The Shortcut to Trust: Finding the Right Pro Without the Guesswork

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. Our guest is Chet Hardaway, the owner and founder of FindAProLLC.com. We talked to Chet about why he created this website, which is a way to find all types of tradesmen in our area that he has already interviewed, vetted, checked out, and made sure they were licensed and all of that stuff, which is better than just going to Google and seeing who pops up behind it.

We also talked to Chet about his experience as an appliance repair person over the last 16 years and which appliances he has in his house, and which appliance does he think are the most reliable. We also talked to him a little bit about mistakes homeowners make when it comes to their washing machines, their refrigerators, and their dryers.

So if you wanna know how to make your appliances last longer and which appliances are the most reliable, listen in.

[00:01:00] Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today’s episode we have Chet Hardaway, the founder and owner of FindAProLLC.com. We’re gonna talk a little bit with Chet about what that is, which is a way to find tradesmen in your local area that have been vetted by Chet and his team.

And we’re gonna talk a little bit about his background in appliance repair. He’s been in the appliance business for 16 [00:02:00] years. Some common mistakes that people make in choosing appliances and whether to. Repair or replace as well as some of the other ideas he’s got coming up as he begins to expand, find a pro.

He also has done some social media marketing and some branding work for small businesses, and we might talk a little bit about that. We’ll see how much time we have. But before we get to that, we’d like you to like, follow, subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re seeing, whether it be on Apple, YouTube, Spotify, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, or any of the other social media channels of The Best of Johnston County Podcast.

The Best of Johnston County podcast coming out for well over two and a half years now by the time this one runs right at two and a half years. And we’ve had a lot of great guests. We’re well over 120 episodes by now. So go back and list some of the previous guests We’ve had, most of the county commissioners, we’ve had the county manager we’ve had lots of interesting businesses from just dog people.

We’ve had an, we had an EOS coach, we’ve had realtors. It’s fascinating program [00:03:00] we’ve got going here. If you love Johnston County as much as I do, this is the podcast for you. And we’d also like you to give us a five star review down below. It helps raise our visibility, which will help more people know about this podcast and help us get more great guests. Welcome Chet

Chet Hardaway: Thank you, Jonathan. Thanks for having me out today.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, no problem. No problem. So, tell me your name, what you do.

Chet Hardaway: Name is Chet Hardaway. I’m the owner and founder of FindAProLLC by Trade. I’m an Appliance, trades bin, but now I’m going into helping out other tradesmen, getting some work and, and making sure the homeowner out there gets taken care of.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright, well let’s talk a little bit where are you from? Where’d you grow up?

Chet Hardaway: So originally I grew up in a little town called Washingtonville, New York. If anybody is a wine corner soar, it has the oldest winery in America, the Brotherhood Winery. So I grew up in a tourist town. Lived there for 31 years.

Then about 12 years ago, my family and I decided to come down here into Johnston County. We started off in Smithfield, now we’re still in Johnston County in McGees, crossroads area. And it was just a change of pace. To be honest, New York, if anybody’s aware of New [00:04:00] York taxes are high. Price of houses is high. So it’s, it’s just a lot of things going on in New York that nobody ever retires and goes north. So that’s pretty much what I’ve heard many of times.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, the weather’s better here too.

Chet Hardaway: Absolutely. Not about, not today, but

Jonathan Breeden: Right, right. The weather, the weather’s definitely,

Chet Hardaway: generally speaking. Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. The weather’s definitely better here today. So how did you get started in the appliance business

Chet Hardaway: Basically I was just in Lowe’s home improvement store in New York. I was just basically a handyman at that time, doing kind of odds and ends. I was young in my early twenties and a gentleman met me in Lowe’s and we were, I was looking at a refrigerator for the house and he says, you know, hey, hey, you know, you know anything about this stuff.

I said, not really. I’m looking at it just like you. And he says, well, I’m an appliance company and I want you to see if you want to come and help me. This new technology’s coming out with Samsung and LG and I don’t want to relearn all this new stuff they have coming out. So we had a couple conversations and then two weeks later I’m working with them and I went to school for LG and Samsung first because that was the biggest thing that he didn’t wanna [00:05:00] step into.

He was just, the old school Maytag guy wanted to work on Maytag’s, Whirlpool’s, Frigidaire’s, GE’s, and that was it. So I went through that co. I went through that training for several years, and then I got to the point where he was like, Hey, Chad. I think you’re good enough to go back out on your own. I don’t wanna hold you back.

And he gave me an opportunity to move out. Once I started my first business, he was very supportive. He actually helped me go to different schools for Frigidaire, GE, Electrolux, all those companies. So it was really cool to have somebody as a mentor from the beginning. I don’t know where he is now, but

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Chet Hardaway: He was a good mentor.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s cool. Cool.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: So you did learn. I guess about each individual appliances you went to, the schools provided by those particular appliances.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: When you came to North Carolina, did you stay in the appliance business?

Chet Hardaway: I did. When I came down here, I was still in the appliance repair business. I actually opened up a business down here at close of business in New York. And yeah, I stayed in the trade. Never really stopped, always did things here and there. Get a lot of questions from folks that will reach out to me, family members, friends, things of that nature. But I, [00:06:00] I’ve been in the industry growing up on 16 years now.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you. So when did you decide to start this sort of new thing, Find A Pro LLC, and why?

Chet Hardaway: Okay. Well, Find A Pro came out because I had several people in the community that would call for appliances and they would say, Hey Chet, do you know a plumber? Do you know an electrician? I’m like, well, not really.

And they say, well, you know, usually what I found is most folks work. I’m just gonna Google. I’m just gonna go down Google and see who I come up with. So my general concern was, do you really know who you’re getting? Are you gonna go to one of these big groups where it’s just kind of first come, first serve? Whoever grabs it out, the queue gets it.

I wanted to have more of a local feel. So what I decided to do was build a network of plumbers, electricians, carpenters, painters, appliance men that are all vetted license and ensure it in their discipline and bring ’em to the local area. Just so the basically to eliminate the guesswork to save time.

You know, for me, time is valuable for, I’m sure for you time is valuable and for everybody out there, time is valuable. So to be able to [00:07:00] go to my webpage, put in your basic information, we get you out to somebody right away and there’s none of that guesswork. So it kind of helps that.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So you’re sort of a middleman for people who need tradesmen.

Chet Hardaway: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And so you have gone out and built a team of tradesmen that you know, like and trust.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: And you’re putting those tradesmen on FindAProLLC.com if somebody goes there, what do they need to do if they go there? If they need one of these tradesmen?

Chet Hardaway: Yeah. Basically you just go to the website, which is www.FindAProLLC.com just as a basic landing page. Just ask for your name, phone number, email address, and the scope of work that needs to be done. It comes over to be my team, and we get somebody to work on that discipline for you, whatever.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And then, if I have a problem with the person you sent, these are not your employees. These are people that are.

Chet Hardaway: Subcontractors.

Jonathan Breeden: They’re subcontractors, right. Okay. Right. And if I have a problem, are you gonna stand behind their work or are they gonna work directly [00:08:00] with the person who provided the work?

Chet Hardaway: I would stand behind it. It would probably be in conjunction with the individual, but if there are any issues, I would prefer them to come to me so we could take care of them right there on the spot.

Jonathan Breeden: I gotcha you.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you. So how many different trades people are you working with right now? I know it’s fairly new.

Chet Hardaway: Yeah. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Only been on about seven months.

Chet Hardaway: Yeah. We’re all major. So we have plumbing, electrical, HVAC, carpentry painting and of course appliance repair.

Jonathan Breeden: And I think you also work for general contractor.

Chet Hardaway: Yes. There is a general contractor great guy Fabiano, he’s out there and out there somewhere, probably watching this right now, but he is a general contractor and he helps me also sometimes connect the people, connect the dots.

And he’s been great to work with and we’re doing well so far. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Well that’s great. That’s great. That’s great. And so far, the clients that have used Find a Pro, you haven’t had any complaints, I think you told me.

Chet Hardaway: No, not yet. Everybody’s been satisfied, especially with the response time. You know, like I said earlier, when you go, some companies.

You put your question out there and it takes two days to get a [00:09:00] response, or, you know, by the time that’s come, you know, it’s, it’s taken up a lot of time. So coming to the FindAPro LLC website just eliminates the wait time and then gets the efficiency going right away.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So you’ve been in the appliance business for 16 years? We’ve all got appliance stories, right? These are, you never know when they’re gonna break. They’re expensive. They’re necessary. What are some of the common mistakes you see homeowners make that would make their appliances last longer?

Chet Hardaway: I would say if we were to talk, basically, let’s just start with a refrigerator.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Chet Hardaway: Or a nicer refrigerator, right. So, I was having a conversation with someone earlier who was saying, you know, I had a repairman come out and it ended up being low on Freon. I got a new one, so to keep in mind, most manufacturers, I believe most still have this, they have a five year sealed system warranty.

So if you, within the first five years and you have that low gas leak manufacturer will send somebody out to verify it and then replace compressor, evaporator, whatever it needs to be done full up, [00:10:00] refill the Freon and now you’re good to go. But then you also have to keep in mind that sometimes the parts for a refrigerator have a 10 year, possibly it’s a compressor.

So once again, manufacturer would come out, verify. You would get the part, but you have to find somebody to put the labor and to fill it up with the Freon. So those are the kind of things I think a lot of folks don’t know is to always check your warranty. Just for those things, ’cause most of the time if it’s out of warranty for a fridges, just kind of not worth doing the SEAL system. But if it is a warranty, you may not necessarily know unless you have the owner’s manual or that particular person checks it out for you.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well that’s a thought. One of the big things of appliances, and you’ve had to answer this question 5 million times. Repair, replace. What would be your advice to people when you’re asked that question, whether it be refrigerators, washer, dryers, how do you go about saying whether they should repair it or replace it?

Chet Hardaway: I will stick with the kitchen just because that’s where the most investment is in your home. [00:11:00] Most of your appliances are right there in the kitchen, so we’ll just say something like a dishwasher. So I’ll go out to a dishwasher. A client is saying, well, you know, I’m not sure I’m on the fence. I’m thinking I might wanna go to this brand or that brand.

And I always like to give ’em the information of, Hey, you know, your kitchen’s beautiful, it’s got all this lovely stainless steel. If you’re gonna go somewhere, you might wanna stay in the same family. And they’re like, why? And I’m like, because of the tone of stainless. They said, what do you mean? I said, if you start mixing the matching, you will see a difference in that stainless, even though it’s all stainless steel.

There are different tones for different manufacturers. I always let them know what the price will be to, to fix it. We have a conversation if you do want to replace it. I always recommend staying with the same family, so everything looks seamless.

Jonathan Breeden: Huh. Okay. That’s interesting.

Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com [00:12:00] for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: Now which families do you think are more reliable than others? I know consider reports is out there.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I’m talking about somebody who’s repaired everything for 16 years. You know. What do you have in your house?

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: That might be one question.

Chet Hardaway: There you go. In my house, it’s Whirlpool. Actually. It’s all Whirlpool. And I don’t wanna say anything bad about any of the manufacturers, but I can say this, I can tell you it has the lowest failure rate that I’ve seen over time.

So, basically any of the Whirlpool family, Whirlpool actually owns Maytag, Whirlpool, and a couple other manufacturers. Then you have your Electrolux, which owns Frigidaire and things of that nature. So it’s all about, if you look for reliability, I would say the ones I see the least would be like your Whirlpool family also has kitchen underneath their blanket there.

Electrolux is a great brand, but I would say if you’re thinking it’s kind of, you say that cause for different appliances, there’s [00:13:00] different manufacturers. Like if you’re gonna get a dishwasher, I always recommend a Bosch. It’s pretty much what their staple appliance. is. They’re right in Newburgh, North Carolinas, where they make their dishwashers and get ’em out there.

So those are the products that I like to say that had the least failure and you’re gonna be the most satisfied with.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright. And I’ve heard Whirlpool before, you’re not the first person to talk about the you know and that’s kind of neat ’cause they’ve been in it for forever.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, Whirlpool’s been around for over a hundred years, I think.

Chet Hardaway: A long time.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. So, well that’s kind of neat. What other are there things that mistakes you see homeowners make, not in just like that they may bring on a repair because they did something that’s fairly common that you would tell people don’t do.

Chet Hardaway: Yeah. I mean.

Jonathan Breeden: Overload the washing machine. I don’t know.

Chet Hardaway: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Overload the refrigerator. I have no idea. I’m just thinking of things?

Chet Hardaway: Speaking about laundry. Yes, that can happen. I personally, in my home, I have a Speed Queen, which is a really great brand.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s what I have at my house. Speed Queen.

Chet Hardaway: Speed Queen. Very reliable. It’s a great [00:14:00] brand. 25 years worth of service in it depending on what series you get, you do get extended warranties. So there’s a three series for three years of warranty. Full warranty. There’s a five series and the seven series, which have corresponding warranties as well.

But I would say if we were to speak about laundry, the biggest thing is overloading in a top loader. It’s not as severe as a front loader. Now, a front loader is, you know, just like you see. In the laundromats, you don’t wanna shove it all the way full, put your knee in it, you know, kick it and get it kind of all in there because all that weight is going to make a difference on the tub itself.

So when you’re doing the top load, it’s kind of going this way and it gets a little swayed. You can you, it will either auto correct or you can take some clothes out. Correct it with a front loader. It’s just going like this. So the more weight you have in there, the more stress it’s putting on that inner basket, and eventually it will give way.

I’ve seen it as soon as six months just from folks using a residential front loader, like it’s actually a commercial.

Jonathan Breeden: Huh? That’s interesting. [00:15:00] Well, I’ve never thought about that.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: What about dryers? Anything you can do to make dryers last longer?

Chet Hardaway: Clean the lint trap, I mean, that’s number one. Dryers are really basic no matter what brand you get, or manufacturer. Dryers are the most basic things that you can learn on and things you can have in your home that will last the longest. Not a whole lot of parts going on there, not a whole lot of things going, but the biggest thing for a dryer is please clean that lint trap, because if you don’t, there are some fuses in there, the thermal fuse, things of that nature.

What happens is if that heat builds up and it does blow the thermal fuse, usually you have no heat. Sometimes on some brands it’s just dead altogether. It won’t even cut you press power and nothing. So keeping that lint trap always clean. And also having your ducks clean for dryers too, they recommend every 18 months to two years.

I would say depending on use, if you’re having a little run from your wall right outside, you know, you can check it every year or whatever, but if you know you have a long run where you’re [00:16:00] going from one side of the house to the other, or which you sometimes go straight up. That’s when you find burden us and things like that sometimes, but when it goes straight up or out in the long run, you wanna have somebody professionally come out and clean that out, you know?

At least I would say 18 months would probably be the next.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right. Refrigerators?

Chet Hardaway: Refrigerators. The biggest thing on refrigerators is the bells and whistles. So some folks might remember out there where they had the refrigerators with the televisions on them.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah.

Chet Hardaway: And you had the televisions on ’em. You could watch TV while you were, I don’t know, looking at your refrigerator. I never really got where they did that. And the issue with that was actually is years ago. We’ll just say Samsung, right? Samsung had a TV on the door. The funny thing was you could have a Samsung certified person come out, but they also had to be certified in television to work on it.

So you can go out there for a refrigeration issue that turns out to be a television issue, but now you’re running back and forth with texts. Now some companies have techs that can do both. [00:17:00] Some do, some don’t. So that was kind of the strangest thing I saw. And they even have fridges now. The higher end, like subzero, we can actually see right through this.

You know, it has a glass partition. So refrigeration just not a lot of bells and whistles. Simplicity is bliss on refrigerator. You know, some folks want to have, you know, it’s just the bells and the whistles really just your basic refrigerator. If you don’t need turbo, cool. If you don’t need all these crazy things. Just stick to the basics and you’ll have longevity.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I tell you what, I bought a refrigerator that has a double ice maker. And I’m in love.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I’m in love with the refrigerator because now I’m never out of ice.

Chet Hardaway: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: Because I’ve got an icemaker at the bottom. I got an ice maker in the door. It’s great. I had a friend recommend that to me, and so I would highly recommend the double ice maker for anybody, especially if you got kids and everything. And you host gatherings at your house and their friends are there or, you know, like you’re never gonna run on ice.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: You live a double ice maker.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: You don’t have to go buy bags of ice in the grocery store as much anymore.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: [00:18:00] So I’m a big fan of the Double Ice Maker

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: in my new refrigerator I got a few years ago.

Chet Hardaway: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Well cool. So, how would people reach out is findaprollc.com. Does it, is there phone number? Is it just a website?

Chet Hardaway: It’s just the website makes it easy. What gotta do is, just like you said, go to www.findaprollc.com goes right to our landing page. Just need a name, phone number, email address, and the scope of work, and we’ll get you connected with the right professional, come out and take care of you.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s great. Last question we ask everybody on this podcast. What do you love most about Johnston County?

Chet Hardaway: The people and the sense and community. Sure

Jonathan Breeden: I would agree with that. The people are the best.

Chet Hardaway: People are really great. You know, coming from New York down here, I didn’t really know what to expect. ‘Cause New York is, is kind of tough. Everybody, you know, kind of has that New York feel. So I didn’t know When I came down here, I did enjoy the move and like I said, we’ve been here for over 12 years and we love, we love the community.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well, that’s what everybody says. They love the people.

The community of Johnston County. We’d like to thank Chet Hardaway of findaprollc.com. So if you know, if you need [00:19:00] appliance or trade tradesmen whether it be plumbing or hvac or general contractors or anybody like that, go to findaprollc.com. Fill out the form. Chet has an entire team working with him of people that he’s vetted, that he knows does good work, that he’s gonna stand behind to help you out.

And you won’t just have to rely on Google. Like I said before, please like, follow, subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it, whether it be on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, or any of the other social media channels of The Best Johnston County Podcast. Give us a five star view down below that’ll help raise our visibility so more people be aware, made aware of The Best of Johnston County Podcast, and also tag us in your Instagram stories. Best of Johnston County. Until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds [00:20:00] another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.