"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

and on houses with "Starting from $550,000..."

Residential construction is the bottom of the barrel.

We've got plenty of developments like that here. One of them was involved
in
an interesting scandal a few years back. It involved the builder, the
bank
he used to offer financing to the buyers, and the bank's assessor. They
arranged for the homes to be valued at $500-700K in an area where similar
homes were $200 or so. Somehow, they managed to convince not only the
buyers, but the town, that it would be the next up-and-coming
neighborhood.
It was similar to the tulip madness in Europe in the 16th century.

The best part is that so many of these homes were built that it affected
the
town's property tax planning. When the bottom fell out....you know the
rest.
Besides THAT mess, the owners are stuck with homes that they'll NEVER get
their money out of when they retire and move to NOYB-land. And, the
houses
are built like crap. In one of my son's friends' homes, trim sections of
sheetrock were glued to the beams. No screws at all. The mom said she was
cooking one day and a 1x4 foot strip fell into the pot of spaghetti
water.



It's too bad that in many counties, the building inspection department
is in the back pocket of contractors.

I was on a commercial jobsite last week that was run properly. You could
tell by looking around.

What a truly asinine statement. That shows how much you know about
construction. How do you know that the GC required adequate risk transfer
controls (insurance, hold harmless, named additional insured) from the subs?
How do you know the GC was on top of construction quality, including
materials and workmanship? How do you know if the job was on schedule?

Just because there is a *safety man* (what were his qualifications btw?)
walking around does not mean the job was being run properly.....but in your
world I guess it does.