RECENT ARTICLES
Couple wants money back after a shoddy landscaping job
Question: We hired a contractor to redesign our backyard landscaping for our Cave Creek home. The cost would be $44,000, and we paid the $22,000 initial payment. This contractor did poor work from the beginning, including the severing of our watering system when we were gone for the weekend, which flooded our garage. The contractor now won’t return our phone calls, so we contacted the Registrar of Contractors to file a complaint. We then learned that our contractor is not even licensed. My wife says that we should just admit that we made a mistake and find a new licensed contractor. I am fine with finding a new licensed contractor, but I hate to walk away from $22,000. Is there any chance that we will get our $22,000 back? Answer: Probably not. This contractor is probably uncollectible. If you file a lawsuit, the contractor will probably not answer the suit and may…
Does a college degree matter for Realtors in Arizona?
Question: Why are you always picking on Realtors in Arizona because they aren’t required to be college graduates? You don’t have to have a college education to be successful in real estate or any other business. Look at Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, who both dropped out of college. Answer: First, Realtors want and deserve to be treated as professionals because practicing real estate today is extremely challenging. When the Realtor profession doesn’t even require a high school degree that is, at the very least, an image problem. Second, the Realtor profession has recently been rocked by voluntary settlements, not even court judgments, of hundreds of millions of dollars for wrongful practices. The minimal educational requirements for a real estate license in most states could be deemed a wrongful practice. Note: The legality of dual agency, i.e., the same Realtor representing both the seller and the buyer (similar to the same attorney…
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