$12,000 are you high?

Tonight I had a gentleman named Hal (originally from Iceland) visit me from Mid-Atlantic Waterproofing. I wanted to get an inspection and estimate on anything that might be needed to be done in basement. What I was hoping for was an overall evaluation of the basement and any problems it might have. Then some suggestions on what to do and what they can offer.

Hal did a through check and layout of the basement. He asked lots of questions and pointed some stuff out. There were many questions I had no answers to since I have only lived here for 2 months. That was first 30-45 minutes or so. After getting all the info together he then started telling me about the company.

This is when the selling began. He started telling me about other jobs the company has done and their history. Then he started telling me about some of the problems my house has and methods to fix them. The first was a total excavation of all 4 walls of my house. This would only cost $35,000. This of course was um shocking.

Then he went on to tell me what other places would do. He told me about the French drain system other's would install. He said other's would charge me $7,000. At this point I was like ok, so Mid-Atlantic will be less that is why they told me what the competitors do. Oh no, wrong. He then told me about their amazing dual water removal blah blah blah.

This system is similar to the French drain but better obviously and also way more expensive. I will admit it sounds pretty cool, but still. He started at $14,000 roughly. He saw my hesitation and the hard sell began.

He called the office and amazingly they had a cancellation in the next few weeks. This would allow them to give me the ReMax price. This new lower price was only $12,500. Again my hesitation was obvious. He sweetened the deal with another $500 coupon, woo hoo. Back to the title "$12,000 are you high?"

Let me explain my scale here. 2 figures ($99 and below) is a DVD and can be bought on a whim. 3 figures ($999 and below) is a computer part or some other gadget, low pain threshold. 4 figures ($9999 and below) is a whole new computer, projector or stereo, medium pain threshold. 5 figures ($99999 and below) is a car that is about it, very high pain threshold. Anything above that is a house, which drove me insane and still is.

As you can see when things get to the point they did, I um have issues. Hal did not want to hear this. He tried many avenues to get me to sign on the dotted line as it were. Even saying that I could cancel in the next 48-72 hours. Um no I am not committing to $12,000 I don't have. He was not thrilled to hear this, tough.

I talked to my parent's afterward and my dad was not too surprised. He had said they would try to sell me something of this sort. Which I guess I can see was obvious at this point. What else would they try to sell me. I am going to be doing some more simple stuff in basement to prepare for any water that might enter it. This type of sytem is just not in the budget.