3 Red Flags I Missed — A First-Time Homeowner's Confession | GetAHomePro
3 Red Flags I Missed — A First-Time Homeowner's Confession
·10 min read
L
Lisa NguyenGeneral Contractor & Renovation Specialist
Published March 20, 2026
Key Takeaway
I paid $3,500 cash to a guy I found on Facebook. Six months later, the deck was sinking. Here's what I missed — and what it cost me.
I'm going to tell you something embarrassing.
I'm 28. I write code for a living. I've debugged distributed systems at 2am, traced race conditions across 14 microservices, argued about architecture in Slack threads that lasted three days. I am not a dumb person.
And I handed $3,500 in cash to a guy I found on Facebook Marketplace and didn't ask for a single thing in writing.
This is that story.
The Condo, The Patio, The Dream
I bought my first place in the fall of 2023. Ground-floor condo near Markham Road and Ellesmere in Scarborough. Saved for five years. Ate a lot of sad desk lunches. Said no to a lot of trips.
The unit has a sliding door off the living room that opens onto a concrete patio slab — about 6 feet of depressing, exposed concrete. My plan, from the moment I got the keys, was to build a proper 10x12 pressure-treated deck off those doors. String lights. A couple of chairs. Maybe a small grill. Nothing crazy.
I figured: deck. How hard can it be?
That sentence — "how hard can it be?" — is the most expensive sentence I've ever said.
I started looking for contractors in January. Asked around. Didn't get much traction. Most guys I called were either booked until summer or quoted me $7,000-$8,000, which felt high for what I thought was a simple job.
Then I found Carlos.
Carlos
He was on Facebook Marketplace. A post with four photos — two finished decks, one mid-build, one of a pergola. Clean-looking work. A WhatsApp number. No website, no company name, no reviews. Just: "Deck and fence specialist. 15 years experience. Free estimates."
I messaged him. He replied in 20 minutes. He came by two days later, looked at my patio, walked around, nodded a lot.
"Yeah, I can do this. About thirty-five hundred."
And there it was. Red Flag Number One. I just didn't see it.
The 3 Red Flags (And How to Spot Them)
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Lisa Nguyen is a licensed general contractor and LEED Green Associate with 14 years of experience managing residential renovation and remodeling projects. She brings expertise in kitchen and bathroom remodels, basement finishing, and sustainable building practices.
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Not an email. Not a PDF. Not even a text message. Just his voice, standing on my concrete slab, hands in his pockets.
I said, "Okay, sounds good. Can you send me a quote?"
He said, "Yeah for sure, I'll send something over."
He never did. I followed up once. He said he'd get to it. I let it go.
Here's what I told myself: "It's a small job. It's not like we're building a house. It's a deck."
Here's what I should have told myself: a verbal quote is not a quote. It's a number that can change into anything the moment there's a dispute. Without a written quote that itemizes labour, materials, dimensions, and timeline — you have nothing. Literally nothing.
What to do instead: Get a written quote that breaks down labour vs. materials, specifies the exact scope (dimensions, wood species, hardware, finish), and includes a payment schedule. If a contractor won't put it in writing, they won't stand behind it later.
Red Flag 2: Full Payment. Cash. Upfront.
A week later, Carlos texted: "Ready to start Monday. Need the full amount upfront — $3,500 cash. Materials are expensive, I need to buy before we start."
I felt something tighten in my stomach. I remember that feeling. I should have listened to it.
Instead, I asked him about it. "Is it normal to pay everything upfront?"
"Yeah, that's how it works in construction. Materials cost money. I'm not buying $2,000 in lumber out of my own pocket."
I thought about it for maybe 48 hours. Googled "is it normal to pay contractor upfront." Got mixed results. Some forums said 30-50% deposit was standard. One person said they always paid cash. I convinced myself it was fine.
I went to the ATM twice — the machine had a $1,500 daily limit — and handed him an envelope with thirty-five hundred dollars in it.
He started work on Tuesday.
Here's the thing about paying in full before any work is done: you have zero leverage. Zero. The moment that money leaves your hand, the contractor's incentive to do good work drops substantially. Not because all contractors are bad — most aren't — but because human incentives work a certain way. When there's nothing left to earn, corners get cut.
What to do instead: Never pay more than 30-40% upfront. Never pay cash for a job over $500 — you want a paper trail. If a contractor insists on full payment before starting, walk away.
Red Flag 3: "You Don't Need a Permit for That"
About a week in, I mentioned permits. I'd seen something on the City of Toronto website that made me think I might need one.
Carlos waved it off. "Nah, it's ground level. Under two feet high. No permit needed."
I did what any developer does when they're not sure about something: I googled it. Found a couple of forum threads on some home improvement subreddit. Couple of people saying ground-level decks under a certain height didn't need permits in Ontario. Sounded plausible.
I didn't call the city. I didn't dig into the actual municipal code. I googled for 90 seconds and found the answer I wanted.
The thing about googling to confirm a bias is that you'll always find what you're looking for.
Carlos didn't want a permit because a permit means an inspector. And an inspector would have taken one look at what he was planning and said no.
What to do instead: Call your city's building department directly. Don't trust a contractor's verbal opinion on permit requirements. In Toronto, call 311 or check the Toronto Building portal. Takes 15 minutes.
It Looked Fine. At First.
Carlos finished in three days. I paid him Tuesday, he was done by Thursday.
The deck looked... okay. Not amazing. A couple of boards were slightly uneven. The screws weren't all countersunk — a few were just sitting proud of the surface. The stain was patchy in the corner near the wall. He said he'd touch it up. He didn't come back.
But I stood on it. Took a photo. Sent it to my mom. Felt proud.
I put out two chairs and a little table. I had exactly the patio I'd saved five years and bought a condo for.
For about six months, I had that.
Spring
March. The freeze-thaw cycle in Scarborough is not gentle.
I went outside one Saturday morning and noticed one corner of the deck was low. Like, visibly lower than the rest. I stomped on it. It moved. Not a lot — but enough.
I got down on my hands and knees and looked underneath.
The posts weren't sitting on concrete footings. They were sitting on patio stones. Patio stones sitting on soil. Soil that had been frozen all winter and was now thawing, slowly, one side faster than the other.
Carlos hadn't poured a single sono tube. He'd stacked some patio stones on the ground and called it a foundation.
I texted him: "Hey, one corner of the deck is sinking. I think there's a footing issue."
He read it. Didn't respond.
I texted again two days later. Same.
His last seen on WhatsApp is now four months ago.
The Math That Hurts
I called another contractor — a proper one this time. The guy came out, crawled under the deck, stood up, and gave me the look. You know the look.
"This has to come down," he said. "The whole thing. Posts need proper sono tubes set below the frost line. At least 48 inches deep in this area."
Tear down and rebuild: $6,200.
Plus the $3,500 I'd already paid.
$9,700. For a deck that should have cost $5,000 to $6,000, done right, the first time.
I sat with that number for a while.
I debug code for a living. I should have debugged this contractor.
What I Did Next
Here's the part I don't share as much, but it's the part that matters most to me.
I didn't hire the second contractor.
I rebuilt the deck myself.
I watched approximately 40 hours of YouTube over two weeks. I learned more about deck construction than I ever wanted to know — frost lines, sono tubes, post bases, joist spacing, ledger attachment, proper fasteners for pressure-treated lumber. I rented a concrete mixer from the Home Depot on Markham Road. I dug four holes to 48 inches with a rented auger. I mixed and poured my own concrete footings on a Saturday in April, just me and a YouTube playlist and a lot of trips back inside to re-watch the footing section.
It took three weekends.
The deck is not perfect. One of the boards has a gap that's slightly wider than the others. I know exactly where I made my mistake and I'll think about it every time I stand on that corner.
But the footings are right. The posts are plumb. The joists are 16 inches on centre. I know this because I did every bit of it myself, and I checked it, and I checked it again.
Nobody's going to text me last-seen four months ago when something goes wrong. It's my deck. I built it.
The chairs are out there right now.
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Questions Readers Asked After This Story
Could you have sued Carlos?
Technically, maybe — small claims court goes up to $35,000 in Ontario. But with no written contract, no receipt (cash, remember), and a guy who's now a WhatsApp ghost, you're fighting with nothing. The contract isn't just about trust. It's about having something to stand on if you ever need to.
How do I actually verify a contractor is legit in Ontario?
Check if they have WSIB coverage (wsib.ca), verify their insurance certificate directly with the insurer, look them up on the Better Business Bureau, and check Google/HomeStars reviews. For specialized trades (electrical, plumbing, gas), check the relevant licensing body (ESA, TSSA, Ontario College of Trades).
Is it really that common to pay cash?
More common than it should be. Cash jobs benefit the contractor (no tax trail) and hurt the homeowner (no paper trail). If a contractor insists on cash only, that tells you something about how they run their business.
Did you pull a permit for the deck you built yourself?
I did. Called 311, got the requirements, submitted the application online, and had an inspector come look at my footings before I put the boards down. Cost me $300 in permit fees and added a week to the timeline. Worth every cent and every day.
The gap in the boards is still there. I see it every morning when I have my coffee outside.