Out of state investment- looking for contractors

[Joe Benson]

Hi, was just wondering if anyone knew of good contractors in the Providence RI area? Haven't bought a place yet, but I live about 30 mins north of Boston and have been looking to purchase a rental property in Providence because the greater Boston area has become pretty inflated. I don't really know anyone down in the Providence area so figured it'd be a good idea to start looking for contractors now as I would still be living in MA when I do buy a place and won't likely be able to go down to the property more than 1x/week. 

[Anthony Thompson]

@Joe Benson it's generally very hard to find good contractors who can respond in a timely manner these days, there's just too much demand. I know great guys who are just overwhelmed, they don't return calls or texts because they're swamped and already have jobs lined up for the next 2-3 months. And I've heard from a lot of investors who have trouble even getting quotes for jobs.

If you're going to own from afar, you might consider hiring a property management company. It will certainly cost more than if you were managing yourself and trying to get individual contractors/handymen to take care of issues, but such a company will already have those people on staff and enough jobs to keep them available for when something comes up at your property.