Hiring a Contractor: Tips and Tricks?

[Emil Pinlac]

Hello Community! 

I had a couple of quick questions I wanted the Forum's insight and input on, specifically when it comes to hiring contractors to do rehab/project work on your investment homes. 

1) Can you (or should you?) bring Contractors in during the Due Diligence Phase - aka, during the Home Inspection phase? My thinking was that this could be a good idea, especially in a situation where a contractor would be able to provide some preliminary estimates or bids on how much a specific rehab or project would cost in conjunction with what the Home Inspector's insight would be. 

2) In order to save on both time and on costs - would it be better for you (the investor) to buy the materials for your contractor to use? Like - if there was a specific light fixture, or a specific luxury vinyl plank type you would want, would it be less time-consuming or cost-feasible to just get it yourself, or would it be better to just let the Contractor know exactly what kind of materials, and what kind of work you would want them to do?

I'm still very much learning about how all of this works, and I want to make sure I do it right, when I finally commit to the purchase of a property. 

Thank you so much.