February 11, 2026 • 23 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews Jon Grishpul about contractor fraud.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's life without a net? I suggest to go to bed,
sleep it off. Just wait until this show's over. Sleepy.
Back to Doug Pike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Going back to fifty plus, thanks for listening, certainly to
appreciate it. You know, thinking back to what I was
talking about a minute ago, with this Fulton County lawsuit
to keep law enforcement from looking into potential election fraud.
And it's not some third party trying to keep the
(00:32):
FBI out of those boxes. These are the people who
were in charge of counting the ballots. Who the people
who certified this seven hundred boxes of votes? Oh yeah,
nothing to see here, And now all of a sudden,
somebody wants to see it, and they filed a suit
(00:53):
it getting President Trump back in the Oval offices. Turning
up so much care eruption, so much fraud all over
the country. I'm not saying there's any in Fulton County.
I'll let them figure that out. It's just hard to
keep up now with how many daycare centers weren't really
daycare centers, and how many illegals are going to kill
(01:14):
how many more Americans before we sweep up that mess,
and how many boxes of ballots around the country holds
secrets that Left really wants to keep secret. And we're
still pressing forward, still setting new jobs, new job numbers,
still watching prices come down, not go up. I think
(01:38):
there's normal. There's always going to be inflation. It's just inevitable.
But I think where we are now is a really
good place to be compared to where I'm very confident
we would have been had this election gone the other way.
And boy, I can't wait for the FBI to get
their hands on those seven hundred boxes of ballots out
(02:00):
and tell the truth about what's in them. We'll see
from the midterm Insanity Desk comes the story of a
North Carolina GOP House candidate in the upcoming primary. Kate
Barr is her name. Kate Barr came out recently and
said that she's actually not a Republican, although she's on
(02:23):
that side of the ticket for the primary. She's in
fact a progressive and she's using carefully chosen words to
disassociate herself from the Democrat Party while at the same
time she's running in the Republican primary. She's not a Republican,
She's a progressive. It's like Jasmin Crockett, AOC and elin
(02:46):
Omar running in a Republican district as a Republican. She
says it's the only way to kick those corrupt And
this is her quote, kick those corrupt cowards out of
off us end quote, implying that Republicans are corrupt cowards.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
I don't recall the.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
FBI asking for any ballot boxes out of Republican districts
or counties. Maybe that'll happen someday. I'm sure it will.
If the Left gets back in control. Boy, they're gonna
they're gonna unleash a vengeance like you've never seen.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Woo.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
You wait and see if that happens. And if they
even if they get a majority back in the House,
let's say they're not gonna let anything get through. They
would they will dive on the sword to keep President
Trump from getting any more good to come out of
this presidency he's in now. And it's it's saddened me
(03:47):
because they're they're putting their hatred of one man and
they were taught to hate. It's not like they woke
up hating him. It's not like if if it had
been And we've proven the hippocrisy by listening to the
statements of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama on immigration and
(04:09):
what should be done with people who are in our
country illegally. They were worse by far than President Trump
in what happened on their watches with immigrants. And yet
nobody said a word when it was them. But when
it's President Trump, they pipe right up, don't they. They
(04:31):
just pipe right up. Only way to kit goes corrupt
cowards out of the office. I don't know what she's
trying to prove it. I can tell you you could
tell the truth and run as a progressive. That's what
you ought to do openly, and just see how many
people really want you in Congress as that. It's really
(04:52):
a turning point for us. It's been said more than
once by historically countries. Typically we have a run up
about two hundred and forty two hundred and fifty years,
and here we sit at two point fifty, and we've
got the country pretty much divided in two almost think
good and one side, the Democrat side insisting that we
(05:16):
don't do anything about having valid state issued IDs photo
IDs in order to vote. And yet an overwhelming majority
of this country, including Democrats, want that they want to
make sure that nobody is allowed to vote who is
(05:36):
not supposed to vote. They want the confidence in this
electoral process that two minutes, thank you. They want to
know when they go cast their vote, that nobody else
in the country who is not allowed to vote will
be voting, and that the people who are allowed to
(05:57):
vote will only vote once and then have their name
scratched off as an eligible voter. But even who was it,
Adam Shift just the other day? No, no, no, we
don't want that. No, no, we can't require people's that's racist,
that's horrible. You can't imagine how many people.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Won't be able to vote. I got news for him.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
All those people he says won't be able to vote
pretty much already have valid ID. They use it to
cash checks, They use it to do many, many things
that are just everyday occurrences in our lives that require
financial transactions. If you want to go in and take
(06:44):
a good chunk of money, or take any chunk of
money out of your savings account, they're gonna want to
see your ID, but not for voting. Got to have
it for all kinds of things, but not to vote.
That's nuts, absolutely nuts. I don't want to keep banging
a beating this dead horse man. But it's gotta stop.
(07:06):
We've got to get that part done. I'm already done. Well,
holy cow, all right. I was gonna say some more
about that, but I want John Grishpul's coming up after
this break. On the way out, I'll remind you that
if you're looking for some place where you can really
stretch out, really enjoy your retirement or your weekends away
from the big city, whatever you want to call it,
(07:28):
just a few hours up the road a little ways
west to Coal Spring.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
There you will find Whitetail Ranch.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
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and a half to more than four acres. They got
concrete roads, they got no mud taxes, and beautiful amendities
going in, all with a kind of a Texas hunting
ranch theme. If you will, you can buy down and
build later. You can hold on to it as an investment.
Do whatever you want up there. It's your land, and
(07:59):
you're gonna have neighbors, but they're gonna be way over
there and way over there and way over there, probably
not even doing anything loud enough to bother you. You
can just sit on the back porch or the front porch,
depending on what you build, when you build, if you
build once again, all the decisions are yours. There is
a one day only sale event scheduled for February twenty first.
(08:23):
If you're interested in owning a little chunk of Texas
that you can call your own, get you a little tractor,
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just ride around on and get lost in the peace
and quiet after you finish all those chores of Whitetail Ranch,
go to the website get all the details there. Whitetail
(08:44):
Ranch tx dot com. Whitetail Ranch tx dot com.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
Aged to perfection. This is fifty plus with Dougpike. Welcome
back to fifty plus.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I certainly do appreciate that. Uh Man, cloudy potentially rainy day.
Nothing of that, though. We'll talk now. Is promised on
Facebook a little while ago about contractor fraud and how
to become how to avoid becoming a victim of it,
and to help I'm going to bring in John Grishpool.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
CEO of Great Builds dot com. Welcome John, Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Doug, you bet I'm guessing contractor fraud comes in a
lot of shapes and size is right.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Weather emergencies for the opportunists.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Home improvement scams like painting and remodeling for guys who
just don't want to drive all over the country chasing storms,
and all they want is to take your money, right.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Unfortunately, that's the case, So.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Snowstorm's up north.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Down here where I am, it's hurricanes usually Midwest tornadoes,
and the occasional hailstorm, which we all get, I guess
are are there a lot of these people who pretty
much go where the disasters are, milk the cows for
whatever they can, and then move on to the bad,
next bad storm.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
There's a lot of people who do that, unfortunately. And
then there's also the exact same person who is operating
the same exact scam under dozens of different contractor names.
They're staying put, they're operating within the same city, but
every couple months they create a new business name and
none of it's legal, none of it's legit, and unfortunately
(10:21):
they still get away with the same scams because operating
with a different name, nobody can verify the previous company
that they did the similar shady work, so they can
get away with the same scams over and over again.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, I think everybody in this audience has probably heard
of that. But we just we're trusting by nature, and
when it comes to contracting around your house, you got
to be a whole lot more diligent than that.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
What are they what are they looking for?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Let's say there's a disaster, a hurricane or a tornado,
or a snowstorm, whatever. What are they looking for when
they're driving down a street that's had some sort of
weather emergency.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
What are the contractors thok for? For the shady contract
you're the bad guys, honestly, anything and everything. One of
the common red flags or things that I see amongst
these shady contractors is they'll even go door to door
offering the exact same shady scam service, pointing out, you know,
there was a big storm. There could be some damage
(11:20):
that you don't even know about. Let me take a
look totally free. Let me just see if there's any
damage that I can.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Let you know about.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
The one that I get most is the little piece
of paper or something on my door, or maybe somebody
knocks on.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I don't open it for him, but I'll listen.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
So, yeah, we're doing some work for a neighbor down
the street and we're just about to finish that job,
and wondered if you needed us, Like, no, I don't
need it.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Right, it's a classic line. You know, I can give
you a good deal. I got some extra materials on
the truck, so it's already paid for. I'll pass the
savings onto you, no problem.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So what questions should my listeners be asking then? Of
contract actors who just kind of show up on announced
and then we'll get to the contracts stuff later.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Maybe well, I'll say generally, I would never hire a
contractor that just shows up to my door. There are
some situations, maybe there's a pressure washer that he's doing
some work down the street, and that's something that is quick,
it's fast, it's easy, it's fairly affordable. That's fine. But
if someone's saying they're redoing their kitchen down the street
(12:27):
and they want to come help you out too, that's
a big question mark. So I usually won't even work
with them. But as far as good questions to ask
any contractor, yeah, verify their license, make sure that they're insured,
make sure that they're bonded. Any contractor that is offering
to work with you. You want to look them up online,
(12:47):
see if there's any public reputation, whether they have a
website or reviews on Google. Anything like that is helpful,
and I'd say one of the most important things you
should ask for always is to speak with some references
homeowners that they've worked with recently that you can talk
to yourself and try to identify if they're full of
(13:09):
it or if they're truly sincere and a good contractor.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Gosh, I've already done to two minutes. I can't believe it,
and I had so many questions for you. So you
talked about the insurance and the bond, and rather than
take their word for it or look at their piece
of paper, I go the other the extra step and
just call those companies, look them up online, and call
those companies and confirm right exactly.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Look them up yourself, talk to some people in your neighborhood,
or talk to some family members who have worked with
someone recently. The best referrals from someone you know, So
that's a good place to start.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I saw something in the material I got about AI
maybe being helpful to avoid scammers.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
How's that?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
So I built an AI tool called bid compare ai.
Like we're talking about, it's not just about finding a
good contractor, but making sure that you're getting a fair bid.
And if you get a couple bids from different contractors,
they all look totally different, so it's really hard to
tell if something missing from one or if the cheapest
bid is overlooking a certain element of the project. Bid
(14:12):
compare ai allows you to upload all the bids you've received.
It'll line them up apples to apples, and even give
you follow up questions to give to each contractor so
you can validate the bids, line them up side by side,
and be sure that you're getting the right deal, not
just the cheapest bid.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, the cheapest bid never's going to get you what
you really want.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Bid compare ai.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I made a note of that, what's the one biggest
mistake in this last minute, the one biggest mistake, especially
with my audience of seniors, that we make when we're
trying to get a contractor in our house.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
I'd say the biggest mistake is hiring two quickly, not
doing your homework, not taking the time to review the bids, thoroughly,
review the contract, ask the contractor, follow questions, speak with references,
especially during these winter storms.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
There's there's reasons that people.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Feel rushed, but take a moment to breathe, step back
and verify the details and make sure that you're hiring
a good contractor for a fair price.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Is it fair to say that the more they push,
the less likely they are to be legit exactly.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
I was just talking to someone who said, oh, I'm
a salesperson, let me work for you, and I said, look,
I don't work with salespeople. Our job is not to sell.
Our job is to advise and assist. And I'd say
it's the same thing with contractors. If they're selling too hard,
they want it too much, and there's probably something shady
in between.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
John Grishpool, thank you bid compare AI. I'm gonna go
look at that when I get out of here because
my wife and I have some projects coming up. That
sounds good.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Thank you, Yeah, thank you very much. Dog take care, Yes,
sir boy, fantastic stuff there. Huh.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Holy cow, I wish we'd had fifteen minutes to talk
to him. That's something that it ends up happening to
happening to as many or more of us than we want.
But hopefully we can learn something from that, and just
it's a reminder to do your homework. Medical Asthetics by Angelica.
If you are a guy, well, first of all, you
(16:13):
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(16:35):
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(16:57):
they're talking to the the technical at Medical Aesthetics by Angelica.
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(17:20):
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There's no way that the two of you are identically different,
(17:44):
or that didn't make any sense.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
In any event.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
What you're going to do after you come out of there,
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(18:08):
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Speaker 3 (18:16):
I strongly recommend that you do that. I really do.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I've I've known the owner now for a couple of
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I'm going to interview his doctor, actually the man who
(18:39):
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going to interview him probably early next week. Give on
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good and feeling good. Eight three to two nine three
nine nine three three zero eight three two nine three
nine nine three three zero.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Now they sure don't them like they used to.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike. Fifty plus.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Fourth and final segment starts now a little bit, a
little bit long with with John talking about scammers, and
I apologize for that to Will because Will now has
to figure out how to make up the time, which
means I think that I'm going to get little fingers
waving in there a bit earlier. Yes, he's nodding his head.
Unfortunately that's the way it goes. Boy, where do I
(19:34):
want to go here from? You know, I'll go to
something good since I know I'm on borrowed time here
in short time in good news. Well, first of all,
there's still really nothing in the the Guthrie case, Nancy Guthrie,
the mother of Savannah Guthrie. Nothing new. They arrested a
guy I think it was yesterday late and cutting loose.
(19:56):
A couple of hours later they do s. I think
the police now believe that the kidnap napper is from
the Tucson area and that he wrote the ransom note,
so there's something in that, But there's still no proof
of life. There's still no payment made after a couple
of deadlines have passed, and I just I hope they
figure this out. Moving on in good news for somebody,
(20:20):
not for us. North Carolina piece of art called titled
Excuse Me, it's way better than called portrait of a cannon,
and not the kind that fires cannon balls, but the
kind the religious Canon by Sofa Nizeba Anguisola has been
found in a North Carolina estate after being lost for
(20:42):
more than one hundred years. Anguisola is called by many
in the art world as among the greatest women of
the Renaissance period. Portrait of a Canon, painted in fifteen
fifty two, was offered at a New York City gallery
recently at half million dollars. Great piece of art, Great
(21:03):
piece of art. Sotheby's, by the way, also recently sold
a painting of a man from Roman controlled Egypt in
the first century the first century BC that experts suggest
represents the dawn of realistic portraiture, twelve hundred years before
it appeared in Italy. This portrait is a very brilliantly
(21:32):
done piece. It really is worthy of being compared to
the early works in Italy. This thing is, it's good,
it's lifelike. Image is part of a family of works
known collectively as the Fayum Mummy portraits, all of which
were found in the eighteen hundreds during excavations at a
(21:55):
site called Hawara in Egypt's Fayoum region. Placed the top
mummified remains like masks, and were painted with pigment mixed
with melted bees wax on wooden panels. More than nine
hundred have been found, and some of them, it says here,
(22:16):
have been auctioned. I find that fascinating. A combination of
fine art and history all bundled into one. Most fine
art is historic at this point. By the way, overnight
we learned an illegal immigrant from Honduras has been charged
with sexual.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Assault on a four year old girl.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
This past fall. This guy, he's fifty three years old,
already been deported once, came back, got in under the
Biden administration, and now is accused of assaulting this younger,
very young girl, four years old. And in case you wonder,
oh yeah, yeah, he's done this before. In his home country.
He was convicted of sexually assaulting an eleven year old
(22:57):
girl who happened to be his sister. And he was
allowed somehow to get back into our country, not once,
but twice, and now.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
He's on hold. Now he's not gonna get out because there's.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
A homeland security hold on him. But he never should
have been here in the first place. And that's I
guess the biggest issue in Olympic news. We currently have
ten medals, including three gold, five silver, and two bronze.
That puts US in third place overall, behind Norway which
has thirteen, and Italy with eleven. There are different ways
(23:36):
to measure. If you're measuring by gold medals, I think
we're in a different place, but we're still holding the
rest of the world off pretty well.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
I don't think we're going to win the Olympics, but
we'll be good. I'll see you tomorrow. Audios.
What's life without a net? I suggest to go to bed,
sleep it off. Just wait until this show's over. Sleepy.
Back to Doug Pike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Going back to fifty plus, thanks for listening, certainly to
appreciate it. You know, thinking back to what I was
talking about a minute ago, with this Fulton County lawsuit
to keep law enforcement from looking into potential election fraud.
And it's not some third party trying to keep the
(00:32):
FBI out of those boxes. These are the people who
were in charge of counting the ballots. Who the people
who certified this seven hundred boxes of votes? Oh yeah,
nothing to see here, And now all of a sudden,
somebody wants to see it, and they filed a suit
(00:53):
it getting President Trump back in the Oval offices. Turning
up so much care eruption, so much fraud all over
the country. I'm not saying there's any in Fulton County.
I'll let them figure that out. It's just hard to
keep up now with how many daycare centers weren't really
daycare centers, and how many illegals are going to kill
(01:14):
how many more Americans before we sweep up that mess,
and how many boxes of ballots around the country holds
secrets that Left really wants to keep secret. And we're
still pressing forward, still setting new jobs, new job numbers,
still watching prices come down, not go up. I think
(01:38):
there's normal. There's always going to be inflation. It's just inevitable.
But I think where we are now is a really
good place to be compared to where I'm very confident
we would have been had this election gone the other way.
And boy, I can't wait for the FBI to get
their hands on those seven hundred boxes of ballots out
(02:00):
and tell the truth about what's in them. We'll see
from the midterm Insanity Desk comes the story of a
North Carolina GOP House candidate in the upcoming primary. Kate
Barr is her name. Kate Barr came out recently and
said that she's actually not a Republican, although she's on
(02:23):
that side of the ticket for the primary. She's in
fact a progressive and she's using carefully chosen words to
disassociate herself from the Democrat Party while at the same
time she's running in the Republican primary. She's not a Republican,
She's a progressive. It's like Jasmin Crockett, AOC and elin
(02:46):
Omar running in a Republican district as a Republican. She
says it's the only way to kick those corrupt And
this is her quote, kick those corrupt cowards out of
off us end quote, implying that Republicans are corrupt cowards.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
I don't recall the.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
FBI asking for any ballot boxes out of Republican districts
or counties. Maybe that'll happen someday. I'm sure it will.
If the Left gets back in control. Boy, they're gonna
they're gonna unleash a vengeance like you've never seen.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Woo.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
You wait and see if that happens. And if they
even if they get a majority back in the House,
let's say they're not gonna let anything get through. They
would they will dive on the sword to keep President
Trump from getting any more good to come out of
this presidency he's in now. And it's it's saddened me
(03:47):
because they're they're putting their hatred of one man and
they were taught to hate. It's not like they woke
up hating him. It's not like if if it had
been And we've proven the hippocrisy by listening to the
statements of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama on immigration and
(04:09):
what should be done with people who are in our
country illegally. They were worse by far than President Trump
in what happened on their watches with immigrants. And yet
nobody said a word when it was them. But when
it's President Trump, they pipe right up, don't they. They
(04:31):
just pipe right up. Only way to kit goes corrupt
cowards out of the office. I don't know what she's
trying to prove it. I can tell you you could
tell the truth and run as a progressive. That's what
you ought to do openly, and just see how many
people really want you in Congress as that. It's really
(04:52):
a turning point for us. It's been said more than
once by historically countries. Typically we have a run up
about two hundred and forty two hundred and fifty years,
and here we sit at two point fifty, and we've
got the country pretty much divided in two almost think
good and one side, the Democrat side insisting that we
(05:16):
don't do anything about having valid state issued IDs photo
IDs in order to vote. And yet an overwhelming majority
of this country, including Democrats, want that they want to
make sure that nobody is allowed to vote who is
(05:36):
not supposed to vote. They want the confidence in this
electoral process that two minutes, thank you. They want to
know when they go cast their vote, that nobody else
in the country who is not allowed to vote will
be voting, and that the people who are allowed to
(05:57):
vote will only vote once and then have their name
scratched off as an eligible voter. But even who was it,
Adam Shift just the other day? No, no, no, we
don't want that. No, no, we can't require people's that's racist,
that's horrible. You can't imagine how many people.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Won't be able to vote. I got news for him.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
All those people he says won't be able to vote
pretty much already have valid ID. They use it to
cash checks, They use it to do many, many things
that are just everyday occurrences in our lives that require
financial transactions. If you want to go in and take
(06:44):
a good chunk of money, or take any chunk of
money out of your savings account, they're gonna want to
see your ID, but not for voting. Got to have
it for all kinds of things, but not to vote.
That's nuts, absolutely nuts. I don't want to keep banging
a beating this dead horse man. But it's gotta stop.
(07:06):
We've got to get that part done. I'm already done. Well,
holy cow, all right. I was gonna say some more
about that, but I want John Grishpul's coming up after
this break. On the way out, I'll remind you that
if you're looking for some place where you can really
stretch out, really enjoy your retirement or your weekends away
from the big city, whatever you want to call it,
(07:28):
just a few hours up the road a little ways
west to Coal Spring.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
There you will find Whitetail Ranch.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
It's a new gated acreage community home sites from one
and a half to more than four acres. They got
concrete roads, they got no mud taxes, and beautiful amendities
going in, all with a kind of a Texas hunting
ranch theme. If you will, you can buy down and
build later. You can hold on to it as an investment.
Do whatever you want up there. It's your land, and
(07:59):
you're gonna have neighbors, but they're gonna be way over
there and way over there and way over there, probably
not even doing anything loud enough to bother you. You
can just sit on the back porch or the front porch,
depending on what you build, when you build, if you
build once again, all the decisions are yours. There is
a one day only sale event scheduled for February twenty first.
(08:23):
If you're interested in owning a little chunk of Texas
that you can call your own, get you a little tractor,
maybe do a little a mower. Get you something to
just ride around on and get lost in the peace
and quiet after you finish all those chores of Whitetail Ranch,
go to the website get all the details there. Whitetail
(08:44):
Ranch tx dot com. Whitetail Ranch tx dot com.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
Aged to perfection. This is fifty plus with Dougpike. Welcome
back to fifty plus.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I certainly do appreciate that. Uh Man, cloudy potentially rainy day.
Nothing of that, though. We'll talk now. Is promised on
Facebook a little while ago about contractor fraud and how
to become how to avoid becoming a victim of it,
and to help I'm going to bring in John Grishpool.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
CEO of Great Builds dot com. Welcome John, Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Doug, you bet I'm guessing contractor fraud comes in a
lot of shapes and size is right.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Weather emergencies for the opportunists.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Home improvement scams like painting and remodeling for guys who
just don't want to drive all over the country chasing storms,
and all they want is to take your money, right.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Unfortunately, that's the case, So.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Snowstorm's up north.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Down here where I am, it's hurricanes usually Midwest tornadoes,
and the occasional hailstorm, which we all get, I guess
are are there a lot of these people who pretty
much go where the disasters are, milk the cows for
whatever they can, and then move on to the bad,
next bad storm.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
There's a lot of people who do that, unfortunately. And
then there's also the exact same person who is operating
the same exact scam under dozens of different contractor names.
They're staying put, they're operating within the same city, but
every couple months they create a new business name and
none of it's legal, none of it's legit, and unfortunately
(10:21):
they still get away with the same scams because operating
with a different name, nobody can verify the previous company
that they did the similar shady work, so they can
get away with the same scams over and over again.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, I think everybody in this audience has probably heard
of that. But we just we're trusting by nature, and
when it comes to contracting around your house, you got
to be a whole lot more diligent than that.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
What are they what are they looking for?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Let's say there's a disaster, a hurricane or a tornado,
or a snowstorm, whatever. What are they looking for when
they're driving down a street that's had some sort of
weather emergency.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
What are the contractors thok for? For the shady contract
you're the bad guys, honestly, anything and everything. One of
the common red flags or things that I see amongst
these shady contractors is they'll even go door to door
offering the exact same shady scam service, pointing out, you know,
there was a big storm. There could be some damage
(11:20):
that you don't even know about. Let me take a
look totally free. Let me just see if there's any
damage that I can.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Let you know about.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
The one that I get most is the little piece
of paper or something on my door, or maybe somebody
knocks on.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I don't open it for him, but I'll listen.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
So, yeah, we're doing some work for a neighbor down
the street and we're just about to finish that job,
and wondered if you needed us, Like, no, I don't
need it.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Right, it's a classic line. You know, I can give
you a good deal. I got some extra materials on
the truck, so it's already paid for. I'll pass the
savings onto you, no problem.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So what questions should my listeners be asking then? Of
contract actors who just kind of show up on announced
and then we'll get to the contracts stuff later.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Maybe well, I'll say generally, I would never hire a
contractor that just shows up to my door. There are
some situations, maybe there's a pressure washer that he's doing
some work down the street, and that's something that is quick,
it's fast, it's easy, it's fairly affordable. That's fine. But
if someone's saying they're redoing their kitchen down the street
(12:27):
and they want to come help you out too, that's
a big question mark. So I usually won't even work
with them. But as far as good questions to ask
any contractor, yeah, verify their license, make sure that they're insured,
make sure that they're bonded. Any contractor that is offering
to work with you. You want to look them up online,
(12:47):
see if there's any public reputation, whether they have a
website or reviews on Google. Anything like that is helpful,
and I'd say one of the most important things you
should ask for always is to speak with some references
homeowners that they've worked with recently that you can talk
to yourself and try to identify if they're full of
(13:09):
it or if they're truly sincere and a good contractor.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Gosh, I've already done to two minutes. I can't believe it,
and I had so many questions for you. So you
talked about the insurance and the bond, and rather than
take their word for it or look at their piece
of paper, I go the other the extra step and
just call those companies, look them up online, and call
those companies and confirm right exactly.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Look them up yourself, talk to some people in your neighborhood,
or talk to some family members who have worked with
someone recently. The best referrals from someone you know, So
that's a good place to start.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I saw something in the material I got about AI
maybe being helpful to avoid scammers.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
How's that?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
So I built an AI tool called bid compare ai.
Like we're talking about, it's not just about finding a
good contractor, but making sure that you're getting a fair bid.
And if you get a couple bids from different contractors,
they all look totally different, so it's really hard to
tell if something missing from one or if the cheapest
bid is overlooking a certain element of the project. Bid
(14:12):
compare ai allows you to upload all the bids you've received.
It'll line them up apples to apples, and even give
you follow up questions to give to each contractor so
you can validate the bids, line them up side by side,
and be sure that you're getting the right deal, not
just the cheapest bid.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, the cheapest bid never's going to get you what
you really want.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Bid compare ai.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I made a note of that, what's the one biggest
mistake in this last minute, the one biggest mistake, especially
with my audience of seniors, that we make when we're
trying to get a contractor in our house.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
I'd say the biggest mistake is hiring two quickly, not
doing your homework, not taking the time to review the bids, thoroughly,
review the contract, ask the contractor, follow questions, speak with references,
especially during these winter storms.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
There's there's reasons that people.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Feel rushed, but take a moment to breathe, step back
and verify the details and make sure that you're hiring
a good contractor for a fair price.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Is it fair to say that the more they push,
the less likely they are to be legit exactly.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
I was just talking to someone who said, oh, I'm
a salesperson, let me work for you, and I said, look,
I don't work with salespeople. Our job is not to sell.
Our job is to advise and assist. And I'd say
it's the same thing with contractors. If they're selling too hard,
they want it too much, and there's probably something shady
in between.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
John Grishpool, thank you bid compare AI. I'm gonna go
look at that when I get out of here because
my wife and I have some projects coming up. That
sounds good.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Thank you, Yeah, thank you very much. Dog take care, Yes,
sir boy, fantastic stuff there. Huh.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Holy cow, I wish we'd had fifteen minutes to talk
to him. That's something that it ends up happening to
happening to as many or more of us than we want.
But hopefully we can learn something from that, and just
it's a reminder to do your homework. Medical Asthetics by Angelica.
If you are a guy, well, first of all, you
(16:13):
should know that Valentine's Day is right around the corner.
And maybe maybe you could take your better half as
they're sometimes called, your wife, your spouse, your partner, whatever
you want to call them, maybe take them over there
to get a little something that they will uh be
very happy you got them. Any kind of treatment such
(16:35):
as micro needling, derma facials. A lot more can be
gotten over there at Medical Asthetics by Angelica. And now,
I don't know, it might take a it might take
a brave soul to give no, no, you don't want
to give one of those weight loss things. Let them
let them decide on that themselves when you're there and
(16:57):
they're talking to the the technical at Medical Aesthetics by Angelica.
And for the guys, it's really a whole lot of
what you need is based in metabolic dysfunction. Maybe it's
your weight gone a little wrong of where you want
it to be, or some sort of sleep problems or
a hormone imbalance of some sort. They'll get you a
(17:20):
little blood tests and take a look at what that
blood test says needs to be addressed, and then address
it in a nice, solid, sixteen week regimen to get
your body in mind on a great new path. Bring
your partner, like I said, maybe put them on a
different path than you. I think that would be only correct.
There's no way that the two of you are identically different,
(17:44):
or that didn't make any sense.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
In any event.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
What you're going to do after you come out of there,
from that whole body attention you're going to get is
you're going to see an improvement in your weight. You're
going to see an improvement in your appearance, in your
energy level, in your confidence, all of that. And you
can get those glp ones, the peptides, the hormones, metabolic
other clinical options to boost your body and mind over
(18:08):
that four month wellness program. The locations in Cyprus and
sugar Land, and you can call for an appointment.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I strongly recommend that you do that. I really do.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I've I've known the owner now for a couple of
months at least, maybe a little bit more than that,
and we've had a lot of discussions about how important
all of this is. He is, he practices what he preaches,
to you. He uses some of the products he has
in there, the ones that are helping him get better.
I'm going to interview his doctor, actually the man who
(18:39):
who makes the medical decisions for patients over there. I'm
going to interview him probably early next week. Give on
a call, get yourself in there, and get to looking
good and feeling good. Eight three to two nine three
nine nine three three zero eight three two nine three
nine nine three three zero.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Now they sure don't them like they used to.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike. Fifty plus.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Fourth and final segment starts now a little bit, a
little bit long with with John talking about scammers, and
I apologize for that to Will because Will now has
to figure out how to make up the time, which
means I think that I'm going to get little fingers
waving in there a bit earlier. Yes, he's nodding his head.
Unfortunately that's the way it goes. Boy, where do I
(19:34):
want to go here from? You know, I'll go to
something good since I know I'm on borrowed time here
in short time in good news. Well, first of all,
there's still really nothing in the the Guthrie case, Nancy Guthrie,
the mother of Savannah Guthrie. Nothing new. They arrested a
guy I think it was yesterday late and cutting loose.
(19:56):
A couple of hours later they do s. I think
the police now believe that the kidnap napper is from
the Tucson area and that he wrote the ransom note,
so there's something in that, But there's still no proof
of life. There's still no payment made after a couple
of deadlines have passed, and I just I hope they
figure this out. Moving on in good news for somebody,
(20:20):
not for us. North Carolina piece of art called titled
Excuse Me, it's way better than called portrait of a cannon,
and not the kind that fires cannon balls, but the
kind the religious Canon by Sofa Nizeba Anguisola has been
found in a North Carolina estate after being lost for
(20:42):
more than one hundred years. Anguisola is called by many
in the art world as among the greatest women of
the Renaissance period. Portrait of a Canon, painted in fifteen
fifty two, was offered at a New York City gallery
recently at half million dollars. Great piece of art, Great
(21:03):
piece of art. Sotheby's, by the way, also recently sold
a painting of a man from Roman controlled Egypt in
the first century the first century BC that experts suggest
represents the dawn of realistic portraiture, twelve hundred years before
it appeared in Italy. This portrait is a very brilliantly
(21:32):
done piece. It really is worthy of being compared to
the early works in Italy. This thing is, it's good,
it's lifelike. Image is part of a family of works
known collectively as the Fayum Mummy portraits, all of which
were found in the eighteen hundreds during excavations at a
(21:55):
site called Hawara in Egypt's Fayoum region. Placed the top
mummified remains like masks, and were painted with pigment mixed
with melted bees wax on wooden panels. More than nine
hundred have been found, and some of them, it says here,
(22:16):
have been auctioned. I find that fascinating. A combination of
fine art and history all bundled into one. Most fine
art is historic at this point. By the way, overnight
we learned an illegal immigrant from Honduras has been charged
with sexual.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Assault on a four year old girl.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
This past fall. This guy, he's fifty three years old,
already been deported once, came back, got in under the
Biden administration, and now is accused of assaulting this younger,
very young girl, four years old. And in case you wonder,
oh yeah, yeah, he's done this before. In his home country.
He was convicted of sexually assaulting an eleven year old
(22:57):
girl who happened to be his sister. And he was
allowed somehow to get back into our country, not once,
but twice, and now.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
He's on hold. Now he's not gonna get out because there's.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
A homeland security hold on him. But he never should
have been here in the first place. And that's I
guess the biggest issue in Olympic news. We currently have
ten medals, including three gold, five silver, and two bronze.
That puts US in third place overall, behind Norway which
has thirteen, and Italy with eleven. There are different ways
(23:36):
to measure. If you're measuring by gold medals, I think
we're in a different place, but we're still holding the
rest of the world off pretty well.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
I don't think we're going to win the Olympics, but
we'll be good. I'll see you tomorrow. Audios.
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