Lately I have been going thru my long list of contractors I have used the past 5 years. Many whom I have only used once after seeing there quality of work and listening to their statement halfway into the job “its going to cost more then what I thought.” Oh, wait Mr. Contractor please tell me more….NOT….ZZZzzz. What they mean when they say this is that they do not know how to bid a job, cause they do not know what they are doing.

What I have found is that about 90% of the phone numbers I have been calling I get this message “the number or code you are calling is incorrect” so I call it again simply knowing I have dialed incorrectly…guess what happens, the same message. They are out of business. Imagine that!?!

Some are still going strong John Sparrow for instance an excellent Las Vegas plumber, this guy is still makes great money and guess what…is still in business. That is because he bids right, understands the importance of L O N G T E R M business relationships. He understands the seeds they cultivate he will harvest again and again and the profit long term relationships provide. Its nice especially when I am out of town and have a plumbing problem he gets the work done: A. when he says’s he will, B. its first rate and C. competitively priced. John is a good and intelligent businessman….still in business.

The others, I wonder where they all are, the quick buck artists, are they the same place all those real estate investors are who knew all the fancy ways to invest, out of business? I remember one handyman, he was actually a nice man who did great work, except he had Satan for a wife. Victoria or something like that, really I try to block the memory. She made the appointments, discussed the business etc, the one job for me and that was it, she had him slam the work out not cleaning up after himself, over-spray all over and was onto the next job. I wonder where they are now “the number or code you are calling is incorrect!”

Now, as an businessman, I know that I don’t “blend’ with every vendor out there. Some personality’s compliment others better. I know that has been the case with me at times. I am straight forward therefore minimizing miscommunications as much as possible. But that still does not help much.

As a house rehabber, flipper, wholesaler, landlord, short-sale investor, we need reliable, accountable, contract work. Hard to find in Las Vegas, or anywhere for that matter. The ones who have made it thru the rain, my hat is off to them. They get the whole ideal of long term business relationships. They will profit for years to come.

No, I am not done yet…was gunna post this online…. but wait there’s more. You see they guys are like 30-60 year old spoiled rotton men, who cannot show up when they say they will, do what they say they will nor can some of them show up sober. Just say’en I like to call ‘em as I see ‘em. When I use to work in the hospitals, I had better make damn sure, my patients got what they needed when they needed, so one learns responsibly or your finished. Hum, maybe half our contractors should do a hospital apprentice program. Good God man grow up. I bet there attitudes change now, now that there is much less work due to the down turn in the economy.

I did have a guy do some work on one of my houses the other day, and he did solid good work and get this finished when he SAID HE WOULD, what a concept, guess what, he got tipped! His name was Richard something with like Handi-Man USA. He understood what I was saying as I showed him the 15 numbers of contractors in my cell phone listed in a column like this “Con” short for Contractor…or was it… ”Con-Sam; Con-Jim”….hum.

I mean I have bought these beer belching babies lunch, paid them well, and still were so immature its incredible! What I realized was this, many of them do not know how to do what they say they can plain and simple. They typical statement I use to get from the contractor was this “oh, yes…I can do all this work myself” It would be fine with me, if they would have told me what they can, and cannot due. Oh, yeah..that’s called honesty I forgot.

So what did I pull out of all that experience. Check references, more importantly give them a very easy simple job to do. Then if they finish that give them more, bit by bit until they prove themselves. Unless you are there 8-5 to babysit. Never, ever give them the whole rehab or job to do with out testing them. Big mistake, and I was taken advantage of doing this. What they do is they get part of the money, then go find other jobs, to line up they they are a general contractor or something. When they know nothing about being a “general” but instead just got fired from there last job.

Aaahhh, I feel so much better now.

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