Ok, wow, I think I gave up WAYYYyyy too much of my "secret sauce" here.

Have you found a "secret-sauce" to mitigate that? 

There's nothing we are doing that is a secret or even 'the best', we are always improving and changing things as we go.

Ok, ya-know huh, but it's what, Top Secret?

Add to that the record number of people moving into town long term either as homebuyers or renters and we barely even had a shoulder season last fall.even one of the best kept secrets in CA  Seirra valley is hot.. 

We the trades-people know the dirty little secret that you need us, full stop.

They are not secret about these ideas.

The secret is to team up with contractors (i) who understand the value of repeat business and set their prices for you accordingly and/or (ii) are willing to work for a piece of equity so that your incentives aren't completely misaligned or (iii) are new and hungry. 

In fact I might actually pop for Pro membership if it included access to a secret forum where its just curated links to all the duke-em-outs that happen sometimes on here.

It's written by Phillip J Anderson, called "The secret life of real estate and banking".