Contractors -- A Short Primer (Part 1 of 3)

[Juan Diaz]

Contractors – A Short Primer

First, before I begin, let me reiterate that if you’re a first-time flipper you should not be doing anything more than a cosmetic flip for your first time. Only once you’ve gotten the hang of conducting the painting and minor repairs that come in cosmetic projects will you want to go on to more advanced projects. If you do follow that advice, you’ll only need to get quotes on paint and minor repairs for your first flip. However, the same process applies to finding someone to paint or someone to rebuild a foundation.

To begin with, unless you’ve been paid to do work on a house, you’re not a contractor. Even if you say to yourself, “All I need to do is paint. I can do that!”, do not attempt to do this flip yourself. Even though you may have experience running a brush over a wall, there’s a huge difference in time and quality between a professional paint job and someone painting their own wall. A professional texture and paint contractor will come in and perfectly texture the house in less than a week, and paint it with industrial-grade paint sprayer in less than another week. If you’re doing that same work on your own, you’re likely to take four times as long and leave ugly splotches and drips on the wall. Trust me on this: you will always be able to tell professional workmanship.

This same principle applies to most labor, whether it’s replacing a foundation or painting a wall. It’s always better to hire a professional, who will do a much quicker and better quality job than you will able to do, unless you yourself are a professional contractor. If you do want to save money on labor, the jobs that you will be able to do yourself are demolition and landscaping. All other work-foundation, framing, drywall, texture, finish-should be done by a professional.

There are many different kinds of laborers that you can hire-licensed general contractors, licensed contractors for specific elements of the building process, skilled craftsmen, and laborers. Different sets of repairs require different types of labor, but for the most part you’re going to want licensed contractors of some variety.

General contractors or GCs are licensed to conduct repairs on any part of a house. As you start taking on more demanding construction projects, general contractors will carry out the majority of your work. Contractors licensed for specific skill sets, such as electric or framing, are sometimes used as subcontractors by a general contractor, and will sometimes be used by you for specific sets of small repairs.

Skilled craftsmen are the backbone of the construction process, as they are workers who have experience with various aspects of the process and are generally able to carry out most repairs. These workers will be able to do some tasks on their own without the guidance of a licensed contractor, such as installing flooring, cabinets, countertops and fixtures, landscaping, texturing, painting and doing patching work or light repairs. They are usually also found in a GC’s crews and operating as individuals for hire. They make up the bulk of the construction workforce. As you’re doing work, you might need to hire separate sets of craftsmen for specific projects, including painting, texture, landscaping, and cosmetic repairs.

Laborers make up the last segment of workers that you’ll see during the construction process, and these workers are usually found in larger construction crews. They’re the ones who won’t have the same knowledgebase as the craftsmen, but they’ll be about to help in just about every aspect of the remodel. The only aspects of construction that you’ll be able to use solely laborers in are demolition and landscaping.