How to pay contractors for my first flip in Queen Creek, Arizona

[Chris Keator]

After about 3 years of listening to podcasts and reading books, I finally got past my fear and closed on my first fix and flip 3 days ago. Had to write about 12 offers before I got this one. It was on the MLS. It's a pretty light job, needs new flooring, interior and exterior paint, resurfacing the kitchen cabinets, counter tops, landscaping and a few other minor things, doors, trim, broken toilet, ect. Bought it for 199k, estimating about 25k of rehab and it comps for about 262k and hard money will be around 10k. Hoping to net around 15k after commissions and closing costs. I've been getting quotes on all of the work and getting close to making a decision on which people I'm going to use. I want to have a contract signed before any work gets started so there is no miscommunication and the expectations are there.

My question is:

Does anyone have any standard contracts they like to use? And how do you work your draw schedule?

I've heard stories of people getting burned by paying their contractors up front for work, so I'm definitely not doing that, but I'm curious what everyone on here is doing? Keep in mind this will be my first time working with these people so I just want to be smart and fair at the same time.

Thanks in advance!

[J Scott]

The BiggerPockets book on Flipping Houses comes with a standard Independent Contractor's Agreement (and other docs) and talks about draw schedules and best practices.  

Here are two related articles:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/04/0...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/02/1...