House Construction

Why I don’t offer Physical copies of my guides

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Yesterday, an HCG All-Access Pass buyer sent an email immediately after buying.

First email:

Sent from my iPhonei have paid 5000 kindly send me details

Within a few minutes:

If possible kindly send me hard copy to my address xx xxxxxxxx gardens pondicherry 605001
Sent from my iPhone

I replied to his second email.

99% of the chance, once anyone buys any of my products, they should immediately get an email containing product access details.

Looks like this user sent me an email without checking his email. He immediately realised he already received the details and is now requesting a physical copy of my product, if possible, in a proper way.

…
…

This is not the only customer requesting a physical copy of my product.

I do get a few such requests from some users. But I clearly say don’t buy if you are going to consume my guides in physical copy.

The reason?

All my guides come with real images I have taken in my building or elsewhere.

And I cannot attach all those images in a PDF guide.

I could have done that if it were just one or two images. In my guide, I usually refer to multiple images for better understanding.

I cannot show all such high-quality images if I add them directly inside the PDF. So, I link to my Google Photos, where users can click, zoom in, and view multiple images on the concept I’m talking about.

This type of experience I cannot able to give in a Physical copy.

Not just that…

Sometimes, I even refer to YouTube videos in my guide to show them practical.

I cannot do all these things easily in a physical copy.

So, if anyone contacted me before buying for such requests, I would say not to buy directly.

If they don’t know how to use a PC or Excel sheet or have a computer, I don’t recommend any such user to buy my products.

Clear and straightforward.

If you are one of them, please don’t buy my products. If not, go ahead.

Arun

PS: I attached some images to my upcoming Rental Property Guide today. I will add this guide to the members’ area soon.

Use this type of Bucket during your House Construction

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Last Sunday, I went outside to bring mutton. While on the way, I noticed a scrap shop where he kept paint buckets outside.

In our house, we have lots of paint buckets available. We needed to do something about those.

So I asked the scrap shop guy, “How much for a Paint bucket?”.

He told me ₹50 per bucket.

I was quite shocked listening to the paint bucket price. I was expecting a little bit more costly… Because I need to sell our paint buckets 🙂

Next, I asked him how much he would buy each bucket.

He said, “₹15 to ₹20, depending on the bucket condition.”

I told it’s in good condition. To which he replied, ₹20.

Ok… I replied and left the spot.

Why I’m sharing this?

The reason is… You need a few buckets for the construction work during your house construction.

** Coffee came. 5 min break**

The only buckets I recommend are Painting buckets. These are the only durable buckets suitable for construction-related hard work.

Whatever the other buckets you buy from the shop won’t last long.

If you have not yet started, buy paint buckets by asking a few scrap shops or on olx.in.

Even if it costs 100 to 200 per bucket, I recommend paint buckets.

I wish we could get these tips during our construction time.

We wasted a few buckets that we had bought from the shops.

After listening to the ₹20 per paint bucket, I better plan to sell all our paint buckets directly to the users on olx.in for a better price.

When I need to sell, I will put it.

Similarly, Whatever the tricks I used to ask for the paint bucket price, I used a similar strategy to find out the real cost of the cement bags.

Usually, most of them never think about it.

This is the kind of cement delivery secret I explored… at least to my knowledge.

After exploring this, I immediately saved ₹10 to ₹30 per cement bag.

I discovered this secret while constructing my second building after noticing something strange during the cement delivery time.

I shared this inside my Cement Pricing Secrets.

I’m not going to promise it will work for all. To my knowledge, it should work, but I don’t want to promise the moon and deliver something.

If it works, You’re gonna save a lot on cement. If not, you lose whatever price you paid for the guide. So, I kept the price of the product to just ₹299.

Read the sales page properly and buy if you are interested in this.

my boss’s home theatre system

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When I was working long back in a company, my cool & young boss invited all the employees to their housewarming function.

I also visited that time.

It’s a luxurious house.

Their house had a dedicated home theatre room. They also had a thread mill setup in that room so they could watch while walking on the thread mill.

At that time, no such popular OTT apps were available. It’s only YouTube, which they can watch.

When I and my colleagues saw the setup, we thought, who will have time to watch this and all…

Now I understood why they did that.

It’s entertainment at home without wasting time and energy by going to the theatre.

They have good reason to spend time in that home theatre by now.

Now, tech has improved significantly, and many new OTT apps are on the market.

Unlimited Internet at good speed is also available on the market.

This means that any new movies that get released, they can sit in their home and watch & enjoy with the whole family.

Now, you might also think similar to what I was thinking at that time. If you think like that, it’s just a matter of time before you change your opinion.

Now, I have changed mine after going through these personally. You might already, or you will one day.

My point in writing this email is that if you have a budget, have a separate room for the home theatre.

If you plan to do that later… then have a floor or room for it. You can set it up later when you have a budget.

If you don’t have space, budget, or provision, you can plan your hall with a bigger 4K TV and sound system to enjoy the theatre experience.

And a good network to set up to watch 4K movies without any buffering.

Currently, we have to use the last option at home. Still, we enjoy it a lot weekly, once or twice. Watching the latest movies sitting right in our first house hall…

When building your home, choose the option that best suits you.

These days, my dad spends more time alone watching all pending Kannada movies when our kids won’t be there. For this reason, my mom gets angry about watching movies without her 🙂

Anyway, If you have any questions, feel free to reply.

That’s all I wanted to share.

If you are buying my products from ads, read this

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Yesterday, a buyer emailed me to ask about the product he paid for but has not yet received.

I searched his email in my email system to see what product he had purchased.

I noticed 3 products he bought, and he is also on my email list for quite a few days.

I believe this user is buying only from some offers that I make on running ads on Facebook.

I don’t know who else is doing similar things. It’s pretty difficult to go and check all those details.

If you are also doing the same, understand the logic of offering discounts on Facebook ads and not here.

I’m offering a good ad deal because I need to attract customers who will likely buy my future products.

Ads are costly to run. We don’t make money on ads. It’s just a tool to attract the right customer with product buyer’s funds. Not from our pocket money. That’s all.

That means I only run ads for selected products, not all.

If you properly calculate the cost you are paying for a single product is still more than the price you could get from my All-Access Pass.

Do some calculations you will understand.

Moreover, I only run ads for a few products, not all.

So, if you repeatedly buy my products, the best way is to buy my All-Access Pass. Not buying through ads. As you never see ads for all my products,

With my All-Access Pass, you can always get any updates or future guides at no extra cost.

All you need to do is log in to the member’s area to find the latest or updated guide.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you to make you a better-informed buyer.

I don’t want to play such games with my email subscribers. I could make quick cash by doing that… but it definitely not gonna help my buyers much.

I want my subscribers to buy my All-Access Pass (who can offered, If not also no issues). This is where they get all the common mistakes they could make and how to avoid them during construction time.

Which could help them for the lifespan of the building.

Anyway, The next guide I’m working on is for users planning to build rental property in their building.

I will share all the lessons I learned in this guide after having 16+ door rental units. You can learn and implement the suggestions I shared in your property to avoid mistakes.

It will also be added inside the All-Access Pass members area at no extra cost.

Arun

For saying “yes,” now I’m attending calls

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Yesterday, a tenant requested that I collect his Flipkart order, which was supposed to be delivered yesterday.

As he went to his home, I said I would collect it.

For saying “yes” to that request, now I’m attending all his customer support calls from Flipkart.

The WakeFit mattress that was supposed to be delivered yesterday has not yet been delivered.

The guy who ordered probably raised complaints after complaints sitting in his home.

Every time he raises complaints, the support team calls me. He probably shared my number on Flipkart, I guess.

Whenever I receive calls, I am told I’m not the right person to speak with about that order, but I still receive support calls.

That too in Malayalam language.

I told them I didn’t understand the Malayalam language, and the support team told sir it was a Malayalam support team kind of response.

Today is also over, and the product has not yet been delivered.

I’m still unsure how many complaints the guy has to go through and how many calls I need to attend to say Yes to help this guy.

The point is…

When constructing your house, you get similar help requests from a few labourers.

If you say yes to their request, they repeatedly ask such requests. Your helping nature can sometimes backfire on you.

So remember this before saying yes to any help request.

I remember a few labourers who collected cash from us, saying they would return in a few days… but that return never happened.

We also never bothered to ask those.

Never say yes to such requests if you are not ready to lose such an amount.

These are all small stuff. I’m fine losing a few here and there for labourers.

When you are constructing a house, many transactions happen in a day, and some transactions may go unnoticed. Which could potentially cause a loss someday.

You should maintain a proper system to track all such transactions to avoid such loss.

If you think an Excel sheet is fine… think again. Excel sheets are never the right system to track all of those. Especially in house construction time.

You will understand its issues if you start using Excel sheets in a real environment.

Excel sheets should be part of the system. Not a whole system.

If you want to keep a proper system to manage all the transactions, here is what I used to do in my second house construction.

I explained all the tools and how I used them during my second house construction in my House Construction Tracking System guide.

This is a guide that everyone should follow during their house construction time – for easier management of finances and protection from contractor issues.

Contractors are not ready to sign the Agreement

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Today, I was chatting with one of my customers on WhatsApp. The customer questioned me…

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In my experience, no contractor signs an agreement before the work is assigned to him, do you agree?

And how can this situation be handled?

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I was a little confused about what this customer was saying. So I suggested:

First, have an oral discussion. Once You and the Contractors agree to the Contract Terms, Both sign the Written Agreement and Start the Work as I suggested.

To which the customer replied:

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They don’t sign after verbal discussion and refuse to take that work

They are okay working without written agreement

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A clear RED FLAG.

Now, I clearly understood what my customer was saying. None of the contractors are ready to sign a written agreement before starting work.

After listening, I was shocked to see the fact.

At least I never got such a contractor here. Moreover, the customer I was chatting with has done good research and is aware of a few scams and how they work.

Based on a chat discussion I had with this customer, he is quite knowledgeable.

Because of his knowledge, he is struggling to find an ideal contractor for his house construction. (When you know some facts its difficult to cheat/scam and red flag contractors also shows less interest in such projects).

Most contractors he encountered were not ready to sign the agreement before starting the work. (He knew what would happen if he started work without proper written agreement).

Now he said… “Then hunting contractors is a big pain.”

If you pick the right contractors in the beginning, the rest of the construction job becomes much easier.

Really… even if you took 2 or 3 months to find the right contractors, it’s still worth it.

Reason? You won’t face headaches, verbal fights or issues while at the time of construction. Speak to someone who has gone through it so you will understand better.

If you also come across similar situations, don’t work with contractors who are not ready to sign before starting work.

Once they start work without proper agreement, it’s really difficult to deal with when issues happen.

One my good suggestions to all first-time house construction users is to implement what I shared inside my House Construction Tracking System Guide to easily deal with contractors when any issue happens.

Arun

They are in the business to make money

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This morning, I got a WhatsApp message from some guy saying —

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Good to see u r regular updates on home construction

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Based on the construction image DP, I guess he is in the construction field. Possibly some contractor, I guess.

Whatever may be…

Today, I want to share a small tip related to contractors. This applies to all contractors.

The thing is, I recommend you to always keep in mind that they are in the business to make money.

I see some owners treat them very differently.

I saw one of my dad’s friends here. They think they are paying the contractors and must extract as much output as possible.

It doesn’t work like that.

If someone is doing work, you should remember that contractors should save money on your project.

If their labourers are not properly working in your building? are their labourers coming daily late?

If you notice such stuff, you must notify your contractor and stop all such activities.

If you think it’s the contractor’s responsibility and not yours… and he is the one who will lose money. No no…

Don’t think or treat like that.

If Contractors didn’t save much money at the end of your construction, Give some extra money depending on his nature.

Our construction was never finished within the agreed contract amount for both constructions.

Both our contractors are good. None of them asked for any extra money. We understood they didn’t save much in our contract, and we happily paid some extra at the end of construction.

Both are happy.

Even today, we sometimes call our building contractor labourers for some labour tasks. He promptly sent them.

These days, it’s very rare for owners to have such a good relationship with their contractors.

It’s because owners just think about themself.

Nothing wrong with that.

But I recommend keeping contractors’ profit also in mind while doing your construction, and they will happily assist even after your house construction work is over.

Oh.. by the way, we executed our building contracts differently. That’s why both contractor didn’t save much money.

If we simply went with what the contractors wanted in the agreement, then I’m sure both could have saved from our construction.

My dad is knowledgeable about this agreement framing and wanted to go only with what he suggested. Because of such conditions, contractors didn’t save much.

I shared all such contract framing tips inside my Building Contractor Guide.

That’s for it today,

Happy weekend,
Arun

A big fight for a silly reason

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This Saturday, a big fight happened backside of my house.

This is because a guy parked his car on the main road… almost no 4-wheelers can pass.

The time was around 11… or 11.30 pm, I guess.

Another car from the same place came. He started pressing the horn repeatedly.

After 10 minutes, the guy who had parked his car on the main road came. Both started talking.

Talking went to talking bad words.

Soon, the fight between the two guys started to severe.

At 12 am, rain also started.

I was watching this scene from my bedroom’s backside window.

The scene looks exactly like a fight scene in a movie. Some neighbours came outside their house and started watching the scene.

To my surprise… none of them showed interest in stopping the fight. I felt a little bad seeing the situation.

The guy who parked the car on the road and that guy’s family members were also not in their home at that moment.

His wife came outside and tried to control him but failed. Then she called his sister, who is staying on the same road.

His sister and her husband came running but could not manage the fight immediately.

After almost 1.30 hr fight, it was somewhat controlled.

This guy never parks vehicles like that. But his road was blocked due to the Ganesha festival, so he parked on the road itself.

Just for a small reason… some big fight happens.

Luckily, this guy’s sister and her husband came and controlled the fight.

In house construction, most users face at least a few disputes during their construction time.

We had a big verbal fight with our electrical contractor in our first building.

In our second building, we had zero verbal fights.

The reason?

It could be a good time.

Or

We learned a lot of lessons in our first construction and never repeated any such mistakes in our second construction.

Multiple differences come between us and our contractors. However, all such differences have been handled successfully with the help of my house construction tracking system.

A tried and tested method to control any disputes between you and any contractor.

If you need to learn that skill yourself, head to:

https://houseconstructionguide.com/house-construction-tracking-system/

1 more floor on 20 year old building, is it ok?

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Yesterday, I got the following question from one of my customers:

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Hi Arun, my house is a 20 year old constructed property. It’s a 2bhk independent house with 1200 sq. ft in ground floor. 

Do you think it wise to construct the 1st floor and terrace with a pent house now and give the ground floor for rent?

I am going through all your materials and it’s really helpful.

Regards,
Dileep

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I Miss This Thing for My Daughter

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Yesterday, while I was going from my Home office (second building) to our first building on the back side door, I noticed something behind our house.

That is, neighbour kids were playing on a cloth swing in front of their house on the first floor…

All those kids were laughing too loud, and it got my attention.

Suddenly, I thought I needed to do the same in our house so our kids could play.

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