The souring economy and depressed housing market have revealed a trend among less-than-reputable contractors. A few years ago, when the economy was stronger, these marginal contractors had plenty of work to keep themselves busy, even if the quality of their work might have been questionable. We now hear regularly from homeowners who are being left empty-handed by contractors who take the money and run...performing little or no work.

Never good business people, these marginal contractors are caught in the spiral of the recent credit crisis and rising fuel prices. Looking for quick cash they find easy pickings by preying on homeowners. The incident below from Shannon and Mark Muhaw of Saluda, S. C. is too typical:

"My wife and I found Jeff Linette on Servicemagic.com and also saw his phone book ad. We called and set up an appointment to discuss our patio project. On 3/13/08 he gave us a quote and we decided to go ahead and sign a contract, which included a check for $3,000 that was cashed the same day. He wanted it made out to him, claiming there was an issue with his business account. He said he would be done in three weeks. When we didn’t hear from him after a week we started calling. His first time here on the job was 3/27 for three hours when he pressure-washed our deck.

"We had him sign a new contract because I had a scheduling conflict that prevented him from being able to complete the job on the agreed date. Also, I wanted to go more into detail about what the job entailed.

"We didn't see him again till 4/11 when he spent three hours doing some cement patchwork. Again, we didn't see him again till 4/18 for another three hours. He said if we didn't give him another $2,000 he was done and walking off the job. He then lowered the amount to $1,000.

"I was at work at this time, speaking to him on my cell phone. My wife went outside to talk with Jeff. I heard them arguing and, because I knew she was home alone, I got alarmed and called the sheriff. We didn't file a complaint, however, as we tried to be nice and work it out. We felt trapped and settled on a $500 check which of course was cashed. It was for him to buy supplies to complete our project.

"We haven't seen him since. When he claimed his truck was stolen we even offered to pick him up to get him to complete our project. He will not return our phone calls. He always has a reason for not doing the work: his wallet got stolen, his phone got ran over, his phone got stolen. Yet when we call him from another phone number he miraculously answers."

The Muhaws did report this contractor to ServiceMagic.com who appears to have removed him from their service.

It's simple: Good contractors are on time and on budget. Bad contractors have an excuse for everything and often demand more and more money while doing just enough work to fool you into thinking that if you throw even more money their way you'll finally get your project complete. They size you up, figure you're good for it. You have two SUVs and a boat in the back. You can pay more, and too many often do. So what if a $5,000 deck costs $10,000? You got the deck, didn't you?

But challenge them and you will find they are the masters of hard-luck stories. Its amazing how imaginative these scoundrels can get as they play on your emotions. Their scam is designed to put you off and buy time, if for no other reason than they hope you get so fed up that you give up.

They thrive on excuses. They have an encyclopedic collection of them memorized, though they rarely need more than a dozen for every day scam work. Did you hear the one about the contractor who claimed to the homeowner midway through a kitchen renovation that he had cancer and was going into the hospital for emergency surgery? The homeowner later that week came across him on the golf course looking tan and fit.

These excuses serve a purpose. They frustrate you, make you anxious to get your project complete and your life back to normal. Our advice to you: don't buy into them. The first excuse leads to another and another. Its human nature to buy into the first excuse. You want to empathize, understand. But business is business and contracts are written for a reason: services and materials offered - payment rendered. Switch roles and ask yourself: "If I gave a contractor a hard luck story and didn't pay, would he be OK with that?" Fat chance.

So whenever you encounter the following excuses from a contractor consider them big, huge, fluorescent red flags:

-Asks you to get the required permits.

-Won't sign a contract, or does sign a contract but does not give you a copy.

-Starts demanding more money beyond anything agreed to.

-Insists you write checks to him personally, a family member, or anyone instead of in the name of the business you contracted with.

-Offers up a barrage of excuses for needing more money or more time.

-Doesn't return your calls.

-Uses lesser materials than what you agreed to.

-Shows up less frequently and works fewer hours as the project progresses.

-Subcontractors or members of his work crew complain about not getting paid.

We get a steady stream of submissions and emails from homeowners recounting their experiences with bad contractors. While the tales vary, there is a common thread throughout that can be summed up this way: "The contractor took my money, didn't finish the work, and now I have no way of contacting him."

For the purposes of this post, let's address the issue of how you verify and keep in contact with the contractor you've decided to work with because if you just spend a few minutes up front you can save yourself thousands of dollars later and avoid the grief of getting scammed.

1. We recommend whenever possible that you use an online service such as BestContractors.com to locate local contractors who have been prescreened for licensing, insurance and other factors that weed out the bad from the good. When you do, you have an advocate on your side that is dedicated to making sure you work only with the best and most responsible service professionals.

However, if you decide to go it alone here are key points to remember: 2. Get the contractor's business card. It must include a street address and business landline phone number. Don't kid yourself into thinking its overkill for you to verify these two critical points of contact. And do so before you give a contractor a single penny. Use a web site like Mapquest or Google to look up the address. Is it local? If it is a business address, does it match the contractor's address listed on his or her card, or is it a vacant lot? Does it even exist? Why does this matter? A contractor with no business card, or a business card with no address, or an address that is a P.O. box, or an address you can't even verify is likely someone who doesn't want to be located, especially after you've given over money.

Is the phone number local? Is it a landline phone? There are numerous web sites where you can reverse-look up a phone number to determine if it is a cellular or landline phone. Why does this matter? A landline phone indicates this contractor has a local presence and isn't just passing through town perpetrating scams before moving on.

3. Get the contractor's email address. There is no valid excuse for any reputable contractor to not have one. Beware of any email address that comes from a free service such as Yahoo or Google. These are easy to set up and popular with all kinds of con artists and scammers. Again, before you hand over a deposit, send the contractor an email and ask a question about your project so he or she replies. Why does this matter? If it's a bogus or discontinued email address you will get back an error message reply (typically within 24 hours). That's as good an indicator of trouble as a disconnected phone number or returned postal mail. It's also how you can test the contractor's responsiveness. How long did it take to get a reply? Was your question replied to your satisfaction?

Keep in mind that scam artists are basically liars who have made doublespeak an art. They have a lengthy mental list of excuses for every scenario. Consider each excuse with a healthy dose of skepticism. "I've been so busy with new clients that I'm out of business cards," or "I just changed email accounts and the new one isn't set up yet," sound reasonable enough until you think them through.

OK. So you've done your homework to make sure you have at least two verified methods for contacting the contractor that you've decided to work with. Work proceeds on your project and you've given over money. Then things go sour and the contractor isn't returning your calls or emails. For whatever reason, you can't physically locate the contractor. All may not be lost yet. Try getting a friend or family member--who the contractor does not know—to attempt to contact the contractor without making any connection to you. We've heard many stories from homeowners who say the contractor is unreachable but accidentally becomes available when he thinks its new business. At a minimum, it's a way for you to verify the contractor is still in town.

Picture this scenario: you're moving across the country. You must sell your home quickly, but you know of an existing issue that needs to be repaired before your home will pass inspection. In your haste to rectify the problem, would you still follow the rules of hiring a contractor?

Our friend Rob in Dallas faced this very problem. He accepted a job up north and he was pressed to get his home on the market quickly. He had a leak in his roof last month but never seemed to find the time to have it properly repaired. It had reached the point that the leak had damaged a portion of the ceiling in his living room. Because the real estate market was slumping, Rob wanted to make sure his home was in pristine condition when it was listed to ensure a quick and painless sale.

In the hustle and bustle of getting things organized to move, Rob picked a contractor out of the yellow pages to fix the leak. The contractor said he was available to look at it the next day, and that was good enough for Rob. When the contractor showed up, Rob showed him in and pointed out the damaged spot in the living room.

After climbing up on the roof and pulling up a few shingles, the contractor told Rob that because he neglected to pay attention to the leak, a portion of the decking underneath the shingles had rotted and would have to be replaced before it would pass a home inspection. The contractor also suggested that Rob go ahead and replace the shingles on the entire roof as well, as they were pushing ten years old.

Not wanting to deal with this problem down the line at inspection, Rob didn't flinch at giving the contractor the go-ahead to get started on the roof. The contractor and his crew ripped up the shingles, replaced a large section of the roof deck as well as the damaged portion of the ceiling inside, and laid down new shingles on the entire roof. Rob did not supervise much but was pleased with the final product and paid the $7,000 tab.

With the roof now repaired, Rob didn't think about it again. He continued preparing for his move and his new job. Rob moved north before his house was sold, but eventually his home attracted a buyer and went under contract. The process went swimmingly until the home inspection. Despite his attempts to head off any problems at this point of the sale, Rob received bad news from the inspector.

The inspector informed Rob that since the contractor had replaced a structural portion of the roof, a permit should have been obtained. Rob knew the contractor had not done that. The inspector also informed Rob that the contractor used a substandard grade of plywood underlay which would not have passed inspection if a permit had been obtained. The inspector was duty-bound to write that up in his report. This scared off the buyers and left Rob with a major repair for a second time. He's still waiting for the permit to come through and cannot put his home back on the market until the roof situation is corrected.

My tips to avoid a botched major repair like this: 1. Stay on top of the condition of your home. Homeowners who ignore and neglect home repairs are always in for a rude surprise when it comes time to sell the home and either have to sell for below market value or shell out big bucks for those repairs.

2. Always get more than one bid on a project, and check contractor licensing and other vital information either yourself or by using a reputable contractor screening service like BestContractors.com.

3. Don't count on the contractor being responsible for getting permits. Check with your local building inspector to see if your job site requires a permit and have one before work begins.

4. Be informed about local fire and building code restrictions.

5. Never allow a contractor to work alone in your home. It's an open invitation to less ethical contractors to cut corners and time. Always be there to supervise.