last episode of home improvement

Contractor charged with home improvement fraud | Local News

27/07/2024Gutnryr

A construction contractor has been arrested after charging a man more than $100,000 to build a garage and leaving him with only a malformed foundation, according to court records.

A Lebanon homeowner agreed in October 2021 to pay Johnathon R. Manco, 40, of Thorntown, $98,000 to build a garage in three phases, according to a probable cause affidavit. Manco performed only phase one, which included grading and excavation, a footer, and the foundation, police reported.

But the foundation was made with inadequate, “extremely crooked” forms, Boone County Sheriff’s Detective Bradley Dunn reported.

And Manco, through his company, Diverse Construction Solutions,

Remodeling to sell a Seattle-area home? Read this first

23/07/2024Gutnryr

Until recently, the Seattle-area housing market tended to paint over home sellers’ mistakes.

It didn’t matter much if you spent months on unnecessary renovations when houses were shooting up in value, and sellers were getting offers well above the listed price. The several months’ delay in getting a home ready usually worked in a seller’s favour. But as the market cooled, the situation has changed.

Kirkland-based real estate broker Max Rombakh, of Windemere Real Estate, says one seller in the Bridle Trails neighborhood of Kirkland sank $400,000 into remodeling, watched home sales and prices fade during the eight months the