Managing Contractors' Budget & Schedule

[Matt McCurdy]

In today's labor market, we are all hard pressed to find good, reliable, and affordable contractors to renovate investment property.  I'm certainly not a newbie, but open to ideas on how to handle a delicate/finesse part of the business.

I've had mild success in finding contractors who fulfill the three descriptors above.  When I do find a contractor, I typically find one who makes a mistake (we are all human & sometimes there are communication issues).  Ultimately, the burden is felt by me through a longer renovation time and/or a higher cost to correct the contractor issue.  Does anyone have any strategies/tricks to work with contractors in the time of conflict?  There are two schools of thought I know of:

1) Take the cost/time on my own chin and hope the contractor makes up for it in the future on the next project.

2) Ask for a concession from the contractor to make up for the mistake, but risk the contractor out right quitting or charging a higher price for the next project trying to recoup the cost from the previous project.

[Account Closed]

@Matt McCurdy

"good, reliable, and affordable"

It is funny you say that because I heard a great quote basically saying that you need to pick two of those. You can not have all three. If you play it out in your head it makes perfect sense. Match any two together and the third is more than likely missing.  

Anyways.. I know the specifics are unknown but when you mention longer construction time or more costs associated with the project why were these two an issue? 

For example on all of our bids/quotes I can give a specific end day when we will be finished. If we go over theres something like $50 a day I take off for every day were late. I have ALWAYS finished on time by giving myself leeway in the initial schedule and have never actually had to do this but I offer it for peace of mind. Maybe this is something you can set up with contractors in the future? Require that they be done by a certain AGREED upong date or an agreed upon daily charge will be associated? 

Saying that I am very clear when certain line items are "up in the air". Something like a bathtub replacement I have came to know sometimes its not as simple as ripping the old one out and installing a new. Sometimes there is plumbing issues such as the drain pipe. Same thing with leaks and flooring/subfloor replacements. There are some things you do not know until you demo. On those items I make it very clear there will be some expenses up in the air and that portion of the quote isn't set in stone. Everything else though is. If I didn't bid it correctly and it's taking longer than expected that is on me. Not sure if this is where other contractors are trying to make stuff up and get more money from you or not or if they are not clear with there bid but hope this tid bit helps a little!