Why You Always Inspect Before Paying a Contractor

TLDR
A contractor said this house was ready for market, but the walk found soft floors, missing hardware, painter’s caulk on a toilet, and an unconnected light. The source says the final 5% of a project is where the profit lives. That is why it treats the final check as the key tool before payment.

Table of Contents

Never Trust a Contractor Saying It Is Done

In this particular house, somebody hired a quasi general contractor to do the work. More like an allarounder since I do not think he had a license. Looking at the work he certainly did not pull permits.

The house is supposed to be ready for market.

It is not.

A house gets done, you cannot just trust people saying it is done. You need to go in and check yourself. Because the house is going on the market tomorrow, or the tenant is moving in tomorrow, and every thing you miss is a thing the next person sees first.

Your contractor said it is done. Your buyer decides if it is done. Those are two different standards.

Always Check Behind Doors and Inside Closets

Here are the first things I check.

  • Behind doors
  • Inside closets
  • Inside cabinets

Mistakes live there. Closets always have crap inside them. Cabinets always have crap inside them. Contractors forget about what is behind doors. That is where I find screws on the floor, light fixtures half installed, trim not finished.

Always check closet doors. They almost never work right. The doors drag. The slides do not align. The hinges are loose.

This is simple stuff and it is why it gets missed.

The Water and Floor Tests I Always Run

You check things actually work.

  • Plumbing works at every fixture
  • Every switch works
  • HVAC turns on
  • No leaks under the faucets
  • Floors are not soft

Ross checks how the floor feels while walking the house. Softness can have several possible causes, including framing, water, insects, or installation, but the observation alone does not establish which one is present.

Or buckling. Someone installs hardwood floors and does not let them acclimate. Acclimate means they sit in the house for a few days before installation so they match the climate. If you install them when it is hot and humid in the house without AC running, the boards expand, then push up like waves. Hard to fix once it is here.

On LVP floors, check for voids underneath by pressing on spots. A squishy area can mean the installer went over an uneven spot, but the walkthrough alone does not prove the cause.

Pro Tip
Pay attention to floor movement during the walkthrough and investigate any soft area before treating it as a completed job. The source does not prescribe four exact test locations.

Caulk, Escutcheons, and Permit Signs

Specific details that separate a real contractor from an amateur.

Escutcheons. Where water lines enter through a floor or wall, you see little circular metal or plastic pieces that go around the pipe. Those should always be there. When they are missing, you see holes around the pipe. On this house some were missing and one water line was not even connected. That would have been caught by a city inspection, which obviously did not happen here.

Caulk on toilets. This house had painter’s caulk under the toilet. Ross said painter’s caulk is not water tight and that silicone should be used there. Check the exact local rule for the job.

Light fixtures. There is a light fixture in one of the basement rooms that is just sitting there. I see no switch that turns it on. It is not wired to anything visible. If the city had inspected, that would have been caught immediately.

Egress. Ross flagged whether the basement room could properly be treated as a bedroom. The applicable egress and listing requirements depend on the local code and property, so the walkthrough observation needs verification rather than a universal window rule.

Basement ceiling height. Ross questioned whether the room’s low ceiling met the applicable requirements. The source does not establish a universal height or use a door as a code test.

Not Cutting Corners vs Not Knowing What They Are Doing

Is it concerning that this guy did not pull permits and probably cannot? Sort of. That happens on a lot of jobs.

The more concerning thing is that I can tell from the work done that he did not do the stuff inside the walls right either.

He does not look like a corner cutter to me. Corner cutting is when contractors maliciously hide things. I think this guy just does not know what the heck he is doing. It shows in the work.

That is a different problem from a person who hides bad work on purpose. The source does not rank which problem is more common or give one fixed response. It shows why you must look at the work itself.

What a Buyer Actually Sees

Here is what I noticed on this walkthrough that would kill a sale.

  • Caulk patch jobs on walls that were obviously not real drywall repairs
  • Screws sticking out of floors
  • Streaks on paint
  • Floor drains off center in showers
  • Light fixtures hanging from the ceiling not attached to anything
  • Nice paint job over rough prep work

Plus the possible egress and ceiling-height issues, and the missing mirror and bathroom hardware. Those visible misses keep the property from feeling complete.

I am only here to make sure the house is ready for market. Despite what the contractor thinks, it is certainly not ready. Especially in a tough market, when people walk up you need them impressed. Competition is high.

There is not a person who walks in this house and gets impressed. They might be impressed by a discount if they want to do the cleanup themselves. But the buyer you actually want, the family excited about buying a house, is not going to pay top dollar for this.

You attract top dollar buyers by making the house look finished. Those are the only buyers who pay retail.

The Final 5% Is Where the Profit Lives

Three lessons from this house, plus one more.

One. You personally go inspect houses before they go on the market. There are always little things that get missed.

Two. Contractors do not have the same eye you do. You have the vision for what a house should look like on the market. You need to make sure that vision got captured.

Three. You will not get work done if you have already paid for it. Under the agreed contract and payment schedule, release final payment only after you have inspected and approved the corresponding work.

Four. The final stretch still matters. Rushing to market does not make unfinished details disappear, so complete the agreed work before treating the project as ready.

My advice on this house was clear: do not pay the contractor until the list is fixed. Bring him back and get the house ready for market.

Pretty great that I can just reach out and grab the light fixture that is not attached to anything. Yeah. Not going to do it.

FAQ

What is the first thing I should check on every walkthrough?

Check switches, faucets, doors, closets, and cabinets, then follow the actual scope through the house. The source does not claim that three categories catch 80% of misses.

How much of the final payment should I hold back?

Use the payment schedule agreed for the job and release final payment only when the corresponding work is complete. The source does not prescribe a 10% to 20% holdback.

What if my contractor refuses to come back for small fixes?

The video does not give a full dispute process. Its lesson is to keep the agreed final payment open until you inspect and approve the work, so the contractor still has a reason to finish the list.

How do I know if something is a code issue vs just ugly?

Safety and code questions need to be checked against the local requirements and the actual work. Aesthetic misses still matter because they affect whether the property feels complete, but this source does not quantify the price effect.

Can I skip the walkthrough if I trust my contractor?

No. Ross’s lesson is to inspect the work yourself before final payment because even a responsive contractor can miss items. The source does not give a ten-minutes-versus-hours savings claim.