Hispanic Redemption

In a post I wrote last year called Paranoia Pays Off, I explained why completely swore off doing business with Hispanic people. Every single time in my life that I’ve done any form of business with someone from a Spanish speaking country, I get screwed over. After this weekend, however, I finally broke that awful streak with Vick.

The hardened sewage and dirt left on the lawn of property Chi looked absolutely awful and smelled like crap. Handyman Alfonso had a friend who was willing to clean it all up for $600. A hauling company wanted to do it for $500, but wouldn’t guarantee that they’d get everything out. While I was walking to Empower sometime last week, I saw Vick and his crew working on the bank’s lawn. I was curious, so I told them about what I wanted done at property Chi. Vick stated that the company he’s currently working for would charge me a lot for what I wanted done, but he and his friend could do it themselves and give me a break on pricing. On Friday I was hesitant to call them for obvious reason, but I figured why not. I mean, I was gonna be over there Saturday morning to mow the lawn and to pay Gonzalez for installing the hot water tanks anyway. So we set it up. By the time I got there Saturday morning, Vick and his guy were already there assessing the job. He gave me a quote for $400 and said they will get started right now. Right now? The other two quotes wanted to wait until next week to do the job! So I agreed and Vick and his non-English speaking friend got right to work.

This is how the plumbing people left it

Vick and Co. get to work

By 3:30pm, they called me and said everything was done. I spent the rest of the day at the shipping depot wondering just how much difference there is between my definition of “done” and theirs. Did I make yet another mistake? On Sunday morning I went over to check their work and this is what I saw:

Much better

I was shocked. I paid someone to do a job and they actually did it the way I wanted! Property Chi is now fully functional with hot water and a much better lawn. The basement is drained dry and the only things left are to fix the vinyl that’s rotted and waterproof the area of the basement that rainwater comes from.

This was my very first successful business deal with a Spanish-speaking person and it felt pretty good. (My HVAC guy Gonzalez doesn't count. He has a Hispanic last name but he's 100% down south African American, country drawl and all, from Georgia or South Carolina or something). I even listened to what they were saying to see if they were gonna say something derogatory in Spanish, but they simply talked about the work. The most derogatory thing they said was when they made a complimentary comment about Hanna’s (of the Africans) ass as she left for work. I didn't mind it because I felt exactly the same way. I saved at least $100 and got the job done the way I want it. They recommended that I put some artificial grass on the area which I wanted to do today, but I’m too tired and need a ton of sleep. I’ll do that next week once all this overtime is done with.

A co-worker from an old job in Manhattan once told me that, if I’m gonna be successful in real estate, I’m going to need Mexicans. Cheap yet quality labor. While I don’t want to make it a habit to find workers this way, I do see the importance of hiring non-companies to get a job done. They work cheaper and can do an excellent job, sometimes better than official contractors. But there are just so many assholes out there that it’s tough to see the ones that will do the work assigned to them. I remember going through that with Craigslist when I would look for handymen. But, at least in this case, it worked in my favor and that’s all that matters.

P.S.: I noticed that my best chance of getting work done (sans Angie’s List) is with guys that already have a job or work for a company. The responsible ones that use my jobs as “sidework” have a better chance of working out than those that are looking for work. I’ll be testing that theory from time to time.