In the beginning, husband and I were debating on getting a pre-fab house vs a custom-built one "on the cheap". Decided to go with the latter. Got someone we saw out of a newspaper ad. Terms were good and references checked out. He even brought his father in one meeting and dad had nothing but great things to say about son. Money due was 20% downpayment at onset, then a certain amount in installments according to jobs finished. We would check on the status regularly, going to the parcela in Melipilla almost every weekend. After awhile, we noticed no progress was being made until work had come to a halt (days they should be working, we would drive out there and no one was onsite, they would then say they had just left, etc.). Then the guy started dodging our calls. Until one day the maestros working on the job said the "contractor" was planning to abandon us. The maestros were offering to take over but we refused. After a few weeks, we filed an incident report with the police but they said we didn't have a case.
We decided to go on with the project since the foundation was already half-built and we were intent on having a house (we considered moving out of the city since husband is able to work remotely). Now, we decided to get an Architect to be sure. Told him our story and said we decided to go with a licensed architect to avoid any more problems. We interviewed him and he gave us a photocopy of his license. Upon close examination, we realized it wasn't him in the picture! We confronted him and after awhile he admitted that he was using his brother's license. We couldn't believe it!

Trauma ensues so it was hard to even imagine moving forward with the project at that time. Then life got busy. We still daydream from time to time about building there someday but for now, we are shelving the project. We still visit the parcela, and have done mini-projects there (a dock, a multi-level patio) but building a house and moving there seems like such a hard thing to think of right now.
(... and that is why all those things for sale in the classified need to go. More recently, we moved to another departamento and have no storage for the things I listed.)
Anyway, I hope no one else will experience something like it. Makes one weak in the knees.