Trouble finding a good contractor? Maybe it's not them...

[Derreck Wells]

I see post after post and hear podcast after podcast about investors having trouble finding and keeping good contractors. Did you ever stop to wonder why?

Well... It's because contractors don't work for you any more than you work for the contractors... but you both make money off each other. Weird, right? 

You are both self employed, you're both your own bosses, you're not the contractor's boss! I'm fact, in MA, every contract needs to, by law, specifically have verbiage saying that the contractor is not your employee. You don't pay worker's comp insurance or taxes on them, right? If you want to pay an employee, hire one and cut them a paycheck every week. If you want a skilled contractor with licenses and insurance, hire a contractor instead of the employee.

But always remember... the contractor doesn't work for you.

If you want a good contractor, there are several things you need to do; 

1. 1: Be a good landlord. Contractors don't want to work with slumlords. We don't like going to a job and doing substandard work because you don't want to pay for it to be done properly. Stop being cheap.
   
2. 2: Never tell a contractor that if he gives you a discount, you'll give him more work because you're an investor and will have more properties. We know you're just being a cheap prick at that point and will actually charge you more because we know you're going to try to screw us over in the end to save a couple hundred dollars. It actually works the opposite way... we give repeat customers better rates. Trust is earned, not given freely. If you want better rates, show us you're bringing us more work by actually bringing us more work, don't tell us you're going to.
3. 3: Always remember; Contractors don't work for you, we are self employed.
4. 4: When a contractor doesn't answer your call in the middle of the day, it's because they're working. Send them a text asking them to call you at their earliest convenience. Their time is valuable to the person who's house they're working on. Would you want a contractor to stop working on your house to talk on the phone to someone that isn't paying them? I personally don't answer my phone when I'm on a job unless it relates to that job I'm on... ever. Some days I work until dark, then often grab a burger at a drive through on the ride home, then I'm taking care of a kid and 3 dogs for the evening, I'm a single parent with some custody of a 14 year old girl. Stop expecting a contractor to answer the phone every time you call, and stop thinking their horrible at communication because they have lives that don't involve you. You are not the most important person in their lives... There will always be plenty of work for a good contractor, your job won't make or break them.
5. 5: Get a scope of work. A scope of work is very important. But don't ask for an itemized list and NEVER try to save money by getting the materials yourself. You will buy the wrong stuff, every time. And asking for an itemized list is telling us you want to use us to make a materials list and design the project for free but you're going to try to do the project yourself. Pay an architect if that's what you're after, or pay me a consult fee to do that for you. And if you're thinking you can save a hundred dollars by getting materials at different places, sure, so can I. But then you're paying me for the time and fuel to drive all over town and pick them all up. It will cost you more in the long run. My time is valuable and you WILL pay for my time, because trust me when I say, I have other things I could be doing. There aren't enough hours in the day as it is, I don't need someone wasting my time. I have a life outside of work, and if I'm not working, I'm living it.
6. 6: See #3.
7. 7: Don't try to negotiate a better price. A good contractor will never compromise himself. We are already giving you an honest bid... we're not used car salesman that pad up the number so we can give you a fake discount so you feel like you screwed us over and walk away happy. This is what it costs to get the project done right. Any less and it doesn't work. A good contractor doesn't add in wiggle room. We add in materials and an estimated labor rate, that's it. A good contractor's contract will have contingencies in it for cost overruns and change orders. Look for them, if you see them, you're probably dealing with a good contractor. My contract states "Homeowner agrees to pay up to $2000 in overruns, anything more than that requires a signed change order." This is simply to allow for an emergency situation such as a rotted sill beneath an exterior door. If we're replacing a door and come across that, we don't have to stop work and wait for a signed change order, we can just fix it and move on.
8. 8: Never expect or ask for a contractor to do something free because they're there anyway. "Can you fix this while you're here?" Time is money so, yes, I'll fix it, but it will cost you $XXX. 
9. 9: See #6.
10. 10: Pay your bill. Do you like it when a tenant doesn't pay? Well, you are just a tenant to a contractor. A good contractor has bills to pay. If you rip off a contractor, you're only hurting yourself and your fellow investors. Contractors distrust investors because they tend to rip off contractors more than homeowners do. This is why contractors will charge more. We also have our own version of Annie's List where we report on problem and non-paying clients. You don't want to end up on it, you'll never get a good contractor if you do. 

[Nik Moushon]

@Derreck Wells

I understand your intentions here. Contractors deserve respect as much as anyone else. Automatically assuming they are price gouging is wrong. They need to make money just as much as everyone else. But I think two of your issues here are actually perpetrating the typical greedy contractor stereo type you are trying to dispel here and are actually casting yourself in even more bad light....though unintentionally. 

First is this notion you keep perpetrating that "Contractors don't work for you!". I think I understand what you are trying to get at...that contractors are professionals just like any investor and should be treated as such...but you are saying it in a way that keep the stereotype that contractors are "know it alls that only do what they want and what makes them more money" just keep going. And to put it bluntly....its flat out wrong. As soon as the contractor signs a contract with me, they are indeed, working for me. Just because they are not on my tax forms as full time emplyees doesnt mean they dont work for me. Its just a contractual agreement to work for money for a very specific job. Take that contract to a judge and see what he has to say. And yes in fact I would be paying the contractors taxes, I would be paying their pay roll, I would be paying their workers comp, insurance and bonds. Because if the contractor didnt charge me for those things they would never make money. A lot of this falls under "Overhead" and its charged back to the client/owner. This is how literally EVERY profession work. Your phrase "Contractors don't work for you!", and what I think you are trying to get across, is combining two different issues that are kind of tied together but are also worlds apart. One being what the Owners expectations are and the other being that the contractor has a business to maintain and people to employ. Yes the Owner has a right to have their expectations meet when they agree to pay you for certain services. But they don't get to control the pricing and timing of everything. They dont see how many other jobs the contractor has and has to coordinate together. The contractor cant have a business without being hired (working for) by someone. 

Secondly, you can't assume that every contractor is going to act to the way you would act. Telling us that we should just accept the price because "We are already giving you an honest bid..." is the reason contractors have a bad rep in the first place. There are too many contractors that take advantage of this thinking and do rip a lot of people off. There are also a lot of contractors that don't do that and give a completely 100% honest price. Unfortunately the contractor profession is a profession that has a lot of bad people in it. As an architect I've seen plenty of both ends of the spectrum. On my duplex build, the first bid I got was for $750k. If I went by your thinking I should've just taken that first bid because it was "an honest bid" but if I had I would've been $250k over what duplex's go for in my area. I never would've been able to get a loan at that amount. I barely was able to get one for the $500k because the comps where horrible in my area and banks dont think logically. Now I knew what build costs in my area were, because of my profession, so I knew that that first bid had way too many padded numbers. Be that on labor/materials or they upped their price because they were just too busy and if I was desperate then they would take my project on but with a HUGE profit margin. But most people dont know what build costs should be. What people need to do is do their own research and get multiple bids. This is where they will get a since on what numbers are more realistic and be better able to judge what prices are more in line with the reality of costs. Now if they do agree to a price with a contractor THEN try the negotiate down, then thats a just a bad thing to do, to any professional.