He put together a crew to fix up houses he was buying. We wanted to finish our attic (split level, so pretty big). We already had a quote from a contractor that was $50k+; our friend said no, that's ridiculous, he'll charge us at cost for his guys to keep them working when they're not working on one of his houses.

only problem is he started taking jobs for other people too (instead of just his own houses) and putting them first, so our job became the job that they were doing only when we'd badger him, and streaks of work usually lasted a week or less. Constant promises of we'll be there next week, we'll get this done, etc. In the end it took four years and my wife saying to him 'you will finish this job before the baby comes or we'll get someone else' to get anything like a regular work schedule out of him/them for the last few months. Certain things never did get done, some things got done poorly (the ceiling, especially which irks the shit out of me with all its cracks, poor seams and patches, which I guess is what happens when only one guy on the crew shows up and tries to do a ceiling himself), much of the painting needed touching up, etc. Ended up costing us I think $43k or so; probably would have been better off taking the original contractor's quote.