The use of contractors is a necessary evil as a investor and not part of the job description I like. Unless of course you find the right mix for your personality. Renovating and rehabbing houses can be tricky at best, yet our best deals come from the most ugliest of houses, so we need to crack the contractor code.

I learned the hard way that once you give a contractor an entire house to rehab they get laxidasical, and forget the promises they made to you. While securing the bid they promise the moon. They say they will get right on your job. Even putting it in writing offers no immediate protection. Remember you are juggling hard money loans, and your working capitol, as well as the monthly note.

What I found out is that they secure another 4-5 jobs and then try to juggle all those balls in the air at once. Well they drop the balls. Contractors (not all now, but most) will put you on the back burner getting to you when they have time, on their schedule, not yours.

I cracked this code in dealing with contractors some time ago. The long and the short of it all is this. I only give a contractor one job and one small job only to see if he can prove him or herself. If they can I give them more of the job to rehab.

This is needed for them to work for me, if they can show up on time, do quality craftsmanship, within the budget we negotiated, and complete the small job when they say they can. I will continue to give them the other tasks.

The whole time they can see that my ugly house needs more work, and they know they will get it should they do a bang up job on the small tasks they are given. I could write for hours on this subject, and I will write more later. But try this next time you need to hire a contractor and see how well it works.

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