If you are a homeowner who has hired home improvement designers, tradepeople or contractors without:

First, checking their references thoroughly beforehand, and

Second, having a lawyer review the Contract before you sign it...

then YOU are your own worst enemy. You're setting yourself up for...

The Homeowner's Worst Nightmare. It goes something like this. Your home improvement project which started happily enough, gets interrupted for one reason or another. Then the problems really start to snowball. You argue with the contractor and your project is left incomplete... A complaint is issued... or a lawsuit is filed. You don't get any money back but you have to pay your lawyer's fee anyway. You hire a new contractor to finish the job, and to add insult to injury... you pay for the SAME work all over again... PLUS legal fees. You're livid and emotionally frazzled for months. In the end, you paid three times as much as you'd budgeted for the project... and, as a bonus, you now actively distrust all home improvement contractors.

2 Ounces of Prevention are Worth a Ton of Cure. Only YOU can prevent The Nightmare from happening, and Smart Consumer Services offers 2 unique services that help to ensure success and prevent catastrophe. Surprisingly... a good contractor will probably bear the modest cost of these services FOR you, as well. So, there's no longer any excuse for any homeowner anywhere entering into a contract for home improvement without taking these two simple precautions:

1. Contractor Reference Check & Report

2. Contract Advocacy Review

Condominiums, Homeowner Associations or Property Managers... are vulnerable to making the same mistakes, except on a larger scale! Don't risk the association's budget on expensive mistakes or legal fees. Protect your association's property and assets with these simple safeguards.

Our Mission is Clear...

a) to ensure that homeowners work with reputable contractors, and,

b) to help contractors and homeowners communicate better.

When you take advantage of the Homeowner Survival Services we provide, like the Advocacy Review and Contractor Reference Check... or use the How to Hire a Contractor and other "survival tools" we offer, such as the Sample Contract, you become a more educated, empowered and definitely smarter consumer.

The national homeowner advocacy organizations, United Homeowners Association and American Homeowners Association, have endorsed the Smart Consumer Services Contract Advocacy Review and Contractor Reference Check. Our services have been noted in major publications including Bob Vila's American Home, American HomeStyle & Gardening, Professional Remodeler, Smart Money, Qualified Remodeler, Reader's Digest Books and other publications.