How to Find Reliable Contractors for Your House Flipping Business

A conventional house flipping process entails buying a lower-priced home, renovating it, and selling it at a higher price. As an investor, you have a chance to do some renovations on your own. However, there are those fixes that demand the hand of a professional contractor for a high-quality finished house.

If you find a good reliable contractor, you are lucky. Professional contractors can be so hard to find at good prices. Most times you are likely to find expensive contractors or you’ll come across contractors who fail to meet timelines or the ones that just decide to quit halfway into the job.

Interacting with such contractors is not only frustrating but will also increase your renovation costs. Unmet timelines will skyrocket your carrying costs and financing costs with the bank. These costs will dig into your expected profits and leave you with little or no profits.

As a real estate investor, you don’t want to go through such an ordeal. You must be very cautious about the contractor you bring on board. Let’s find out how you can find a reliable contractor for your house flipping business.

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Ways of Finding a Contractor

#1: Referrals

Get referrals from reliable people. It can be a colleague, a friend, or family members in the real estate industry. You can also find good referrals from your local real estate investment club. The best thing about referrals you will get someone, who has been vouched for and with a reputation.

Mostly they turn out to be good. But again they can disappoint. Therefore don’t trust them without evidence, let them give you a proven track record of houses they have finished on time and with the agreed budget. Take your time and visit the finished houses to get a clear picture of who you are hiring.

#2: Driving around your Neighborhood

Another good option is to survey construction sites around your locality. Call upon a worker and strike a conversation. Introduce yourself and let them know you have a potential job. Get contact information or leave your contact and ask them to get back to you.

Chances are they work for a given company, take the information and look it up online. This method is advantageous because it gives you a chance to see how they work in a real-life setup.

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#3: Local Home Depot

You can visit a local hardware during morning hours and look for anyone buying large amounts of supplies. During these hours you are likely to get contractors who are serious with their work and start their jobs early in the day. Most stores have contacts of well-known contractors who are experienced. They can recommend the best and provide you with information on how you can reach them.

#4: Local Building Department

At the city local building department you can ask for contractors who have been given construction permits. It’s a requirement for them to get these permits when carrying out specific jobs. Those projects must go through inspections to ensure they meet the city’s standards. Contractors’ permits and inspections are public records you can easily access from the building department.

#5: Online methods

Offline methods are known to be efficient but time-consuming. You can opt to get potential contractors from online platforms such as craigslist, angie’s list, thumbtack, and social media (Facebook).

How to Choose the Right Contractor

After exhausting all possible avenues of getting contractors, it is time to choose who to engage with. This is the most crucial stage. Follow the following guidelines and you will never go wrong.

#1: Check contractor’s qualifications, licensing, and insurance

This can easily be obtained from their resumes that you ask for during your first communication. They should also send you pictures of projects they have completed as additional evidence of their qualifications.

You can filter according to the years of experience you are looking for or the specific job requirements you want.

You also need to check if the contractor is licensed in your state depending on your state’s regulations. They should also have workman’s compensation insurance.

You can confirm this from their insurance agents. This step will help select serious contractors only.

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#2: Get multiple bids

It is time for the ones you selected to send bids. Ask them to email you. There are those who can’t do bids. They are easily eliminated. The bids should follow the same line of items for easy analysis.

Check for contractors who can price a project accurately and quote reasonably with good timelines. Not too low and not too high.

Low bids can compromise quality at the same time high bids do not guarantee perfection. Select the best three bids. Create a spreadsheet and key in information for each of the three bids for easy comparison.

#3: Conduct Interviews

At this stage, you have the chance to check on their soft skills. If one is on time for the interview is a good sign they can keep time.

During the interaction, you can assess their communication and organizational skills together with their level of professionalism.

Select the one with a great personality and has the capability to complete the work within the agreed time and budget.

#4: Sign a contract

These are the terms and conditions you will work under. The contract should include a detailed layout of the work that needs to be completed.

It should also have clearly explained payment terms that indicate schedules on how payments will be made. This will create a good working relationship between you and the contractor.

Conclusion

A good contractor will make a big difference in the profits you are likely to get in your house flipping business. It is therefore essential to follow the procedure patiently to get a reliable contractor.

Most importantly remember to plan well and research. If you land on a good contractor, supervise them carefully and honor your terms of the agreement to maintain them.

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