u/Eric_Strawmann

He's an international student from Latin America. I met him properly about 6 months ago at a party where he was DJing, I was just admiring him from a distance, honestly didn't expect him to come talk to me after his set, so I felt lucky. He's genuinely the most amazing person I've ever met. He pays his own tuition here in NZ, DJs, makes clothes for me, and is the most emotionally attentive, emotionally intelligent person I've come across. He'd been in a relationship before; this is my first, so I was a bit more unstable going in. But every time something hit me hard, wether it was my dog passing away, my parents fighting or random spirals, he was so calm and logical about it. I genuinely see him as an inspiration, and he says the same about me.

Last month was my birthday. He knew I loved planes, so he got me an introductory flight lesson and took me to an instrumental music concert in the city... we were the only people under 30 there, which was funny.

Here's the thing though. We both smoke weed. I'm not addicted, I use it occasionally with him or friends, maybe a couple times a month, always in safe settings. He used it back home too, but only low-concentration stuff, and he stuck to that until his supply ran out. After that he switched to smoking it the way people do here, which hits harder and faster. The first few times he was pretty paranoid. I thought he'd stopped using it after that, until someone sent me a video of him smoking after DJing at a school party I couldn't make it to. He hadn't told me, which isn't like him. Then I found out he's been going to a friend's place almost every Friday to smoke, again, never mentioned it, just said he "went over there." When I asked him directly, he admitted it but said it wasn't something I needed to worry about.

What's actually worrying me is his business finances. I saw his reports from last week... he needs around $3,000 USD a month just to break even living here. The past 2 months he's been making way under that, and this month it dropped to $2,600. When I brought it up, he yelled at me for the first time ever and said he'd just ask his natural parents for support, before coming to my home unexpected 30 minutes later and genuinely crying because he was so sorry he lost control over himself and promised to change.

And this week, as far as I know, he's smoked only one time that I know of, he is trying, spends some time with me, talks to me more about how he feels and I helped him clean his room (which ended up with our first happy ending iykyk :D ) that had become a bit of a mess considering he used to keep it tidy.

I would want to know how can I help him a bit thru this time, I have the feeling it's heavier for him that what he lets off, maybe small stuff that motivate him??

Honestly not sure if we've maxed out our obvious lead channels or if there's still juice to squeeze before we need to look at new markets. Right now here's where our leads come from:

• Google LSA
• SEO/organic
• SMS follow-up on old leads (the automated thing my marketing guy set up)
• Referrals
• Door knocking when we're already working a neighborhood

We also gave Angi and a couple similar lead services a shot — total waste of time in my city. Lead quality was garbage and we never got close to profitable.

Here's the actual data:

Facebook Ads (last month, run by a freelancer)

• ~$2,000/mo spend
• ~$36 CPL
• 55 leads
• 31 actually contacted (via our SMS follow-up system)
• 15 appointments
• 4 sales

Google LSA

• ~$276 per sale (same guy managing it)
• 6 sales

SMS follow-up

• Usually 0-1 sales/month from old leads
• ~0.75 sales/month average over the last quarter

Door knocking

• Roughly $300-400 per sale, plus commission on top

We've got the crew capacity to handle more work, so it's not a growth-bottleneck problem. I'm just trying to figure out if I've basically tapped this market out already.

I feel like we've built out most of the obvious lead channels, but I can't tell if we've actually hit the ceiling in our market or if there are still opportunities I'm missing.

Right now our lead sources are:

• Google LSA
• SEO/organic
• SMS follow-up on old leads (automated system my marketing guy built)
• Referrals
• Door knocking while we're already installing in a neighborhood

We also tried Angi and a few similar lead services, and they were complete bullshit in my city. The lead quality was terrible and they weren't even close to profitable.

Here are some actual numbers:

Facebook Ads last month (managed by a freelancer)

• About $2,000/month in ad spend
• ~$36 CPL
• 55 leads
• 31 successfully contacted (using our automated SMS follow-up)
• 15 appointments
• 4 sales

Google LSA

• Around $276 per sale on average (also managed by that guy).
• 6 sales

SMS Follow-up

• Usually 0-1 sales per month from old leads.
• Averaging about 0.75 sales/month over the last quarter.

Door knocking

• Costs me roughly $300-$400 per sale, plus the commission.

We're in a good position where we have the crews and capacity to take on more work, so growth isn't the issue. I'm just trying to figure out whether I've already squeezed about everything I can out of my current market.

I started my pest control and roofing business back during the pandemic, going door-to-door with business owners in my small city (Immokalee, FL) to clean their facilities while operations were shut down. It was great, easy money, working in empty spaces with no one around also helped calm my nerves during quarantine. Those early commercial customers were much easier to close, and upselling them to a quarterly or tertiary visit program was straightforward.

Since then, we've grown and expanded, and my jobs are now mostly residential, which I find harder to close than commercial clients.

Two months ago, I started working with someone who promised jobs through Facebook ads. I gave it a shot with a $500 budget and closed 3 jobs, which let me break even. Last month, with a bigger budget, I got 6 jobs, but only 2 of those converted to a recurring plan, compared to my normal 40–50% conversion rate. I'm still making good money with this guy, but I'm wondering if this drop-off in recurring conversions is normal for this kind of lead source, or something I should push him to fix.

For context: in 2025, I converted 44.3% of residential jobs into recurring visits.

Here are the numbers from his most recent weekly report:

• $31.25 CPL
• 43 quality forms filled (qualified leads)
• 20 booked visits/estimates
• 6 jobs closed

I run sales for a medium-sized roofing company in northeast Georgia. A good friend recommended a guy who had been managing his Google LSAs, so we decided to give him a shot. We started with Google LSAs and Facebook ads on a smaller budget, and the first two months went really well. We ended up closing 8 jobs, so I doubled the ad budget to around $3k/month.

This third month is where things got messy, we expanded into a few new service areas that we hadn't targeted before. Since then, the Facebook leabs especially have dropped in quality. Lots of older homeowners with no real interest, people who filled out the form but never answered, duplicates, or people saying they never actually wanted a quote.

He sent me 22 leabs so far, but at least 6 of them were duplicates or completely dead from the start. Looking back through the invoices, I realized I paid for quite a few similar ones last month too.

Here's where it's on me:

Whn we first started working together, we never actually defined what counted as a billable leab. He charges $40 per one, but we never agreed on what qualified and what didn't. Between last month and this one, I've probably paid somewhere around $800-900 for ones that, in hindsight, I don't think should've been billed.

I brought it up, and to his credit, he apologized and admitted he should've sent over a qualified leab definition from the beginning. We've now agreed on exactly what counts as one going forward, so that part is fixed.

My problem is the money that's already gone. He's been good to work with overall, communicates well, and has definitely made us money. Closed 10 jobs with him so far so I'm not sitting here thinking he's ripping me off.

But $800 is still $800.

What would you do? ask him to credit or reimburse them? just chalk it up and continue? I don't want to potentially risk a good relationship over something partly my fault.

I’m in Southern California in an upscale suburban neighborhood that’s mostly retirees, and the HOA has been a nightmare since my family moved here in 2022. Before we bought the house, I specifically checked the HOA rules because I legally grow cannabis under California law. The rules said it was allowed as long as it was in an out-of-view area. I even asked the HOA what counted as "out of view," and they confirmed my backyard qualified and was outside the HOA’s authority.

Ever since we moved in, they’ve found reasons to harass us over just about everything. At one point they even got the school bus stop moved over 100 meters farther away so my kids, who are basically the only children in the neighborhood besides one other family, had to walk farther. When I asked why, the HOA representative actually told me school buses create a "disruptive and unharmonious environment" because of the noise and because they bring kids in from other neighborhoods.

Earlier this year I received a notice ordering me to remove my six cannabis plants because they supposedly lowered surrounding property values. I wrote back explaining that the plants were in my backyard, which the HOA itself had already confirmed was not a public-view area. I never heard another word and assumed that was the end of it.

Then last Wednesday I was served with a lawsuit seeking $48,750 in fines. $250 per day for 195 days, for "failure to remove prohibited public-view vegetation."

The craziest part is that they attached copies of several warning letters they claim I ignored. Every single one was addressed to 14218 instead of my address, 14281. The other house is vacant and a few streets away.

I hired an attorney thinking this would be an easy mistake to clear up. When my attorney called the HOA manager, she admitted they had my correct email address the entire time because I had already responded to the original notice months earlier. She even found my email while they were on the phone. Her response was basically, "The board already voted to proceed, so you'll have to explain it to the judge."

I also asked why they suddenly considered my backyard to be in public view after previously telling me it wasn't. Their answer was that the plants were visible on Google Earth. They just kept repeating that it was between me and the judge now.

I still don't understand how they think they can rack up nearly $50,000 in fines over six plants that nobody standing outside my property could even see.

My wife thinks the judge will throw the case out as soon as they see all of the notices were mailed to the wrong address. I'm hoping she's right, but I've already had to hire an attorney just to defend myself.

Has anyone ever dealt with an HOA taking something this far?

https://preview.redd.it/m49ha2n1tuah1.png?width=1044&format=png&auto=webp&s=ccfa26453770012b476b6ca3e079428f508ee4c2

Unrelated but I met my current marketing guy while doing some cleaning work at his condo complex about 2 months ago now.

We got to talking and he said he could help me get some clients through FB Ads. I was and still AM skeptical honestly because I tried boosting posts and an in-home strategy before but not much out of it honestly.

I gave him a shot with a small budget and we've been running ads for 37 days now with a small budget ($20 a day/ad) and the numbers look liek this currently:

• 22 leads
• 36.3k views
• CPL $22.7
• Reach 28.2k
• 655 link clics

What I find weird is that the number of clicks (suposed to be roughly similar to leads???) is roughly 30x bigger than the actual number of forms we received.

Out of those 22 I closed 5 (3 cleaning, 1 renovation, 1 installation) that came to about $28k altogether.

Is that good? All of this was during his "test month" where he charged little and $40/lead so we grossed about $25k with him.

I know the most logical next thing is going bigger for next month, but I am scared that he will lower the guard or put less focus on our campaings, beside, 22 actual forms out of 600 seems kind of not optimized to me.

Unrelated but I met my current marketing guy while doing some cleaning work at his condo complex about 2 months ago now.

We got to talking and he said he could help me get some clients through FB Ads. I was and still AM skeptical honestly because I tried boosting posts and an in-home strategy before but not much out of it honestly.

I gave him a shot with a small budget and we've been running ads for 37 days now with a small budget ($20 a day/ad) and the numbers look liek this currently:

• 22 leads
• 36.3k views
• CPL $22.7
• Reach 28.2k
• 655 link clics

What I find weird is that the number of clicks (suposed to be roughly similar to leads???) is roughly 30x bigger than the actual number of forms we received.

Out of those 22 I closed 5 (3 cleaning, 1 renovation, 1 installation) that came to about $28k altogether.

Is that good? All of this was during his "test month" where he charged little and $40/lead so we grossed about $25k with him.

I know the most logical next thing is going bigger for next month, but I am scared that he will lower the guard or put less focus on our campaings, beside, 22 actual forms out of 600 seems kind of not optimized to me.

Also everyone on this subreddit is freaking out about Meta not bringing results so I also think this can be mere luck??? please let me know.