How To Find An Expert Contractor To Fix Your Home
Do you know what is the most important and challenging parts of home ownership or investing in real estate? Well, it is finding a great and expert contractor! Because they are not only hard to find but also costly, they take particular time to complete a job or even quit on you without notice.
If you hit upon a good contractor with clear and nitty-gritty offers, excellent communication skills, and a great work ethic then it is incredibly awesome. Contractors are vitally important for realtors. Ultimately, it fetches a lot of money to buy a house, and it can cost even more to repair it. So, if you don’t have a great contractor to fix your homes, costs can skyrocket due to long timelines and increased repair costs.
What Is The Easiest Way To Find A Great Contractor?
Winning a great contractor isn’t generally simple and can take a great deal of trial, and error. My opinion is to ask your companions, family, and collaborators for references of incredible Contractors before you attempt some other means. When you get a recommendation, it doesn’t ensure that contractor is great or extraordinary, yet it gives you a head-start. So, don’t be afraid to ask your friends or family. For the most part, a recommendation is actually a better sign of hiring a contractor. And, the people who may acknowledge a great contractor are real estate agents, property managers or builders.
Always make it clear what you want before your receive any estimates. It is recommended to start with a Scope of Work, which details the work you want performed, don’t just start speaking to the contractor straightaway. If you are selective about what you want to be done and what materials you would like to use, include them in your Scope of Work and you will get more specific and accurate estimate. Hence, it would save both your money, energy, stress and the contractor’s time.
Interviewing your contractor is one of the best ways to find what he believes about the project, based on the Scope of Work. You can even consider interviewing 2-3 contractors. Ask them all the questions that are in your mind along with their written bids, based on the Scope of Work. While comparing the contractors, make sure each one of them have included the same materials, quantities and tasks. Also, don’t hesitate to negotiate. You may have had some discussion in the interview, but be prepared to do most of the negotiation after receiving the bid and before signing the contract. Once the contract is singed, it becomes a legal document. If any changes are to be made after the contract is singed, it becomes a change order, which can also be negotiated prior to signing. Again, once signed, it too is a legal document.
A Good Recommendation Doesn’t Ensure That The Contractor Will Be Good.
I hired a new contractor two years back. In brief – I got a recommendation from my broker and a couple of other agents in their office for a great contractor. He was a builder and was well versed with great detailed bids. So, I assigned him two projects at once as he told me he had a team of varied skills and could handle as much work as I could offer him. In no time he finished the first project under budget. Surprisingly, he didn’t even bothered to start the second project for two months later.
So? What must have gone wrong? When I called the contractor, he gave me a thousand excuses for why he did not start the work. He said his workers were sick, also he was occupied with other projects and so many other lame reasons. Besides, he was always assuring me everything was going great. Possibly he had not been overseeing his workers, or he had misled me. That project was completed around four months after it began and three months after it should be finished. Therefore, I never hired that contractor again, not only on the grounds that he took so long to complete the project, but also because he misled me about the work being done.
Conclusion
Keep constant contact with your contractor to assure the contractor is working efficiently, within in your budget and schedule without wasting your time, efforts and money .