Hiring a contractor? Get lots of bids!

[Mike B.]

The vets here are well aware of this and its often mentioned in the volumes of educational materials everywhere. It was no sprise to me, even though this is my first flip project, because i have hired out for dozens of projects on my own residences. For those just starting out or planning on rehabbing, hopefully its helpful.

I thought I would share some real, current examples of the variances in job bids from contractors. The following bids are for work in central VA. The actual work request and bids were for the same house, the same exact job/material request for the most part:

Replace Roof (5 bids). 3600, 3800, 4600, 4700, 6110

Upgrade Electrical Panel to 200A (5 bids): 950, 1185, 1250, 1400, 1400

Vinyl Siding (3 bids): 6500, 11000, 12650

Replacement Windows (2 bids): 5600, 7500

The range for the combined work for these 4 jobs alone is over $11,000.

This says nothing about the quality of the job that will be provided by each contractor, but as stated it is all for the same house, the same work request, and the same or comparable material/grades. All contractors are licensed, insured, have have no negative feedback trend that I could find (my own criteria).

The lesson for those new to rehabbing: spend the extra time to get multiple bids for the work you are farming out!

Mike

[Will Barnard]

This is a great post on a real life transaction. While I am a seasoned investor with experience, I must admit I do not get that many quotes for each item and mostly because I have subs and contractors that I have worked with for a long time and know I am getting the prices I should be. That being said, this is a great lesson to all to make sure you get multiple bids (at least two) so you have something to compare to.

The real hard decision is deciphering which contractor will do said work in the time allowed and at the quality you expect.

There is an industry rule of thumb that you can choose ONLY two of the following three: Price, speed, quality