Thread: We're getting ready to buy a house and a question

It's been difficult trying to buy a house in a decent neighborhood here in Phoenix. Most houses in neighborhoods that havn't been overrun too awfully badly are out of our range financially. Affordable houses may as well be in Mexico. Anyway, we did it. We found a house that is barely within our budget. It'll be sort of tight but we'll manage. It's worth the money to not have to live in a dangerous crappy neighborhood and know our stuff and our lives are safe. That's a whole other story that just pisses me the hell off but I'll save it for another time.

Anyway, we want to do some work on it and want to know if there is a way we can find out if the people we will hire use illegals or not. From talking to people at work who already own houses, most contractors will use them and not let the homeowner know. Is there some way to screen these people? Isn't it my right to know who comes into my house? I don't want to give money to illegals and get a half-assed job in return. I'd rather pay and have whatever job I need done right the first time.

I think there is a way to investigate a contractors licence number and find out how many employees he has on record. If his licence only shows 3 employees and more than that number shows up to work, then its a pretty good indication that the workers are illegal.

I would also tell any contractors I interviewed that they had better not bring any illegals to work on the project. I would tell them straight up that if I even thought they were illegal, I would run them off my property.

I am not sure how you can investigate them, but you should get it in writing that they do not use illegals.