motivating contractors - tips and experiences

[George P.]

working on the latest house (buy and hold) and my main contractor is not living up to my expectations. I have used him before a few times and did not have a problem. In the past, he'd quote something and i had him do it. Then he worked on my basement and i made the mistake to pay him hourly.

This job, i had him quote it and started having problems from day one. He'd say "it wil take a day", and it's been 3 weeks. or "I'll be there", and comes for 45 mins before he leaves. the latest example is. he said "you get the 3 windows and i can do exterior trim (25ft), tuck pointing, enlarge and finish windows, and replace 4 window sills in 1 day. I told him he was nuts to think he could do it in 1 day. Sure enough, they busted the window openings, attached the windows and "had to leave because it was "end of the day". they worked for under 3 hrs.

The reason i also hired him (he tried applying for one of the houses but ended up buying a house on his own), is that he has a day job, so he just works after hrs.

Because it's taking him a long time, i had to give out some of his items to other contractors. He stated that he is losing money and the job is getting smaller and smaller. So, he feels that there is no incentive to come over anymore since the job is too small.

But we are talking about - enlarging 3 windows and replacing the windows, 3 slabs of concrete replacement, tuckpointing about 100 ft of crack, drywall work, plumbing the house, garage siding, etc.

I have hard time motivating him. i think he tries to keep some of his buddies contractors happy and they are taking longer than he expected.

I dont want to lose him as a contractor. When they worked on my basement, it was a good relationship. I think they worked slow (hourly fee), but I'd like to use him again.

what do you do to motivate these guys? cash incentive for completed job? multiple contractors?

[J Scott]

Originally posted by George P.:

J Scott is right, but he is saying it becuase he has a great crew that he could rely on. most of us are not in that boat and struggle to find good help/people.

As Aaron (who is my GC) said above, I've gone through LOTS of contractors before getting to the crew I currently have. And even my current crew experiences a bit of turnover here and there, either because they aren't continuing to live up to the expectations we set or because I am able to find guys who are significantly better.

Some examples:

The guy I used on my first project was much like your guy -- he was a glorified handyman who tried to do everything himself and just wasn't qualified to do it. The project took about 3x as long as it should have, and the quality suffered. The only good side was that the guy underbid the project, so it least it was inexpensive for the work that was completed. Ultimately, I had to let him go.

My second project, I used a GC who had literally decades of experience in home building, but had never done renovations before. He couldn't figure out how to efficiently rehab a house without knocking it down and starting from scratch. And because he was losing money on the deal (he underbid the price), he decided not to pay one of his subs about $4000. Luckily, I had the contracts in place to help me avoid having to pay out of pocket, but it did cause a great mess.

On my fourth project, against everything I already knew, I hired an unlicensed and uninsured guy to replace my HVAC system. While the first half the work he completed just fine, he actually convinced me to pay him upfront (ahead of the work) for some materials on the second half. Never saw him again, and lost $600 -- the first and last time I paid an unknown contractor ahead of work completed. While I won the small claims suit, I'll never be able to collect (I did get my "revenge"...I can be a spiteful SOB).

This is just a sample of the contractor mistakes I've made, so while it's true that I no longer have the sorts of problems you mention, it's not because I'm lucky or because I'm some genius when it comes to contractors. It's based on experience and making mistakes.

The biggest thing I've learned is, if your gut tells you it's time for one of your contractors to go, don't hesitate -- get rid of him that day.