Hiring Contractors how to find a good contractor

[John Hilton]

I'm looking for a GC in the DFW area. 

Where should I look for them? 

[Jason Coyle]

I am a investor only contractor in the DFW area, but if I were looking...

I think the first thing you should ask yourself is, in what capacity do you need help?

If you're a buy and hold guy and just need bits and pieces of work here and there, craigslist may be a good way to go. Sometimes you may only need a painter, and you could likely find a direct sub-contractor at a slightly lower rate than a GC. Same goes for light electrical, plumbing or drywall work and so on...

If you were looking for full scopes of work on rehabs, a GC is a much better way to go.

With a GC, you would have one point of contact who is responsible for ensuring the quality and completeness of the scope. Using individual subs requires a substantial amount of time, scheduling and the headache of dealing with a different person for each phase of work. Additionally, if any one of those people decided to not come back and correct something you weren't happy with, it gets really tough, and costly, to hire someone new to fix the previous guy's work.

Ideally, of course depending on what you're doing, I would look for a GC that understands real estate investment. There are many factors in finding the appropriate construction strategy for a property in any investment situation. What level of rent are you trying get? What are the comps for your flip and what did they include? What is the structure of your deal to help determine an appropriate budget to maximize your margins? These are things a good "investor friendly" GC would take into consideration when looking at your project.

Doesn't sound like any GC you've heard of? Well... I just might know a guy. :)