How to Choose a Professional Contractor

This is a simple and short article designed to help you, a home owner or business owner, find, choose and select a contractor for hire.

Over the past 25+ years I have hired a lot of sub-contractors, so much of this knowledge applies and easily translates. I have also worked with hundreds (or more) customers as the contractor being hired. And in being hired by homeowners I am sometimes NOT the first person on the project. In other words, sometimes I am there to clean up someone else’s work.

Remodeling is essentially altering or restoring someone else’s work. Sometimes it is adding to a structure. Whereas new construction projects are solely creating something new from the ground up. But with remodeling, you often run into the “last guy’s work” and sometimes this is the guy just before you that got fired for doing a bad job or taking money and not showing up. Sometimes it’s the guy from 80 years ago, long since moved on.

I’ve both admired and frowned upon the different quality of workmanship and materials by different contractors whether I was looking at work done 100 years ago or 3 months ago. This is something you appreciate after being a remodeling specialist for a good length of time.

But there are many times that I have run into crappy work that I had to surgically repair and make right. And it is for all of those times that I now write this brief article so that anyone looking to hire a contractor know the key things to look for. This can help you make a better and more informed decision.

Qualify your contractor before you make the call

The first thing I do is qualify my contractor. This means I do a precursory data collection before I even contact them.

I start by doing an internet search on their company as well as the owner’s name. I look for reviews, I also look for anything notable, good or bad including social media profiles. In my state, I also look up the company through the state’s licensing department to ensure their contractor’s license is currently valid and in force.

If the reviews look legit, or have pictures, and I feel good about them, their license is valid, and there isn’t anything personally bad that is connected to their name, they warrant a phone call or email inviting them to give an estimate.

Now Qualify in person

The next step in qualifying your potential contractor is the in-person interview.

When I meet someone for the first time, I am meeting them to show them the project or task and to get them to collect whatever information they need in order to give me an estimate.

At this time there are a couple of other things I am looking for.

1) Their appearance and condition of their vehicle.

I am not there to judge people or their material possessions however as a professional contractor, if you show up in a vehicle that LOOKS like it’s falling apart and your appearance is slovenly or you smell, I begin to lose some confidence. Conversely, if they show up in a really expensive vehicle and are uniformed, I sometimes will expect a higher estimate. It’s not a turn off, but it means I will likely get a second estimate.

2) Their ability to duplicate my intention and/or ability to communicate.

I can sometimes overlook one’s appearance by how well they can communicate, what their hesitation level is when responding to questions and how competent they sound when discussing the project or task.

3) Don’t ignore your gut.

I’ve been wrong every time I’ve ignored my gut feeling. I just don’t doubt it anymore. If my gut is telling me to keep looking, that’s what I do.

Note here too that a referral from someone I respect, such as a colleague or from another home owner that has used the person in the past, gives me better confidence and I might overlook point 1 above. Point 2 is important however and can tell me whether or not I might have to deal with a headache. Point 3, it doesn’t matter if it was a referral. I don’t ignore my internal compass.

Get more than one estimate

If you don’t know what things should cost, it’s always wise to get a second estimate and sometimes even a third. I use the above qualifying methods to “rinse and repeat” getting a second and sometimes a third estimate. Generally, what causes me to seek more estimates?

1) The size and scope of the project. The larger the project, the more estimates I might get.

2) An area of work I am unfamiliar with. If I am unfamiliar, then I will get multiple estimates as it’s essentially “data on which to compare” …

As a contractor, I have general pricing ideas in my head about the things that I tend to sub out such as roofs. So in the case of roofing, I have a great contractor. I know what they charge, and I don’t seek more estimates.

As a side note, if you received 3 estimates and 2 are similarly priced but one is very low compared to the two there is a reason why. By all means, go get a 4th estimate and see where this falls. One tactic some shady contractors employ is that they will under-bid a project to get hired and then start submitting change orders, or simply asking for more money part way through. If the price is “too good to be true” then it is. You’re being taken for a ride. They want “in the door” and once they’ve started they know you won’t want to stop the project to find someone new and them asking for more money is how they bring their estimate up and sometimes even higher than the other two (or three) estimates.

Estimates should detail the scope of work and costs with specifics. Okay so now you have 2-3 estimates for your project. What’s next?

Review the contracts

Contracts protect you and they protect the contractor. They are the “in-writing” part of an estimate cycle that dictates specifics and how things such as disputes are handled. They, when signed, and fair, are legally binding. Covered in the contract may be, should be, the financial terms such as payment or payments and what happens when payments aren’t made. A contract should also state a warranty.

A contract may be a separate writing attached to an estimate which will detail the proposed scope of work and costs. Some contractors will add key points from contracts in their estimate form. This is fine. Both would require a signature.

Read the contracts well, if you need legal help understanding something, get it and then make a decision. I’d love to say a hand shake works but this type of relationship only works under special circumstances. For example, I have sub-contracts I’ve used for nearly 20 years and we work by text and hand shakes. In other words we trust each other in the highest order and we continue to have great relationships because of their work and my ease to work with and prompt payment.

A quick bullet-point recap

Qualify your potential contractor first, by what you can find online, then in person on how they make you feel, how they communicate, and how they hold themselves.

Get more than one estimate so that you can compare the data of the two which will bring you more understanding and give you an idea on what it should cost. If the cost difference is great between estimate 1 and 2, get a 3rd or even 4th.

Review the contracts, making sure they cover the work given, the terms of payment and warranty information.