Accent Homes & Pools

Back story: I am purchasing my very first home at 26 using an FHA 203k loan which is allows you to renovate a home through your loan. A great program for the middle class who don't have a wad of cash to shell out for distressed and fix them up. Well I found a great short sale that had everything I needed, but it needed a little tlc and required a great deal of patience. Well 6 months and several nightmare inspections, and repair bids later the seller and listing agent asked me to contact a JR with accent homes and pools to see if he could give a better quote than the one I had given them from my contractor. Mind you in order for us to even begin negotiating I had to contact this contractor. First red flag: His availability and requirements that I be at the property. Granted I will give him the fact that I contacted him two days before Thanksgiving, but I have had 4 different contractors visit the property and provide me with estimates without me being there and the main reason is because I had a list of required repairs for all of them to go by. Second red flag: We scheduled a meeting at 9:30 am the following Tuesday. Well Tuesday morning at 9:30 comes and he is nowhere to be found. I gave him a grace period of about 5 minutes and called to see if everything was okay. He goes on to say that he thought we were scheduled at 9 and that he had been there waiting for me and talking to some investors who were at the house who he thought was me by the way. Why the h*** is this guy speaking to other interested parties about my property I don?t know. To be honest I think it was a setup by the seller and listing agent since they are threatening my closing with a cash buyer?but that?s another post. I would never make an appointment to meet at 9 am and I NEVER miss or show up late for contractor appointments; especially since I had to take off of work just to meet this guy. He then comes back and we begin to go through the house. Everything seemed fine until I realized that this guy did not have a clue how the 203k program worked based off some of the things he said which was another red flag. When we were leaving I let him know that I needed that quote like yesterday because it?s holding up my appraisal and negotiations. He said he would try to have it to me by that Friday if he could and best case scenario would be the following Monday. I waited and waited and called and called to no avail. Today is December 19th and I have yet to get as much as a phone call from JR let alone a quote. I had to go with another contractor and my appraisal was delayed by two weeks which killed negotiations for me since we have to close by the end of this week. Just another thing that irks me about this situation is that the bulk of the quote was already written up for him since I had to hire a FHA consultant who creates the quote of necessary repairs for you. All a contractor has to do is look at the quote, if need be look at the property and adjust the prices. This company is a sham and I do not recommend them. After all the frustration I had with this house all they did was add even more to it including a hit to my pockets. Save yourself the time and money and hire a real professional.