finding contractors

[Account Closed]

I'm a DIYer trying to switch gears and hire the work out.   I set a very optimistic time line on my current project, largely because I want to see if I could use hard money and go quickly.  I know the issue of hiring contractors has been discussed frequently, but I am shocked at how difficult it is.  Not that I'm hiring bad ones.  I can't hire anybody at all.  Unless you have your own crew or relationships with people, forget about it.  

I can't get anybody to answer the phone.  out of 15 or so calls this week, not one person picked up the phone.  (there's a business idea there, being a coordinator for contractors who are lousy at managing their business).  When I leave messages, they don't respond.  I've gone through all the drywallers on angieslist and the yellow pages.  nada.  So far, I've had a grand total of two people show up to give me quotes.  One guy from craigslist showed up two hours late, shook his head and said "I hope you got a smokin deal on this place", as if he'd never seen a project house before.  He starts telling me how you have to remove trim to paint walls, and he'd need to rent a bobcat to fix the yard, which would cost me 1k plus 35 bucks an hour for his time, and even then he wasn't interested.  

The other company showed up and measured the windows and said they'd email me a quote.  That was two weeks ago and they don't return my calls.  

A tile guy quoted me a price of 15 bucks per square foot, and that's AFTER I've done all the prep work, laid the backerboard and taken down the trim.  I can lay it in about three hours myself.  If I don't make 125 an hour, I am not going to pay that for a pretty simple job.  I'm beginning to think that hiring contractors is harder than finding deals.  IF you do get someone to do something for your, they want an arm and a leg.  Is this how it usually goes?