rehabbing a house costs

[Harry Wilson]

so i currently help out with a friends rehab. the house has had some problems that we have fixed including paint work inside and outside, knocking down a wood garage in the back to create a new lot, plumbing leaks, electrical work, baseboards for heating.

I have been very hands on, doing painting myself, finding multipe people to quote each job needed, knocking down the garage myself with a sledge hammer and also cutting trees myself with a chainsaw.

i have noticed that some things are 1000x cheaper for me to do myself. for example i had a quote on how much it would cost to take some small trees down, the contractor wanted 100$ a tree, the total would of been 5k plus, so i went and bought a chainsaw and did it all for under 200.

another example, I wanted some base boards replacing on one of the bottom floors, one plumber quoted $6,500 another quoted $1,600. 

now its easy for me to save money this way as this is only one building, so for you guys that have 50+ units, what measures are you taking to make sure that you're not being had by these contractors quoting crazy high prices? as when I get a local guy its always at least half the price of if I call a contractor, however I cant depend on local craigslist people if i have 50 units