I also got burned by a "best of houzz" badge.

Post your review here, please.

The Atlanta based design build firm Homeworks Renewal or HWRenewal has left me a completely gutted to the studs and plywood floor home to live in. He was hired to complete this remodel but after one month in which he had guys at my home 5 total days he asked for more money of which I was unable to give him as I was waiting for my previous home to sell. All information he was well aware of. During our consultation he had informed me that he offered financing and that it was a simple process, so I figured this was not an issue being that I had a large sum of money coming from the sale.

When I did give him more money He completely pulled his guys, didn’t finish the framing work even and then came to me with change orders with exorbitant price tags that just didn’t fit proportionally to his original bid. After getting three electrical bids of my own his guy was twice as much as one of mine. I decided this probably wasn’t a good fit and what did he do? Proceeded to cash a check that far exceeded the value of the work his guys had done and has now knowingly put me in financial straights for work that he did not complete.

He claims to be a member of multiple professional organizations, but when I contacted the trade organizations they had no knowledge of him and we discovered the license number he provides isn’t even his own. his invoice letter head has seals from The BBB, EPA, GE and another building trade organization all of which are fraudulent as well. In my opinion I think everything from the kids in the photo here on this site to everything he’s claimed of himself is a total front.

He very well may have designed some of the work but after what kind of drawn out agony? His whole design process is centered around his own ease of use, if ur not computer savvy don’t bother with him and his design development time waste. The whole system is to hide the fact that he is socially extremely awkward and difficult to communicate on a conversational level, not to mention a pain in the butt to message as he has some cheap internet text system that limits his characters and ability to send images via text. It all must be done his way or your sending stuff into the netherworld.
If you want the low down, he wants
Total control over the project so that he can squeeze every cent out of you and he will nickle and dime you For Every minute he talks to you. I was supposedly paying him as a consultant by the hour but then he tried to pad the labor and materials
Prices excessively. Be careful, his original bids won’t have itemized expenses so that when you dispute him he feels he can shift the money around for his benefit.
The last time I talked to him he implied that we were on good terms and that he was fine with ending our relationship and now he refuses to answer my texts or calls let alone refund the thousands of dollars he had defrauded me of. This is all truthful and based on facts and I will gladly offer anyone the evidence for it. If that is the type of contractor you want to work with you’ll love him and I wish you luck.

No wonder Houzz wouldn’t publish that. Not to mention that not paying someone does tend to have the consequence of them not showing up to work.

Excuse me Sophie? I’m sorry but you seem to be confused, maybe it’s the hair dye. I did pay him $17,800 and for that I got 5 total days in the month of January with people working here. God forbid I had taken his advice and moved out I would have had no clue how little was happening. Your completely right, not paying someone is a great way to not have someone come but that isn’t the case here. On the contrary he has money and has not performed the work, I don’t understand where you have the nerve to write a comment like that in support of a service provider that gives your industry a bad rep.

Hi Paul,

Just to clear up a few things - I just looked and your review is pending moderation. All reviews are looked at before they go live on the site. My best advice to you would be to write *only* about your experience with this pro - comments like those about the photo on his profile could end up an issue when it is reviewed. If you stick to the work - your experience in terms of what was performed or not and the quality of that work, you should be fine. For specific questions about a review, your best bet is always to contact our team through support.houzz.com. They can help you there.

As far as the year goes, awards for 2018 are based on 2017 data - sort of like the Oscars this year will be awarded based on movies last year. Any review you write on the site will impact that professional going into the Best of Houzz awards for 2019.

Kristin - Best of Houzz is not a way to get anyone to pay for exposure on the site. There are two awards. Design is based on the popularity of your photos as evidenced by how often they are saved by the community and Service, which is based on your reviews for the previous year. There is no way to pay for these awards and pros who advertise on Houzz get absolutely no special consideration when they are awarded.

As with any directory, it is a GREAT idea to do your due diligence when hiring and contact references as well as check with your local trade orgs.

Hope that helps!

It does help but I your last statement about doing due diligence completely sidesteps the fact that many people including myself feel that checking Houzz is in fact a form of doing due diligence because as far as I knew, this was a respectable resource that doesn’t promote shoddy service providers. If others have received half as much pushback as I have writing a bad review of someone surely they would have just given up. I am bound and determined to have my review posted even though I’m sure it will only be a matter of time that he finds some way to bury deep in his ad. It’s now obvious to me that it’s more important to this company that the service providers stay happy so they can have customers buy products from you thru them but what you fail to recognize is that when guys like this steal from people like me, I can’t spend my money buying the sofa that’s in my cart right now. There are a number of things I’d like to buy from you that I can’t because he is holding onto my money illegally. If you guys would put a little pressure on him by restricting his ability to promote himself here when he had complaints like this then maybe he would be inclined to resolve the situation. As it stands he had no motivation to. I’ve contacted the BBB and NARI, so hopefully they will be able to help me where you are completely resistant to.

And pros who pay get more exposure of their images, thus increasing the number of clicks they receive, thus increasing their odds of receiving Best of Houzz...

Hi Paul,

Houzz offers a directory with a platform for project photos, reviews, and other context provided by the professionals. All of those things are great for consideration before hiring. We do hope past clients can provide some color with their experiences with those pros that they work with. While most reviews on Houzz are positive, we absolutely also have negative reviews on the platform.

I 100% encourage you to submit reviews for any projects with an honest accounting of your experience - both good or bad.

Kristin, I understand your perspective, however that is not why the awards are given, and they are not only awarded to pro+ advertisers. Pro+ exposure would also have no effect on the service awards.

I am still waiting for my review to be posted, you would think that if you have the time to respond here that you could just as easily approve my review to at the very least appease me. But no, you still censor my negative review even though I have altered it countless times to meet your criteria. Meanwhile the contractor who stole from me continues to hold on to my money further inflicting undue hardship on me.