Finding the right contractor

[Michael Kemp]

I'm excited to bring my 25-year contracting and flipping journey to Bigger Pockets with my first post. The most challenging question I have seen in my time is how do I find a good contractor? I'm no longer a general contractor trying to pitch a business so I hope this will be very insightful. I've walked into countless homes where the contractor made them worse or they ran with the money. I've had to listen to countless horror stories that give an entire industry a bad name. I'm now facing a family that has been burned and super skeptical of me as well. Well, they should be and they would be a fool to cut me a check on the spot to fix this mess. It breaks my heart that I have to give them a quote to start all over.

Bad contractors use to be able to do unthinkable things and get away with it for years. Thankfully, the internet has started to squeeze these guys out of business. But, they have ways to get around it like new DBA's and new towns. Fake reviews and websites are a real thing as well. What can you do to mitigate risk when hiring a new contractor for the first time? I've created a list that you may want to copy and paste for the future.

1. Look to your network. Go straight to friends, family, neighbors, and associates first. They are every amazing contractor's #1 referral network. Your inner network is going to tell you the truth about their experience with a contractor. Jump on Bigger Pockets, Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin and ask everyone you know. Ask the same questions on local Facebook swap groups as well. You would be wise to document owners and business names of the bad seeds as well. While your network may have the best of intentions, contractor's lives can change since the last experience they personally had. I've seen great contractor's go south during a divorce. That brings us to the next resource. 

2. Referral Platforms. Google and Yelp are great places to find good contractors with legitimate reviews from clients. Keep an eye out for contractors who say they have been in business for years, but only have five reviews. Go look at actual reviews and the date they were made. Screen your contractor referrals from your inner network on these platforms. It will give you an indication of how they are currently performing for clients. There is something to keep in mind here with old-school contractors. They may have relied solely on a referral network for decades. I know a few that have never cared about "dot com or the google" to rake in a great living. 

3. Recent Referral's. I always ask for the most recent referral from the last few jobs they have completed when hiring subs. This is an extremely important step if you don't want to get burned. A good contractor has no problems giving out numbers. A bad contractor will tell you that their clients don't want to be bothered. I don't know about most contractor's, but I became friends with my clients and they didn't mind.

4. Ask for photos of the referred work. It's time to play secret agent if you want to go this far with your own insurance policy. Contractor X gave you two referral's to call. Ask contractor X  for photos to be emailed of the work for each one.  You'll want to take a look at the photos, but that's no the secret agent part. Right click on the photo and left click on properties. Click the detail tab at the top of that screen. You should be able to see information that provides legitimacy to contractor X's claim. You will see the date that the picture was taken and the source of the photo. Why would anyone go through all of this? I can download as many project as I want and say they are mine and you wouldn't know it. 

I would like to say that the world is a wonderful place and everything is perfect. The biggest takeaway I hope you get from this due diligence. Sure, it might really suck to filter through all of these contractor's. A good contractor will be willing to accommodate you and your probing because they have seen so many people get burned as well. A bad contractor will check themselves off of your criteria list. I hope this post helps at least one person navigate into a successfully completed project. Feel free to reach out anytime.

You think a good contractor is expensive, try hiring a bad one.