You’re about to discover an anxiety free way to hire an honest and reliable contractor for your next home repair or improvement project.
You may have hired contractors in the past and the work they did was a disappointment — That may have been because no one ever told you how to select contractors carefully…
Well now you won’t have to be afraid of looking for your next contractor, because you will learn how to select the best person or company for the job. There is a straight forward way of finding someone who will get the job done right. Someone you can trust.
You see, other people just like us have found good contractors that they would recommend to people they know… Luck has nothing to do with it. They are following a method that leads them to the right person. And this method is so easy to follow; you will find the right contractor too.
At first glance, this method might appear similar to what you may have seen or heard of before…But read this guide to the very end because you will find a little “twist” that makes this method unique and effective.
Here then is the method in three steps; Ask, Check and Test — ACT.
ASK
First you ASK people you know if they can recommend someone. Ask anyone you know, your neighbor, your co-workers, your relatives… just anyone you come into contact with. You might get a reply that someone knows someone — that’s okay too. You want to ask as many people as possible and get as many leads as possible. Not everyone you talk with will have a recommendation… that’s why you should ask until you get a good number of leads to work with.
When you do get a few recommendations, try to get as much detail as possible about those contractors. Ask if they did a good job and if they would hire them again. Also ask if they were on time and conducted themselves professionally. Find out if they cleaned their work areas after they finished the job. Determine if they answered any questions they had and cooperated with them in any other way.
Here’s a tip… Try to get invited over to the home that had work done by a recommended contractor. You can see with your own eyes if the level of workmanship is acceptable to you.
Now what if you don’t know anyone who recently had work done on their home or all the people you know that you asked couldn’t come up with any names for you? What you do then is go to the phone book and start looking up contractors. Pick out a few, more than three that many other people recommend you get bids from. The reason you should pick more than the recommended three is that many listings may be outdated or some may never return your call.
When you have your list of more than three contractors you then take the following step…
CHECK
Before you call anyone on your list, both the lists you gathered from recommendations by people you know to the list you gathered through the phone book, you’ll want to CHECK their backgrounds. Don’t assume just because someone was recommended by a friend that you can feel safe going ahead to hired their previous contractor without checking his or her credentials first from an unbiased third party. The only time you may understandably be tempted to do that is if you had an emergency that needed to be repaired immediately.
If they are licensed contractors, you should get their license number and run it through the contractors state license board to verify their information. The state license board will tell you if they are licensed to perform the classification of work you want done. They will also tell you if their license is current, whether they are bonded and their employees are insured for on the job injury. You may also find out if any contractor had their license suspended or are in violation. Licensed contractors are required to have everything in writing and if the contractor doesn’t live up to the terms of the agreement, you have rights to sue that contractor.
In general, license contractors are more expensive to hire than unlicensed contractors. Sometimes you can get the same job done at less than half the labor and material cost when using unlicensed contractors. The amount of money you save may motivate you to use these contractors, but keep in mind that if you do, these people can sue you if they get injured on your property and you won’t have the same built-in protection you would have if you hired a licensed contractor.
After you determine the license status of the contractors on your list, you should try to see if any of them are members of the BBB or Better Business Bureau or if there are any complaints file against them with this organization. What if you do see an inquiry or a complaint recorded against the contractor or the company and you wonder if it’s still okay to go with them anyway? You’ll have to answer that one for yourself. Some people don’t care and may see that the company or contractor did try to resolve the issue with the customer. However, there are contractors who have been in business for decades and you will never see their name in a BBB report.
Now once you’ve check each contractor on your list for their license status and if they received complaints from the BBB you are ready to take the next step…
TEST
In this last step that leads you to the best overall contractor to do your job, you will call each contractor on your list with the highest rating to arrange for an appointment to see your property. When they arrive, this is the moment when you will use your intuition or gut instinct to sense or TEST the character of the person who will do your job or who will coordinate the work.
Now here is the “twist” or insight that was never mentioned to you or was missing from other methods for choosing a contractor… Imagine that you are an employer who is going away for a week for a much needed break. You must find someone who will run your business while you are away. The characteristics of that person, his or her attitude about work and about you should be what you are looking for in a contractor. If you own a business you would want to hire good workers, people who will listen to you, and who will do their jobs well. If you can’t imagine yourself as the owner of a business, then just think of someone you work with who does a good job, rarely complains and is always willing to help you.
When you meet the contractor on your appointment, you want to see that he or she exhibit’s the traits of a good worker, willing to do the best job possible. Was the contractor prompt and arrived on time? Did they explain what they though of the condition of your home now and exactly what will need to be done? Most likely, those contractors who exhibit’s the most favorable traits are the contractors who are owners of the contracting business and who also do the jobs. That’s because the owners care more than anyone else about maintaining a good reputation.
Compare these contractors with any other previous contractors whom you had a disappointing experience with. Was there something about the previous contractor you wish you had noticed before you hired him or her? Really become aware of not just what they say, but how they say it and if their body language matches.
What you are trying to do here is find someone who has a good character, someone who has pride in their work and care about the impression they make. The contractor you want should have the attitude that he or she is going to work hard for your business and make sure you are satisfied with the job.
As you can see this method is easy to follow. ASK, CHECK and TEST. The contractors on your target list must “ACT” right before you hire them. You now have a simple way to screen potential contractors who will care about giving you excellent results and service.
Copyright © 2008 Leroy Chan
Tags: BBB, contractor complaints, contractors state license board, hiring contractors, Home Improvement, home repair, licensed contractors, unlicensed contractors