should I hire a contractor

Question

I will be rehabbing a house in San Francisco. It needs a fair amount of work.My question is whether to look for a general contractor to do all of rehab or look for single job contractors?

Brie Schmidt · Answer

depends on your level of experience and time.  Can you be at the property daily? do you know what trades need to do what jobs first so the other trades can do their job?  If no, hire a GC

Chris Miller · Answer

I am a GC, and would add two considerations to the comments already posted previously.

1. If you understand and can manage the work of the sub (individual vendor), then great.  If you don't understand how their work ties in with other parts of the project, or you have no knowledge about the work they are doing, that's a recipe for frustration.

2. In my local market, it's very busy and very hard to get guys to call back or show up when promised, let alone give a decent price.  So, an individual person (you) has very little leverage to get a good deal...and, depending on how extensive your project is...you could end up taking on all the headaches of managing subs yourself only to not really save much money overall.

Just some thoughts to consider.  Good luck with your project

Matthew Cook · Answer

Thanks for the feedback from you guys, Great tips will check out Cole hardware. Should be exciting times! Thanks again Matthew

Carolina Solorzano · Answer

I ended up hiring a GC because they could guide me through the process as my husband and I were both clueless and tired of subcontractors who were completely unreliable. It became so frustrating that I called four GC with either great BBB ratings or amazing Yelp/Angie's List reviews. Also, if you're in San Francisco, Cole Hardware has a list of handymen, contractors that they hand out in case you need them.

Rolanda Eldridge · Answer

@Matthew Cook...You will spend Time or Money...So it totally depends on your specifics.  Starting out, I spent a lot of time overseeing projects, because money was scarce.  Now, I can spend a little money to save time..

should I hire a contractor

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