Contractors! What makes a good client?

Contractors! What makes a good client?

Rental Property Investor · Boston, Massachusetts (MA) · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes

So engaged in a rehab project now. Its a new area for us, and so far we have had good luck finding great guys from referrals and just reaching out for quotes etc. Knock on wood its going fast and well. Fingers crossed. We are doing a lot of the logistical coordinating and I want to get better at it. 

Experienced contractors, I'd love to hear from your perspective what makes for a good client in these situations? Some things seem obvious--like pay on time-but any advice you give is welcome. BP is a great place to hear about problems, but what things prevent them?

Little things we have noticed:

1) use good people throughout...people seem to know each other and seem to want to do good work for people they respect and keep their deadlines

2) respecting time--we have asked a few people if they could give us an estimate and offered to pay for their time to do so. So far everyone has declined but they seem to appreciate it

3) instead of saying "whats the cheapest way" asking "whats the most appropriate way to do it?--"is there a way to keep it in this X budget?"

4) asking about other jobs and being flexible on schedule breaks to accommodate

5) being onsite a lot (this could go either way!)

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  • Rental Property Investor · Charleston, SC · Member since 2016 · 61 posts · 9 votes
    5y

    @Jonathan R McLaughlin sounds like you have it dialed in. I would say create some redundancies for checks to ensure what you want is what they are building. With that said set some expectations for how things will be communicated. This can be weekly meetings, good drawings and scopes. Communicate like crazy,but make sure they understand in the beginning so they don't feel harassed.

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