To handyman, or act as my own GC, or spend for the GC?

[Aubrey Ford]

I purchased a "mostly" cosmetic fixer upper to live in for the next 12-18 months. The entire house needs a makeover and a few fixes.

I am not handy in the least, nor does my W2 job allow me the time to do the work myself.

Is it better to work via an app like thumbtack and work it bit by bit, vendor by vendor. OR get a GC to handle all the different trade folk? I like the idea of dealing with just one person and having them manage all the trades. But is the value there given I have 18 months to do all the work? Keep in mind I will be living here, so each room they work on I have to vacate during the work.  

[JD Martin]

Quote from @Aubrey Ford:

I purchased a "mostly" cosmetic fixer upper to live in for the next 12-18 months. The entire house needs a makeover and a few fixes.

I am not handy in the least, nor does my W2 job allow me the time to do the work myself.

Is it better to work via an app like thumbtack and work it bit by bit, vendor by vendor. OR get a GC to handle all the different trade folk? I like the idea of dealing with just one person and having them manage all the trades. But is the value there given I have 18 months to do all the work? Keep in mind I will be living here, so each room they work on I have to vacate during the work.  

 Depending on the nature of what needs done, *in general* a good contractor will cost you about the same thing as you acting as the GC yourself because they get better pricing from subs than you will get, and pocket the difference as profit. The difference is they're the ones hunting down all the subs and following up on shoddy work rather than you. That said, these days most good contractors are so busy you might be deep in line trying to get one to run a project. 

Saying that you are not handy in the least leads me to believe you could easily be snowed by bad subs and thus should have a good GC to look out for your interests.