re: Is there a more shady, legal industry than residential construction?

Commercial development.....

Developers
Lawyers
Federal contractors

If a GC is building a new custom residential build, they are 9 times out of 10 dealing with a bank to get paid. Said bank pays 4 or 6 payments throughout the duration of the build.

Cash flow concerns for maintaining schedules while dealing with adding costs from the initial bid when end users actually see what their plans reflect yielding immediate changes. All the while end users not giving two shits about the cost accrued.

The GC is forced to use the most available and cheapest subcontractor for each particular trade while jerking off the dog to feed the cat waiting for the bank to pay 60% of the costs accrued to date 60 days ago.

Residential subcontractors demand payment for services provided that week each Friday. If they are not paid that Friday, they do not show up the following Monday. Home owner is stuck bitching and complaining about the quality of work and lack of progress. Multiply this numerous times over for a general contractor.

I always tell end users on the front end before a proposal is ever presented, “You can control two of these three variables.You cannot control all three. If you could, you do not need me. Cost, schedule, and quality. How we proceed is up to you.”

Auto sales, insurance, PI law firms, politics to name a few

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I do have plans

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What information is included in your plans? Sections, elevations, details, structural drawings? Are they to scale?

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I have an idea of what it should be.

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This is not intended to be mean, but usually when someone says this, they don't have realistic expectations for what something will cost, particularly when demand is high.

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If a GC is building a new custom residential build, they are 9 times out of 10 dealing with a bank to get paid. Said bank pays 4 or 6 payments throughout the duration of the build.

Cash flow concerns for maintaining schedules while dealing with adding costs from the initial bid when end users actually see what their plans reflect yielding immediate changes. All the while end users not giving two shits about the cost accrued.

The GC is forced to use the most available and cheapest subcontractor for each particular trade while jerking off the dog to feed the cat waiting for the bank to pay 60% of the costs accrued to date 60 days ago.

Residential subcontractors demand payment for services provided that week each Friday. If they are not paid that Friday, they do not show up the following Monday. Home owner is stuck bitching and complaining about the quality of work and lack of progress. Multiply this numerous times over for a general contractor.

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Amen.

Aside from the banks, even when owner financed the general population just doesn't understand how slow homeowners pay sometimes. We're not talking small amounts either. The hardest check to get is the check at the end of the job when the bank loan for the homeowners has run out and they have to come out of pocket to pay for their balance or changes, overbudgets, additions, etc.

Even if residential construction were a legal industry, which it isn't, it wouldn't be in the top 5.

Car sales and dealerships are way worse.

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Personal Injury Attourney

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This has been mentioned a few times. PI attorneys aren't in the top 3 of shady attorney fields

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What information is included in your plans? Sections, elevations, details, structural drawings? Are they to scale?

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Yes, the plans include all of this and are to scale.

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This is not intended to be mean, but usually when someone says this, they don't have realistic expectations for what something will cost, particularly when demand is high.

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When I almost did this addition a few years ago, I was going to use a construction company where a good friend works as a project manager. They no longer do residential projects, but he went back through his initial bid and told me what a fair price looks like today. That’s what I mean when saying I have an idea of what it should cost. I’m not just blindly saying that with unrealistic expectations.

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Zoning and construction

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This. People wonder why we have drainage and flooding issues. It’s because we have neighborhoods where there should not be neighborhoods. People wonder why the Main Street in their little town is dead and you have attorneys, loan offices, start up restaurants, all working out of houses families lived in 10-15 years ago.