When should you start looking for a contractor

[Louis Van Der Westhuizen]

Hello BP and Happy 2019.

This may seem obvious, but as a new REI interested in flipping (have no deals at present and no team yet) when should I start looking for a good contractor? I assume I wait until I have a property under contract and then get bids based on the specifics of the property, but that would seem to be a potential delay and could result in longer hold time. So do you start looking earlier even when you have no deals yet?