Advice regarding "skilled labor costs"

[Jeremy Britt]

I will be using my wife's uncle to handle the "skilled labor" portion of my BRRR project. My concern is: he tends to be a little pricy in his quotes, however, the work he performs is top-notch, and he's always bringing new ideas and perspectives to his projects. My question is, What do you think is an acceptable percentage of the total project to offer him, in an effort to keep his labor costs down through out the process of the project.

I understand this may sound as if I'm being cheap, the fact is, yes I am trying to be somewhat frugal with labor costs throughout the project.  The property was purchased correctly, but I feel we should always be looking for way to cut costs without jeopardizing the nature of the project.  Thanks!

[Michael Dumler]

@Jeremy Britt "always bringing new ideas and perspectives to his projects" - while this may sound ideal and helpful during the rehab, you do not want him taking control over the project. At the end of the day, you need to provide him with a scope of work that will need to be completed, nothing more, nothing less. Stick to your original plan, do not add new fixtures or features to the property that you hadn't already planned for, otherwise, you run the risk of going over budget and extending the rehab past its projected completion date. Similar to that of any other rehab, I recommend you obtain quotes from other contractors as means of evidence to provide to your wife's uncle. Bringing family into business can get dicey and often you hear others advising against it. Hope this makes sense and helps!