Contrary to what you will hear on late night advertisements, real estate investing and landlording are extremely hard, and really not that profitable. Every penny counts, and you can easily wind up spending a large amount of your time managing your property. Almost as hard is finding a reliable contractor that can help you attain some actual work/life balance by being your "go-to" guy when you need things taken care of. In my search to find such a person, I was lucky enough to stumble onto Keane Ideas Home Improvements.
I say "stumble" because they don't really advertise, they seem to get plenty of work through word of mouth. Which is why I was a little hesitant to write this review - I'm afraid that by revealing the secret I'll have a much harder time getting these guys in the future. But I also think it's important to recognize straight-up, honest, hardworking contractors.
I have used Keane Ideas for a variety of projects big and small. In every case, I have been very satisfied with the results. Dave (the owner) understands the value of establishing a long term relationship with his customers, not just trying to squeak as much money out of them, or turning jobs down if they're not big. He has however talked me out of a couple of things that I asked for, when he was able to provide me with a better and more cost effective solution. Case in point - just recently I asked him to replace a shower faucet, because it was leaky and I figured a new one was in order when my attempts to replace the washers didn't work. For starters, the estimate he gave was less than what I had paid another contractor for a similar job 5 years ago, so I was more than happy to have him more forward. Once he got to looking at it though, he felt that it would be possible to repair, and asked if I would let him try. Really? Of course! Sure enough, it is now fixed, at a fraction of what it would have cost to replace. Other contractors would have happily done the replacement, plus I'm sure they would have found some reason why the original estimate had to be increased.
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