At what point in your first BRRRR do you interview contractors?

[Tyler Ruppert]

Hi,

My wife and I are getting started investing. We've targeted BRRRR to make our money go further and have been studying up for a couple months. It's time to make the dive and find a property, but I've got one question that nobody else seems to ever have asked. At what point do you start interviewing contractors?

I know we need to build up a team including the real estate agent, property manager, lender, and contractor. All but the contractor make sense to build relationships ahead of time, but in order to interview a contractor, don't we need a house first for him to view and give us a scope of work and bid? I'm confused as this seems like a chicken and egg situation to me. We want a contractor's opinion before closing on the house, but with our fist house, we don't yet have a contractor we trust.

Any insight is greatly appreciated!