How to hire rehab contractor?

[Jeff Cliff]

Hello,

I am in escrow for a property requiring major rehab work. My intention is to rehab it rent it and keep it for the retirement so not planning to spend a lot of money upfront, even though the property has a lot of potential. 

I am able to find general contractors and architects from houzz, homeadvisor and yelp. I am going pretty much based on the reviews off of those sites however I have also had experience with some other hires in the past where they have stellar reviews from friends and family but the job was bad to mediocre at best. Hence, it is important I interview them and find the one I feel may do a good job. 

I have two questions

1) Do I need an architect or a general contractor? 

2) What kind of questions should I ask rehab architect/contractor?

Thank you in advance for your response.

[Ryan Saldanha]

@Jeff Cliff

Here are some questions you need to ask your general contractor.

1) How many years have you been in business? (Make sure their LLC is active)

2) How many people are you in your crew?

3) When can they start?

4) Are you okay with providing a labor only quote?

(They can buy the materials through your Home Depot pro account and do phone sales. This way you control the materials and there’s less money changing hands with the labor only contract.)