How to you find "trusted" contractors

Question

I have a 100 year old two flat in a great neighborhood. I'm looking to do some renovations inside & out. I have scope, budget and a clue. I have been my own GC many times. This one is too large for me to handle. Yet all the contractors want to take me for a ride. Promise me one thing and then work order me to death.

Before I start on the next project how do you vet these days when "good" reviews can be purchased. Can't trust goolge, yelp, or even references.

Josh Handler · Answer

Dan's answer is the right one, so I'll add to it rather than repeat it. I'm a GC, so read this as somebody telling you how to check people like me.

One reframe first. What you're describing, promised one thing then work ordered to death, usually isn't a trust failure on a hundred-year-old two flat. It's a discovery failure that gets settled at your expense. Nobody knows what's inside those walls at bid time, the cheapest way to win the job is to assume the good case, and then the building starts voting. You can't vet your way out of that one. You buy your way out of it, cheaply, before you sign anything.

So pay for destructive investigation as its own tiny job, in advance. Open the wall behind the bathroom, scope the sewer line, pull the panel cover, get eyes on the framing anywhere plumbing has ever run. On a 1920s two flat that's a few hundred dollars and it converts three or four of your future change orders into line items you can competitively bid. It also quietly tells you which of your bidders was being realistic, because their assumptions are now checkable against what you found.

Then three checks nobody can buy, because they're records rather than opinions.

Ask for the last five jobs' original contract amount and final contract amount. Not references. The numbers. Somebody who can produce that within a day has an office and a system, which is most of what you're actually paying for on a job this size. Somebody who can't is running the company out of a truck, and that's what your project management is going to feel like. And a track record that lands consistently eight or ten percent over is more honest than one claiming zero.

Pull liens, in both directions. Liens he has filed against owners, and liens suppliers have filed against him. That second one is the check almost nobody runs and it's the loudest signal available. If his lumber yard is chasing him, your deposit is buying material for a job that finished last spring.

Pull permit history by contractor name. Chicago publishes it. You'll see real volume, what they actually do versus what they say they do, and whether they pull permits at all. A shop with no permit history is going to suggest you skip yours.

And building on Dan's point about standing on a live job: while you're there, ask what else they're running this month. A lot of the not-showing-up problem is queue position rather than character. You want to be the biggest thing on their board, not the filler between two bigger ones.

Crystal Smith · Answer

We have received good GC referrals on properties like yours from working with our architects and FHA 203K consultants, both of which have to work with GCs and have seen successful and unsuccessful projects

Henry Lazerow · Answer

I am in Chicago too and found my crew mainly from clients referrals. You want give workers small jobs as a test and see how they do. Find workers not a pricey GC and set it up where you pay only labor and buy the materials yourself or with your card at check out once trust them. That is how get stuff done cheap. Contractors found via Google in Chicago often have crazy prices, meaning you won't make money, so you really need to get creative. For example I can do a bathroom rehab for $5k people on google want 10 to 20k crazy differances. I do my good contractors right and only refer them to my already closed serious clients, I have referred them many deals so they do everyone well. Once you find good workers, keep them happy!

In general a 100-year-old property isn't that different from a newer building, assuming main items have been updated (e.g., no boiler heat). I always advise clients to avoid boiler heat; it's expensive because the owner usually pays, and replacing it runs around $12k–$15k minimum per unit at a very minimum, well known companies often even want 20 plus grand to do it. This is one job where doing work without permits can actually get you caught as the furnaces all dated and complex code to being installed right with vents etc. For the rest of the rehab work, it's very unlikely the city catches unpermitted work unless someone complains mid-project.

Dan Nelson · Answer

You are right that reviews are close to useless now. After a lot of rehabs on old Chicago buildings, here is what actually tells us the truth about a contractor. None of it comes from Google or Yelp.

Ask for the address of a job they are running right now, and go stand in it. Not a finished job, a live one. A clean site, materials stacked and labeled, and a crew actually there at 8am on a Tuesday tells you more than ten references. The way a job looks in the middle is the way your job will feel.

Talk to their subs, not their references. Ask which plumber and electrician they use on most jobs, then call that sub. Subs know who pays on time, who runs a tight schedule, and who they would let touch their own building. Nobody hands you a fake reference to their own plumber.

On the work-order problem, since you have a scope already: award the first phase only, not the whole project. Let them earn phase two. Tie every payment to completed work with a lien waiver at each draw, and get the change-order rules in writing before anyone swings a hammer. Anyone who pushes back on that structure just answered your vetting question for you.

And for a building that age, ask them what they expect to find when the walls open up. Someone who really works hundred-year-old two-flats will start talking about old joists, plaster, and what era of wiring your building probably has. Someone who says "no problem, easy job" has not done many of them.

Good luck with it. A hundred-year-old two-flat in a great neighborhood is worth the headache of finding the right crew.

Caleb Brown · Answer

I have used FB groups and referrals. Referrals always seem to do the best. Network and ask around.

Paul De Luca · Answer

@Denise Nickels

Contractor referrals from other investors are best. Interview them, ask for references, and check out their online presence.

Divin Kanyama · Answer

@Denise Nickels I don't think there's a foolproof way to vet contractors anymore, but I've had the best luck talking to investors who are actively doing projects and asking to see jobs that are currently in progress, not just completed ones.

I also pay close attention to the bidding process. Contractors who provide detailed scopes, communicate clearly, and are upfront about what's included tend to cause fewer surprises later.

With a 100-year-old property, some change orders are probably inevitable. The key is making sure the contractor isn't using every unknown as an excuse to expand the scope and the bill. A detailed scope of work upfront can go a long way.

Iliya Muzychuk · Answer

Ask for license and referrals that you can text or call.

Marcus Auerbach · Answer

A healthy full service GC has a 60% markup on subs. That will get you the kind of experience you expect after watching remodeling on TV and calling him back 6 month later for warranty work.

If you are looking for a GC that works on 10% or 20% markup you are setting yourself up for failure: you are expecting the impossible and found someone who is thinking they can maybe make for it with change orders.

If you have GC'd before, you can do this. Just break it down, take your time and sub it out one by one. Interviewing trades is an acquired skill. It gets easier with time. When you have worked with as many contractors (and tenants) - and got screwed plenty - you get pretty good at reading people; no google review needed.

Mark Updegraff · Answer

On a project that size, I’m almost as interested in whether the contractor can run the job on paper as whether they can swing a hammer.

Before awarding it, I want a detailed scope, inclusions/exclusions, allowances, payment schedule tied to completed work, a written change-order procedure and clarity on who can authorize extras.

Then I want to know how they handled a recent project where something unexpected actually happened.

On a 100-year-old building, surprises are real. The difference is that a good contractor explains the condition, price and options before doing the extra work.

“We already did it — here’s another $8,000” isn’t a change-order process.

Vague scope shouldn’t get to masquerade as an unforeseen condition.

How to you find "trusted" contractors

How to you find "trusted" contractors

Most Popular Reply

13 Replies