5 tips to help you find a high quality contractor

People often ask me how to find an honest and competent contractor to help them with renovation projects. Here is a list of 10 tips to help you find a contractor in your area that can help you to make your next project a success. These tips have worked for me and my clients in the past, hopefully they work for you as well:

#1 Referrals: The best way to find a great contractor is through referrals, ask investors in your network or those that you meet on places like Biggerpockets, your local REIA etc who they use in order to get their projects done. If you’re considering a contractor you may also want to ask people in your network if they have heard of them to see if they have a reputation for overcharging clients, ripping people off etc.

#2 Angies list, Home Advisor etc: Take the reviews, and rankings that these sites provide with a grain of salt. Contractors on these sites typically pay a marketing fee in order to be exposed to the sites customer base. There is nothing wrong with advertising, but in my experience (and the experience of many of my clients) there are several contractors here that will over charge you.

#3 Location: When considering working with a local contractor, consider where their office is based. The contractor with the nice office in a nice zip code will often charge you a not so nice price. There work will probably be better than average but their costs are usually on the high end of the spectrum

#4 Red flags: Be wary of the contractor that operates a larger operation, does business across several territories, has a sales team, does heavy marketing, has a shiny new truck wrapped in vinyl etc. Some of these guys will pass on all of the costs of the aforementioned goodies to their customers by way of high fees

#5 Common sense: If you’re going to work with a contractor and you get an uneasy feeling from the guy/gal because they seems a bit dodgy, wont give you direct answers to questions, gives you an unusually low estimate for the work you need done or if there are any other red flags that come up you should listen to your instincts and at least vet the contractor a bit more before you work with them

These tips arent the end all be all when it comes to selecting a contractor, you may agree with some of the tips listed above but not others, and thats ok. Using this guide to help you select a contractor may help you to not lose money and make your next project a success.

If you have any comments or you’d like to see blog posts on similar topics send me a message, I’m always happy to help