Developing an Investor Friendly Contractor-Is There an Ultimate Guide?

[Sandy Uhlmann]

We have that wondeful, concise (ha ha!) article letting Realtors know how investors think and what they want/need from Real Estate Agents, I was wondering if there was a similar article that I could give to my contractor or any potential contractor that explains what things are important when working with investors? It would be great to have contractors see things through the eyes of an investor. Of course, I could sit down and have a long discussion with my contractor about these items but to have an article in hand makes things seem so much more legitimate. These investor friendly individuals would be great candidates for the "Angie's List" or "Better Business Bureau" part of BiggerPockets if this every becomes a reality.

[Carl Schmitt]

Sandy,

Having parents that have flipped houses and being a GC myself, I feel like I can at least give my opinion from both sides. The biggest key, in my opinion, is to make the relationship mutually beneficial. I don't know if you necessarily need articles to tell the contractor what you want. Tell the contractor what you want done. If it were me, I'd want all pricing to be locked in up front, change orders in writing BEFORE the work is done, not after, and of course, better than retail pricing. In return, if I was the contractor, I'd want to know that I was your contractor for every project(provided I do a good job on the first one). Like it or not, I'm going to go out of my way to make the guy with tons of work happier than the guy that wants one window installed for $50 and never calls me again.

If you can build that kind of relationship with a contractor, you won't have to worry about ever having the conversation again. You can get to the point where you have fixed pricing on every job so your estimated costs are your actual costs when the job starts.

[Mike Walker]

@carlschmitt You hit it on the head. A contractor who consistently performs on time, on an investor's budget with good results is always a keeper. Nobody wants to lose that guy!

Sound advice. I know some investors band together to negotiate favorable pricing for a volume discount.