Hiring Contractors: How To Find The Right Ones
Whether you’re a real estate investor or just a homeowner, renovation is something you’re going to experience at some point. In nearly all cases, if you’re thinking of hiring a contractor, then chances are it’s not the sort of job you could (or should!) do yourself. It’s one thing to make your own rock garden; it’s quite another to try your hand at building a deck.
We’ll talk more about this in a minute because it’s incredibly important, but part of the rationale behind hiring contractors is insurance and liability (making sure they actually have that insurance is equally important). Contractors usually pay very high, specialized insurance premiums to cover the potential for property damage and personal injury that comes with their work, and it’s insurance of a much different sort than your homeowner’s insurance.
It’s important to not rush the process selecting a contractor. This is presumably an important job, and a serious investment on your end whether you’re a homeowner or an investor. It’s worth taking the time to find the right people for the job.
You should also make a wish list and define exactly what you hope to accomplish with the project.
The best thing to do before you start interviewing contractors is educate yourself on the project. The more you know, the more able you’ll be to ask informed questions and therefore make smart decisions concerning the project.
The final and most important step is actually interviewing contractors. What should you be looking for?
Ultimately, the ideal contractor should walk the walk – talk is cheap.
It’s easy to be swayed by a slick sales pitch and a branded Ford F-350, but you need to focus on the practical aspects of that contractor’s work. What really matters are the indicators that they can actually get the job done competently, safely, within legal limits, and to your satisfaction.
How do you separate those who walk the walk from those who just talk the talk?
Insurance – yes, it’s a deal breaker.
Insurance is as much for your protection as it is for the contractor’s and that of their workers. If they’re improperly insured, any accidents could fall on you as the homeowner. This is a large part of why you shouldn’t do, for example, tree removal by yourself.
Contractors have specific insurance that covers damage and personal injuries, and they should be happy to prove it to you. Make sure they’re insured for up to a million dollars in damages and have current worker’s comp. If you sense any hesitation on their end when it comes to insurance, move along to the next candidate.
Check reviews and past work.
Contractors should be happy to provide you with contact info of past clients as well as details of past jobs. Before you interview them, you can check out their reviews online and any testimonials. If you see bad reviews (or no reviews at all), it may be a waste of time to meet and interview them.
It’s important to seek out consumer reviews through Facebook, Google, or Yelp rather than rely solely on testimonials on the contractor’s website. Testimonials can be solicited or forged; it’s much harder to fake reviews on consumer outlets without getting flagged – and it’s actually illegal to do so in some states.
Get referrals.
Even more helpful than reviews are actual referrals. If one of your neighbors – or perhaps a colleague who works in the real estate field alongside you – has used a contractor in the past and reports good work, that’s worth taking seriously.
It’s important to hold up your end of that as well. Referrals are an important part of the industry, so pay it forward, especially if you’re a real estate investor. When you have a positive experience with a contractor, tell everyone. The contractor will appreciate it, and the local market will be that much more informed when contracting out major work, and a healthy market is good for everyone.
Get a feel for the contractor’s work and the contractor themselves.
When you get the information of a past client, follow up on it. Reach out to that homeowner and ask to meet up with them, chat about their experience, and possibly examine the contractor’s work. This doesn’t have to take up much of their time, and you’ll know pretty quickly whether or not the work is well done, both from how it looks and whether the homeowner relays a positive experience.
In the absence of contacting a previous client (which should never be because the contractor can’t produce one to whom you can reach out), taking a look at before/after pictures is useful as well. Most contractors should be proud to display their work. Whether you contact a previous client or look through pictures – the same applies to reviews and referrals as well – make sure the work done is similar to what you need, which brings us to our next point:
Determine the contractor’s specialty.
Sometimes people assume all contractors are equally qualified to work on different types of houses when nothing could be further from the truth. Interview contractors who do the type of work you need. For example, if you want a renovation, you want a renovator rather than a new-home builder.
Look for someone who focuses on homes that are the same age and style as yours. While a contractor may have more than one specialty, you want to make sure that your type of home is one of the contractor’s strong suits. In other words, a contractor who specializes in building pools for LA mansions may be ill suited to putting a new roof on your one-story ranch house.
Still, that’s not quite the final word on the subject:
Does the contractor do all their work in-house or subcontract out jobs?
This is a little more important than some investors and homeowners may think, and it’s something to take into consideration when assessing a contractor’s specialty. Some jobs may be so highly specialized or include certain tasks that subcontractors are required to get some of them done.
Generally, the bigger the job, the more likely it is that the contractor will need subcontractors. Larger, more expensive contractors may be able to do most things in-house, but it all depends on the job and the specialty of the contractor. There isn’t a hard-and-fast rule as to which is preferable. One thing is certain, though: if the contractor outsources tasks to subcontractors, you’ll want to vet them as thoroughly as you did the contractor.
Final note: understand that price often reflects quality
If there’s one thing you don’t want to get a bargain on, it’s major work or renovation to your home or investment. Look for value, and don’t put yourself in a position to get hustled, but be realistic. The same logic that discourages you from hiring your handy brother-in-law to renovate your kitchen should likewise discourage you from cheap work, because in order to deliver that price, corners will have to be cut somewhere.
We can’t stress this enough. In the long run, is it worth cutting corners for a temporary fix, or worse, something you’ll have to completely redo at greater expense later on? The lowest bid is not always the best. Request a written description of the materials necessary for the job. A low bid may indicate that a contractor uses sub-par materials or is desperate for work – not a good sign. This is not to say you should go with the highest bid, but be reasonable. The more accurate bid is likely somewhere in the middle.
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– Get It Right Solutions