5 Mistakes Investors Make When Hiring a General Contractors
July 6, 2018
5 Mistakes Investors Make When Hiring a General Contractors
To maximize your investment every time, you need to work with general contractors who fit your needs well. Start by avoiding these 5 Common mistakes!
When you are hiring a general contractor, you want to be vigilant and smart, overlooking nothing and let not detail go by the wayside. It can be challenging even to someone who has hired a general contractor in the past to avoid all the pitfalls inherent to the process. There are, fortunately, some concrete steps that you can take to ensure that everything goes your way. To start, follow these hard-and-fast rules to avoid the mistakes that investors commonly make when hiring a general contractor.
- Check the references!
As impressive as your prospective contractor’s reputation may seem on paper, you need to check his or her references. Don’t assume anything. It is all too easy to write down a name and a number and hope that no one ever double-checks them. Be the person who double-checks them so that you can know without a doubt that the references are real!
- Demand the proper licenses and insurance!
If you ever find yourself in a situation where someone has been injured or there has been some other sort of accident, it is going to matter a lot that your contractor has the right licenses and insurance. You can create a large, years-long legal mess for yourself if something bad happens and you are working with a contractor who is not legally supposed to be helping you.
- Get your quotes in person!
There is no way to reasonably estimate the costs of a project without actually seeing it. Because of the number of details that affect each quote, it is impossible to complete the process over the phone or through e-mail. If a contractor tries to quote you a price without seeing the project for themselves, that is a big red flag you need to take note of.
- See past the flashy sales tactics!
Smooth talkers run the world in a lot of ways, but if you want to work with the best, you need to be able to see beyond all the flash and charisma. Pay attention to what your gut tells you! Does something seem not to add up about the pitch that you are hearing? Look into it further and try to figure out for yourself whether or not the promises make sense.
- Judge bids by more than just price!
Price alone does not determine the quality of a bid, so it is not wise to accept the lowest bid for every single project. Sometimes the highest bid will be the best one, depending on circumstances, and sometimes the best bid will land somewhere in the middle of your budget. Consider all factors before you make a decision!