How to investigate a contractor before hiring them

[Kyle Meyers]

I am working on a rental property rehab and I need to get some cheap contractors. I was going to start looking on craigslist, but I want to make sure I get a quality contractor who will do good work. How do you check out the contractors you are considering hiring before moving forward with them? In the past I checked out some by giving several contractors small jobs to do for a rehab and then seeing how they did at that to determine who got more work.