Best contractors are found by networking. The top guys are being kept busy by their top clients. Yes Home Depot may land you a good contact but odds are they won’t take you seriously if your not recommended or they’ll forget because their too busy getting materials for their “serious” clients.
Contractors deal with the same thing investors do. A lot of talk, no action. It doesn’t make sense for them to come out and give you 10 estimates if your not going to work with them.
Always visit a current work site, make sure they communicate, respond quickly, and you get along with them. A lot of contractors are crude, imagine dealing with them when you have problems in a project.
Visit a current worksite, talk to past clients, don’t just look at pictures of their work, and if you have construction knowledge ask them what they’d to in a hypothetical, make them talk out their process for your project, question their process. Everything else is your emotional IQ and gut feeling.
Last advice, if you find a good one make sure you take care of them. You’ll go through a dozen before you find reliable workers you like, do good work, and you can trust.