St Louis MO - Where are the reliable Contractor's???

[Alex Miller]

I'm in desperate need of reliable and skilled contractor's in the St. Louis MO area.

So here's the deal BP friend's: I'm a newbie that has decided to get micro focused on a specific area to learn the in's and out's of that particular market. The market I chose was STL and the surrounding area's. I'm getting a healthy number of lead's and I'm even working with a local agent who's doing an amazing job at taking care of the ground work. I've reached out to him about my dilemma in trying to find reliable contractors and he's done his best to help me in this regard as well.

The problem: After calling and emailing numerous contractor's to bid on certain project's the response I'm getting is roughly 1 out of 10. Is there too much work and not enough contractor's to go around? I've even had one contractor who has an impeccable online review rating come to one of my potential properties and give a verbal bid roughly $25k ballpark. However when it was time to submit a written scope of work he completely disappeared. I just can't deal with unreliable people. HELP!

What am I doing wrong ?

Does anyone have reputable contractor's that they would like to send more business?

[David Ounanian]

There are 2 types of contractors- the retail friendly and the investor friendly.  The retail friendly contractor likes to charge a premium, get half of the payment upfront and operate under no written agreements.  The investor friendly contractor likes to provide service at bulk value prices, commit to timelines and budgets in writing and show up until the job is done.  The investor friendly contractor is also not listed on Angies List, Google, Zillow or probably even Facebook.  They know people at the local level and operate by word of mouth.  They don't spend money on advertising because they value repeat business.  I would hire an agent that is also investing who can give you quality investor friendly referrals.