Pittsburgh Contractor Recommendations

[Isaac Sheehan]

Looking to purchase my first investment property and looking to gather some general contractor recommendations from the BP crew. Any and all recommendations are appreciated! Home will most likely be located in East Pitt.

[Jarred G.]

@Rex Petersen well I think it's exactly what you described. They're already busy at work. A lot of them are on bigger jobs than they've worked previously. To be clear, it is a very good thing that they have work. I've heard first hand from GCs that they're laborers are staying home because they "make more" - if that is a true pattern I'm not sure. I've also felt more of them stayed busy doing residential jobs for homeowners which we all know they make more than working with a savvy investor. 

I just know when I collected bids on a 25k rehab (significant SOW in my opinion) I had to scratch and crawl to get contractors. My request, as most investors, was for an itemized bid. I made it easy for them to access the property themselves or made a project manager available at their suggested time to tour together. And I've ALWAYS offered to pay contractors for submitted bids because I want them to spend time on their bid. I feel that is a service in itself. Anyways, when I did that I called, messaged, texted over 10 contractors. Most simply weren't available for many months - they are good contractors. My usual subs were available but for a GC I received run around from half - they didn't get back to me or were a no show. That's just the price of weeding them out in my opinion - not a problem with me. I got four to tour the job. 1 didn't even submit a bid, 1 submitted a labor price (not a proper bid IMO), 2 submitted itemized bids and one of those didn't pass my usual reference check. 

This is just my experience keep in mind. But in the local facebook groups and such it seems to be a theme. 

I'd love to hear of other's experience. Bottom line - if you have a good one, keep them busy.