the place any homeowner wants to be placed in, but unfortunately, it's almost always the homeowner that creates their own problem.

Show of hands... How many times do you see social media posts like this... "Looking for recommendations for someone to (list any job here), must be good, must be cheap."

There's an inherent problem with this doe-eyed, naive approach to finding a contractor. You see, good contractors aren't cheap, and cheap contractors aren't good. Doesn't matter what the job is that needs doing, you just can't have it both ways.

I see it the most when people are talking about paint. Whether it's inside or outside, people usually get a bit of sticker shock when it comes to getting an estimate from painters... After consulting the highly-rated, highly-recommended paint contractor everyone raved about, most people get this wild idea that they can get the same high-level results by hiring some rando off the internet... and when the results are far less than expected, they forget that budget was far less than originally estimated.

So what is the answer? Well, it's really all about managing your own expectations. if you understand that cheap work usually provides cheap-looking results, you won't feel taken advantage of, but that's not how we're programmed.

So should you hire the most expensive contractor you can? Well, not necessarily. Though if you hired the expensive bid, then you have every right to expect perfection. I've always found luck in meandering somewhere in the middle. I'll call three or more contractors for the same bid and go usually with the middle one if it's something I can't do myself. It's worked out well for me so far.

TL;DR: You can't buy gold with lead, don't expect pro results from the amateur you hired.