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Within just twelve months of 2008 Home Installation Professionals earned 16 customer straight A with one or two B ratings, none lower, in every remodeling category for Price, Quality, Responsiveness, Punctuality and Professionalism by our clients and members of  major on line rating services. We also have earned  only Straight A ratings from all our major remodeling customers in every category throughout 2009 and 2010 while earning and maintaining the highest A+  Accredited Business ratings available from the Better Business Bureau we are very proud to say.

We continue to earn the respect and support of hundreds of major remodeling customers since our start on the North Shore in 1975. We take extreme pride in our work, and love to design and build every type of indoor or outdoor new living spaces and major remodeling projects for both commercial and residential customers. We design and build about 80 major remodeling large and small projects a year with 2008 being our busiest year ever.

Then in the last quarter of 2008, 2009 and all of this year so far we have all found ourselves in very tough economic times. Along with everyone else in the design and building trades this particular recession has impacted all of us, most very severely, many have gone out of business. We at Home Installations Professionals have not been immune. We have seen a severe impact on our vendors, sub contractors and most importantly our customers over the last 18 months to two years with a steady increase day to day in the recessions effect. Every aspect of our business and all of our subs, vendors, employees and customers professional and personal lives are affected by it in all ways.

While the vast majority of our clients were able to work with us through this recession over the past 24 months (100 large remodeling and renovation clients), a very small number were not (five). At the beginning to middle of 2008 we had 15 jobs going at one time, then the economic cliff we all fell off happened the second quarter of 2008. The recession found us with way to high a volume of work. Trying to support so many projects professionally without our normal and standard financial tools, adequate cash flow or liquidity and reliable vendors in the middle of a free falling economy became very difficult and unfortunately impacted about 5 projects that were all contracted with prior to the crash and with major work being done on all 5 projects during it.   

We have been and continue to be in the business of exceeding our customer expectations in all ways in design build home and commercial improvements since 1975. Over the past three years we have been experiencing a learning curve regarding this new economic reality and how it affects all aspects of our business and how we must adjust to it to better serve our customers.   This is the first time since 1975 we have ever had challenges such as this occur. We are working through these projects now and working very closely with these customers and all of these projects have been or are being professionally completed by us. Bottom line five customers out of the vast majority of our completely satisfied customers (120 in 2007-2008, 2009 and 15 so far in 2010) and thousands of satisfied, happy customers since 1975 did not like or accept the negative impact this economy had on their projects and unlike all our other great customers who are working closely with us these five choose not to work with us through the economic collapse that we all have been experiencing. Four of these five customers have all talked with each other fabricating everything but the real issues and reasons why we had difficulties with just these 5 clients which were cash flow, multiple projects going on one time compounding the problems exponentially, credit availability for ourselves and our vendors, vendor and materials access (many of our vendors went out of business or had compromised material availability in 2008 and early 2009) and subcontractor, employee and GC personal and professional impact this economy has had.

One of these few customers who’s project was contracted,  started and was being worked on in July of 2008, before the economic free fall, with major work being done during it and who’s project has since been professionally finished by my trades not only elected to not work with us throughout his project during the tumbling economy but has since repeatedly, maliciously and vindictively attacked us on line in many different sites in many different ways with false claims and lies including using web sites that don’t verify facts and are run by convicted felons who extort money out of those who are negatively talked about on their site by offering to “repair their reputation” for  large sums of money.

We repeatedly offered many many different solutions to him to mitigate the negative impact on his project this economy had back in 2008, including free major improvements, free skilled trades, free site management to keep his project under budget and finished on time, even a free major addition component on his property. All we asked for in return is that he work with us and be patient as we worked our way through this economic mess. He elected not to, finished and self upgraded the last part of his project himself using my trades ordering materials and changing the plans and scope of the project that were never part of the original scope of the contract. Now he feels we should be paying him for his project mismanagement, for upgrades and changes that he made and for materials that he ordered that were never agreed on that he ordered off my wholesale accounts without my knowledge or approval even though we ask him multiple times to allow us bring in the project under budget with a better timeline. This was in 2008 well BEFORE the solutions that we describe below were put into place. Had the solutions that we are NOW USING ON EVERY PROJECT been in place none of the issues we had with this project or some similar problems with the five others back in 2008, out of thousands of great customers and projects since 1975, would have occurred as our many many current great major remodeling customers we have had since January of 2009 after these solutions were implemented and many before will tell you. Please see some of what they have to say here Click Here. All of these great customers and many many more we have had since 1975 are available to talk with in person and their projects are available to view anytime by appointment.

Enough doom and gloom. NOW FOR SOLUTIONS and what we have done and implemented as we move forward in dealing with this economy, protecting our customers, our vendors and subcontractors and making sure we don’t have issues again as we did in these five projects in 2008 and most importantly to protect our customers and insure continued great outcomes far beyond our customers expectations on EVERY project.

  •  As of April 1st 2009, we have re-resourced quality vendors, that have survived and have a strong future and reestablish new credit and vendor lines, some of them are humble compared to what they used to be but they exist and are much more than we had through most of 2008. The new federal programs have helped significantly. 
  • We have resourced in some cases new subcontractors were necessary and reestablish new payment terms and rules with them to best serve our customers.
  • We have limited the number of projects at a time to between two and five maximum to better serve our customers through these difficult times and better deal with the economy.
  • Most importantly as of March 1st 2009 we are now protecting our customers, our vendors, sub contractors and ourselves and eliminating  economic impact by now only working through professional construction title escrow programs, professional construction coordinators, bank and title companies for all our new and future projects regardless of the size and scope. All funds are directed from the customer to the bank and or Title Company and payments are incrementally made through the title company in small increments directly to the vendors and subcontractors from the Title company only when specific performance based projects steps are accomplished and only after full lien releases and accompanying paper work is provided by that sub contractor or vendor. For example in a basement or an addition project a payment is made only at framing, one at electrical one at HVAC one at finish flooring etc. This payment is only made upon complete approval of all parties, the homeowners, the GC, the subs, the bank and or Title Company, local municipal inspectors and or third party inspectors such as an independent architect, licensed inspector or appraisal company.  Performance bonds are included; Each payment to any party is not made until after all mechanics lien releases and associated paper work are provided by the sub, vendor or GC. So each and every incremental step and all payments are inspected and approved by all as the project goes along. A complete project budget called a Contractors statement listing all line items, contract amounts and payments to all vendors, GCs and subs that is available to all, at all times. Upgrades can be added if required to the budget or contractors statement at anytime by the homeowner.  We pay all fees for the Title Company, professional construction coordinator, performance bonds and permits.

Since 1975 we have always relied on our very detailed, pro client contracts and our interaction, trust and team work with our customers. This professional approach has always worked for everyone on our projects from 1975 through the first half of 2008. Our recent learning curve has taught us that sometimes this is not enough given and depth and length of this recession which seems to have particularly targeted the housing, build and remolding industries. We know that had we had the Title escrow program and our other solutions we have implemented been in place none of the challenges we had with these few customers would have occurred since every project detail and cost is listed and must be approved by all before any payments are made and in those five cases upgrades would not have been assumed or expected by the customer when not contracted for.

The old fashion method of thoroughly checking references, taking referrals from friends neighbors and relatives who really do care about you and your best interests, actually coming out and inspecting current projects works best. Any builder can show you a project they did years ago but current projects will reflect the current trades that will be actually working on your project not the trades they had a few years ago. Most builders change their trades regularly, especially during a recession, this change is usually to less expensive, less skilled trades which translates into bad work that is not in your best interests,  this never happens with our company, the trades are key.  Talking to customers in their homes of recent projects face to face next to the builders work works best, you can’t get that from on line sites that don't verify content  If possible visit a few of our projects underway to understand the process, see for yourself the quality of the trades, how things are coordinated, the materials, workmanship and quality behind and on the finished walls and talk with the customers as the work is being done. Please talk with our current and 99.9% of our past customers, and come and see our work. 

 

Bottom line is from 1975 to 2007-2008 we have had a continuous stream of totally satisfied customers in all ways. We had 15 projects going at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 when the first major wave of this great recession hit with the full force of a title wave and negatively impacted about half of these projects we started before the economic slide. We worked through these projects, the vast majority of our customers worked with us through the initial recessions stages. We then developed new policies and programs to deal with the new economy such as construction title escrow and performance bonds that we did not have in place in 2007 and 2008 during these projects talked about on line.  These issues have not occurred since.

Please talk with all our current customers from 2009 and 2010, the last 15 Months, all started and completed in 2009 and 2010 long after ANY of the few projects negatively talked about on line by those few who refused to work with us. We have many, many new customers you can talk to and projects you can see, such as many major remolding projects we have just finished or are just finishing now such as:

  • A Major home addition and whole house remodel in Libertyville, just finishing now. Started in late Fall 2009. Master suite addition, new kitchen with full house remodel and renovation on first and second floors. Customer would be glad to talk with you about all aspects of the project. Tours are available by appointment anytime.

  • A Major master suite addition and second floor and whole house remodel with new kitchen in Ingleside. Finished October 2009. Started in April of 2009. Customers would be glad to talk with you about all aspects of the project. Tours are available by appointment anytime.

  • A Major addition and renovation in Lake Forest, finished January 2010, Started November 2009 in three months. Customers would be glad to talk with you about all aspects of the project. Tours are available by appointment anytime.

  • A Major design complete basement finish in Gurnee. Finished March 2010. Started late December 2009. Basement includes a custom bar, full custom bathroom with tiled shower and tiled poured cement base and oak trim. Customers would be glad to talk with you about all aspects of the project. Tours are available by appointment anytime.

  • A major home repair and renovation project both exterior and interior in Long Grove, worked on all last year and throughout this year, because customer keeps adding major projects for us to do. Customers would be glad to talk with you about all aspects of the projects. Tours are available by appointment anytime.

  • We currently are just finishing the foundation of a large kitchen and mud room addition in Grayslake and will be framing next week if the weather cooperates. We would be glad to have you come by and see our work in progress, Customers would be glad to talk with you about all aspects of the project.

  • We are just finishing up a major basement design and remodel in Grayslake. From start to completion the basement will have taken 7 weeks. Basement includes custom stairs with custom built ins. Customers would be glad to talk with you about all aspects of the project. Tours are available by appointment anytime.

There are also many more projects started and completed from January 2009 to April 2010, all customers are available to talk with and projects to tour. Please talk with our current customers and 99.9 % of our past customers. We would be proud to have you come and see our work and talk with our customers.

 

Click the Book of References Picture below to scroll through many of our recent references, many of these projects have been just recently designed and finished by Home Installation Professionals in 2009- 2010.   Many of them are recent customers, most of whom read these few false negative reports on line before hiring us, in fact some letters reflect this. Many of these recent projects have been completed long since our completion of the above customers project from back in 2008 who is attacking us on this and other web sites. Any of the great customers below as well as many others are available to talk with anytime as well as site visits to our projects anytime by appointment. Talk with these and many other current customers. Thank You.

 

 

 

We look forward to 2010 and the inevitable turn around and economic recovery we all hope will come much sooner than later. In the mean time we look forward to continuing to exceed all our customer expectations in all home and commercial improvement design and build projects while using our new policies including Title Escrow programs to better serve you.

One great thing this the greatest recession since the great depression has done is LOWERED OUR PRICES.  Unlike a year or two ago, we are now offering our customers at least 20 to 50% discounts and more on overall project costs, along with our standard policy of beating any professional proposal in all ways including many free upgrades along the way for our customers, that other builders will not even consider. This always includes our free architectural and professional interior, kitchen and bathroom design services and our free lifetime warranty on everything we do. Please talk to us about other stimulus packages and discounts we offer and please come and see our work, tour our local projects and talk with our customers. We will work through this together, meeting and learning from our challenges while improving today for a better tomorrow and continuing to build on our success to better serve all our customers. Thank you and we look forward to being of service to you with all your design, build and improvement needs.

Please call and talk with all our current and 99.9% of our past customers and come see our work. We look forward to being of service to you and exceeding your expectations while offering you your own economic stimulus with discounts of 30% to 50% and more off our normal rates, free valuable upgrades, our standard better any other professional proposal in all ways guarantee, free professional construction title escrow financing and performance bond services providing the maximum level of customer protection available, free professional architectural, kitchen and interior design services and lifetime back up on all our work.  

 

Thank You

 

 

Home Installation Professionals

2010

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