General Contractors: Hire one or be my own?

[Heather Shannon]

I am planning to buy a fixer upper and make it a B & B.  I'm torn about using a general contractor vs. doing the general contracting myself.

CONs of Hiring a General Contractor:

1. They are reputed to suck big time and not be very professional in terms of showing up on time, getting the project done on time or sticking to budget. The stress of this might kill me on a large-scale longer-term project.  In rehabbing my kitchen, the contractor was full of s@#$ and unprofessional, which was pretty stressful to deal with.

2. I just spoke with one general contractor who said their basic material kitchen remodels start at $25-30K.  I just did a kitchen remodel that I general contracted myself for $12K all-in and it even had quartz counters and marble backsplash.  I hate the idea of throwing money away.

PROs of General Contractor:

1. It will free up a lot of my time, especially if they're actually good.  I won't have to research, interview and get quotes from tradespeople myself.  I also don't know how to manage a timeline very well--what needs to happen in which order or how far in advance to order things.  Of course these are things I can research & find out . . . but with lots of time spent.

2. They can help me assess what can be done with the space & design it.  I have no idea how I'm going to figure out if walls can be moved or how the space can be best utilized/divided without them. I don't have access to 3D (or even 2D) layout software to help with this.  I'm good with spacial stuff, but just not experienced with it at all. Maybe I can hire a structural engineer or a designer for a consult?

What else should I be considering?  

Any good resources I should know about if I general contract it myself?