Helppp and about to give up on Contractors

[Luz Pagan]

I am currently rehabing one of the house I bought. However, I notice that the project is taking so long. The Contractor we are currently working an the only one that answered in our area has delayed so much and we are behind scheduled. He told me his guys were going to be working on the house this week since all the permits have been obtained. Today, my husband went to the resident and his employees were not working, the same thing has hapend on previous weeks. 

There are so many projects that could have been done while waiting for the permits, but he promise that once the permits were in, he will have his crew will finish the project soon. Today I texted him, as well as my husband. I just want to know if this is normal for any of you guys or should I fired the guy? 

I am having so much trouble finding contractors in the area that I am investing, it is horrible. I am thinking of just hiring the experts myself, rather than hiring a General Contractor to hire the crews. I am losing money as this house is not finish yet. Any advised will be welcome! Maybe I am too desperate to finish..

[Matthew Paul]

Originally posted by @Luz Pagan:

@Matthew PaulSo the question is: do you take more jobs than what you  can handle? If you take the job, do you complete it from start to finish? Or Do you jump from work to work in sn attempt to make progress in all of them?

No I dont take on more jobs than I can handle , As far as completing from start to finish , yes . BUT that doesnt mean being there every day , subs are there some days , sometimes they get delayed , inspections can take a day , two maybe 3 . The customer makes changes . We have 2 , 3 even 4 jobs going at the same time at different stages . One day I may send 1 man to your job , another you may have 4 guys . 

Of course we jump from job to job . when the drywall crew shows up , I am not going to stand there with 3 guys and watch them hang drywall . ( I will but I will be billing ) No we go and demo another job .  As a contractor I am maximizing my profit .  I am constantly reallocating resources . 

We have to deal with weather , inspectors , subs , suppliers .  Just last week , digging footers for an addition , 3/4 's of the way digging and my guy hits an abandoned septic tank . Boom , job stops , almost 2 thirds of the tank are in the addition , its a 1000 gallon concrete tank . It takes 3 days for the engineer to come out and look . A day to get prices for a crane to lift it out and arrange to have it hauled , thats now 2 weeks out . And it added 8 grand to the job .  Now I have to push back my block layer and framer .   

So now i have just added 2 to 4 weeks extra to a job due to delays beyond out control. There is nothing we can do on that job .  So now we go do a fill in job thats on the list .

This happens all the time , its a balancing act