Interview: A Contractor’s Perspective on Working With Real Estate Investors

In this article

In today’s video, I am excited to chat with one of my general contractors! Pat has been a great team member for us. He does everything from clean-up and demo work to full fix and flip projects. We talk about the most commonly discussed — and perhaps most misunderstood — relationship in real estate: the contractor/investor relationship.

When this relationship is not working, both sides are trying to get the best of each other, and no one trusts anyone. The investor thinks the contractor is slow, and the contractor thinks the investor is impatient or unrealistic. The investor thinks the contractor produces low quality and cuts corners, and the contractor thinks the investor has no idea what really goes into these projects. The list goes on and on!

Related: 4 Reasons You’ll Never Find a Good Contractor (Insight From an Investor/Contractor)

It is important for real estate investors to vet out contractors, but it is equally important for contractors to vet out investors as well! In this video, we discuss how real estate investors and contractors can work best together and build a long-term relationship.

Some of these tips to build a long term relationship include:

• Have alignment of goals.
• Have the same standards for quality.
• Make sure that your definition of standards are aligned.
• Build trust with one another.

In real estate investing, having strong contractor relationships is probably one of the most important aspects of this business. It can make or break you!

I would love to get some discussion going. How do you build a strong relationship with your contractor?

Thanks as always for watching!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.