Building relationships with Contractors

[Zackery Agurto]

Hey everyone happy Memorial Day!! 

So my team and I have been struggling with the contractor portion of a flip. I have built a list of contractors, but don’t know what’s next. Obviously we have to interview (build rep-or) with them, I am just hesitant when it comes to the interviewing part. I know you want to ask them about there Timeline, Cost, How busy or how many projects they currently are working on, but what else am I missing??? 

Where is the best place to find the contractors and how do you go about them taking your serious, because my team and I haven’t acquired our first property since we don’t have the contractors in place for, but I am simply just looking for help on building relationships with contractors & when exactly does your contractor need to come to the property to see how long it will take and the cost of the rehab. Do they look at the property immediately after it goes under contract or after your finance’s have taken place??? Im just lost on when you need to get your contractors to the property to give you there timeline and a rough estimate of how much it would cost. 

Sorry for the long message, please feel free to contact me directly

[Bruce Woodruff]

Speaking from the Contractor side, here's how we look at it....

You call and want me to look at your new property and give you a bid/budget based on your SOW or wish-list. 

1) I won't even be interested unless you already own the property. 2) When I find out you're a RE investor, I'm probably going to lose interest....why? Because you're going to have a super tight budget and probably not be using anything but cheap materials and will want everything done yesterday for half price.

Sorry but that's the reputation that investors have built for years. They will think that a Contr will want to work for them because they will/might provide multiple projects down the road. In actuality, the more projects I do for you, the more money I lose.

So the 'game-on' for you is to reverse this perception that Contrs have of investors. Let them know upfront that you are going to be happy to pay top dollar and that you expect great work. You will not hang around and micro-manage the jobsite like most investors. You understand that schedules get delayed, usually because of the investor client.

Now you will have their attention. 

How to find this person? Call every Contr you can find in your area and ask the same questions of each - ask to see pics of work, talk to former clients (although this is really not much help, nobody gives out the name of a disgruntled former customer).

Ask to see a sample of their Proposal/Change Orders/Contract/Etc before you proceed, these are deal breakers if they are rookies and don't have the proper paperwork established. What is their payment schedule? Any upfront % money more than 10%, just run away.

It's tough but the right guy is out there.