The Extension Cord That Told Me Everything

I want to tell you about an orange extension cord.

After Katrina, I was back in the city before most people. I had 35 or 40 properties to assess, and I was going door to door, taking pictures, calling owners, doing what you do when the storm has passed and the work begins. One of those properties had already been “repaired” by a contractor the owner had hired from Baton Rouge while sitting at a hotel somewhere out of state.

I walked in and within sixty seconds I knew everything I needed to know. The electrical panel boxes were mounted seven feet in the air on the wall. And running from the meter pan to the compressor outside was an orange extension cord — a standard, hardware store, orange extension cord — powering the entire air conditioning system.

You do not need a degree in physics to know that is not how electricity is supposed to work.

I called my electrician and he came out and confirmed what I already suspected. Nobody had rewired the house. The gas lines, which Louisiana requires contractors to replace after a flood event of that magnitude, were still the originals. This contractor had taken money, done almost nothing real, covered his tracks with cosmetic work, and moved on to the next victim.

The owner was not happy. Fixing the electrical correctly cost around fifteen thousand dollars. The gas lines ran another ten thousand on top of that. That is what contractor fraud costs. And that was one property.

Why Absentee Owners Are the Most Vulnerable

Here is the thing about New Orleans rental property: a significant percentage of the owners do not live here. They own property in Gentilly or Lakeview or the Garden District and they live in Houston or Atlanta or Chicago. These owners depend entirely on the people they have trusted to manage and maintain their investment to tell them what is actually happening.

When a storm comes through and contractors start flooding into the city from out of state — and they do, every single time, with every significant weather event — those absentee owners are sitting a thousand miles away, looking at photos of damage, trying to figure out who to call. Fear and urgency together are exactly what a predatory contractor is counting on.

I have seen this play out more times than I can count. The contractor promises a fast turnaround. He quotes a number that sounds reasonable given the circumstances. He takes a deposit. Cosmetic work follows — maybe new paint, new trim — that makes the property look repaired without actually being repaired. Then either the work falls apart six months later, or a real contractor finds the problems underneath the cosmetics, or an inspector pulls the permit and discovers nothing was done to code.

“The contractor promises fast. He takes a deposit. He does cosmetic work that makes the property look repaired without being repaired. The problems show up six months later.”

The Red Flags I Look For

After forty years of walking properties in this city and cleaning up after bad contractors, I know what fraud looks like. Here are the things that stop me in my tracks:

• Surface-only finishes. Fresh paint over walls that were never properly dried or treated for mold. New flooring installed over subfloor that was never properly cleaned or replaced.
• Sloppy electrical work. Panel boxes in the wrong location. Wiring that uses the wrong gauge for the circuit. Anything suggesting the person either doesn’t know Louisiana electrical code or doesn’t care about it.
• Untouched gas lines after flooding. Louisiana requires replacement after significant flood events. Get a second opinion before accepting any contractor’s claim that the lines are fine.
• No permits. Any legitimate contractor doing structural, electrical, plumbing, or gas work in New Orleans must pull permits. No permits means no inspections, and no inspections means no accountability.
• Out-of-state license or no license at all. An out-of-state contractor isn’t automatically disqualified, but anyone who can’t show you a Louisiana contractor’s license is a walk-away situation.
• Pressure to decide fast or skip the permit process. Urgency is a sales tactic. Legitimate contractors don’t use it.

What Actually Protects You

The most reliable protection against contractor fraud is having someone on the ground who recognizes legitimate work and has spent years vetting the people who do it.

My contractor network in this city took forty years to build. These are licensed professionals who have been on my properties, who I have watched work, whose invoices I have compared against the actual work done. When I call them, they come. When they quote a price, that is the actual price. When they say something is done, I go look at it.

How to Evaluate Your Property Manager

That kind of network is not something you replicate by searching online after a storm. If you own property in New Orleans and manage it from a distance, the most important questions to ask your property manager are not about fees. Ask who they use for contractors, how long those relationships have lasted, and whether they verify the completed work in person. Those three answers will tell you more about whether your investment is protected than any management fee structure ever will.

One more thing worth knowing. After Katrina, I had to dispute bills with Entergy because they claimed properties had been drawing power for six months after the storm — even though the utility had cut power drops to every property in the city and pulled all the gas meters before the storm hit. Nobody was in those buildings. Nobody was using that power. Owners who lacked someone watching out for them had to fight those charges on their own.

I was there. I knew what had happened. I had the photos to prove it. That is what forty years in this city looks like in practice.

David Coxe is a licensed Louisiana real estate broker and the owner of Coxe Property Management and Leasing. He has managed residential property in New Orleans and Metairie for over 40 years. Call him directly at 504-232-1672.