Beware of "foot-in-door" foundation repair bids
Imagine your home is having a severe foundation problem, so you call four companies to bid on the home foundation repair job.
Three companies come back with bids between $8,000 and $10,000. But the fourth firm wants only $2,500 to do the job. The contractor assures you that his work will be above reproach. But is his bid too good to be true?
Unfortunately, it probably is. In the construction industry, these are called “foot in the door” bids. They are all too common among a wide range of home improvement and repair specialties, including roofing, plumbing, painting and foundation repair.
Here is how the scam works. The company claims that only a portion of the foundation needs repair. So instead of doing a job that guarantees the health of the entire home, the scammer will say he can fix just one-quarter of your foundation for a very low price. Then, he will claim, your house will be in great shape.
Why does the scammer make a foot-in-the-door bid? Here are some possible explanations:
- He may sense that the homeowner is unable or unwilling to pony up $10,000 for a full repair job. He makes a low-ball bid, knowing that his competition will make larger, honest bids that may be out of the homeowner’s price range. (Of course, reputable companies like Foundation Repair Solutions offer financing options for our clients.)
- He could be attempting to eventually complete repairs worth $10,000 or more. But by focusing on only a portion of the foundation to begin with, he will appear to offer a good bargain to the homeowner. After that portion of the job is complete, the scammer may come back and say another $7,500 or more in work is necessary to really get the foundation up to par. Or, he may hope that you will call him back for yet another repair when problems show up again in the future.
If only foundation repair were this simple. Treating only a portion of the home, and repairing only a portion of the foundation, does not solve the problem. If uneven soil moisture, poor drainage, bad construction techniques or rotting beams have caused damage to one-quarter of the foundation, it stands to reason that the remaining three-quarters likely have problems as well.
Don’t be fooled by a scam artist who throws a super-cheap bid at you for foundation repair work. Ensure that all bids you receive are apples-to-apples, with the entire house taken into consideration and worked on during the repair process.
Have you ever received a foot-in-the-door bid for work on your home? Tell us about it in the comments.
Follow Foundation Repair Solutions on Twitter (@FoundationRprSo) and on Facebook!