Dealing with contractors

[John Korn]

I have a contractor in charge of a complete rehab on a single family home and I was wondering how often you communicate/stop-in on and meet with your contractors?  He is moving at a slower pace then I would like for sure and doesn't follow up as fast as i'd like.  

How hard to you start pushing them and micro-managing?  

[Patricia Steiner]

Do you have a project plan?  It's an absolute must-have, must-do, must-manage from.  Each task/job within the rehab is noted and scheduled out - with start dates and completion date.  You manage from it.  I speak with my contractors daily - not to micro-manage them but see how the day went, where we are on the schedule, what came up that wasn't expected, and more.  It takes 10-15 minutes.  Normally, they call me to give a status.  I recommend that you sit down with the contractor and ask him for his project schedule and review completion time and dates.  I pay my contractors based on task/job completion of the project so they get paid as the job gets completed.  If you're paying per week whether the plan was met or not or on some non-job completion status, what's the sense of urgency to get the job done?