Hiring someone you know to renovate your home? A guide to successfully doing business with friends or family

A high school buddy of mine called Cal hired a mutual friend of ours named Ernie, who was a realtor, to sell his house. The three of us go way back so Cal thought Ernie could be relied on to do a good job because “friends don’t let other friends down”. Except Ernie made some promises that he failed to keep after the sale of Cal’s house was completed. This is the very reason most people are scared to do business with friends or relatives: they’re afraid they’ll be let down or taken for granted, which you may have experienced yourself once before with people you know or even love. But if you decide to hire someone who is known for treating their customers right, and they happen to be related to you, then there’s no reason for you to ever be worried about them letting you down. The thing to remember is that you shouldn’t be giving friends or relatives business just because they’re your friends or relatives. You should be giving business to people who will get the job done. And if they happen to be related to you then great. They’ll do a good job if they’re true customer-focused and results-oriented business professionals. And the fact that they’re related to you or friends with you is just icing on the cake.

If you’re going to hire a friend or relative to renovate your house prepare an agreement in writing describing budget, deadline, and scope of work expectations. You can even add a clause that allows either party to terminate the agreement if things aren’t going exactly to plan. Make things clear and straightforward and don’t rely on handshake deals. My wife once hired someone who shared our ethnic background to landscape our garden.  When we asked the guy for a proposal, he told us he didn’t usually create those things and did work based on verbal agreements (eventually he submitted a poorly drafted one after we insisted that he give us one to document all his deliverables). That was a big red flag for me but my wife didn’t see it that way and “gave him a chance”. Long story short, he overpromised and underdelivered. And his failure to put together an adequate proposal was already a clear indication (for me) of his inability to deliver, and I turned out to be correct in my assessment. If you would like to avoid any problems with your renovation project, the best way to do that is by hiring the right people from the start who will provide with you a clear and concise agreement that outlines your requirements and their deliverables.