Can You Love A Client That You Have Never Met?
I have told this story on many occasions because the job was a real challenge on many levels and the circumstances barely believable. The part that I save until the end, I will state first – I never met this guy! The final cost was approximately $180,000.00 and I never saw the guy and rarely even talked to him.
The guy called me one day stating he got my name as a reliable general contractor who could help him with his problem. I knew the person he mentioned but the story was way out there. He was going to set up an account to fund the project, as I invoiced he would issue me checks. He said he’d wire the money direct if I gave him my account info. That was red flag and at this point very skeptical.
He mentioned that he was a multi-family community builder, building apartments all across the country. I told him I’d have to get back to him after getting a lot of information that seemed to be true. I searched him on the internet; he was in Forbes magazine, owner of a large corporation, living and working where he said he was.
He needed to convert an existing apartment complex which was all 1 bedroom units into studios, 1bedrooms, and 2 bedroom to satisfy an affordable housing requirement. He had hired a general contractor that I was familiar with to move some common walls. The contractor took a bedroom from one of the units to include in the adjoining unit, creating a studio and a 2 bedroom unit. This idea was brilliant but there was a problem; there were no permits for the work.
This was discovered at the closing table. The deadline for a 1031 Exchange was near so things had to be done quickly. I took that challenge and got to work. I never saw him one time throughout the inspections, asbestos abatement, or even the final walkthrough. He told me that he trusted that I could do it, the money was already funded in an account. I walked into the building department, who red tagged the sight, and said “I will do whatever needs to be done”.
It wasn’t as though I had gotten caught, I was there to fix the problem. I loved that. It was me and the building department satisfying all the requirements with no second guessing by the owner who got caught.
In the end, everyone was happy! You gotta love those clients!
Comments(34)