How do you find a good contractor, if i’m a wholeseller? Not trying to burn any bridges? Meaning that all i need is estimates. I have a list of contractors. But what is the best approach?
I met with one yesterday and he gave me a rough quote for 30k for a house that is a major cosmetic fixer.
I had only factored 21k for rehab and my offer is already submitted. The listing agent stated that my offer looks strong. So now Im panicking. If my offer is accepted then Im in trouble.
The price I didnt like AND he said 3 months for completion which is unacceptable to me.
Im going to contact another and ask if theyll give me a free quote.
I guess hit n miss?
Anyways, Im also wondering how best to go about this.
getmonie- Is there anybody that you know that you could use to get going? An uncle, friend of the family, etc? Ur right, you’re not going to be able to find someone to work for free forever by giving you free estimates, unless you work something out with that person by referring all your buyers business to that contractor.
vittorio-DONT FREAK OUT! You got one quote, correct? You have no basis for comparison, other than your own estimate. That contractor may have not wanted the work and bid high just so you wouldn’t hire him, you have no idea really…get someone else’s bid before you freak out. also, if you do buy the prop and find out your didn’t factor in enough rehab money, so what? get creative, figure out where you’ll need to scrimp and save to get by, do the tearout work yourself, it’ll save you in labor. visit the overstock building stores for supplies to save money. my point is that you’ll probably learn alot about budgeting and project managemnt. Its happened to me before (underbudgeting) and I certainly learned alot of lessons from it.
Don’t worry about it. Quotes vary greatly from person to person. I had one roof on a 2,200 square foot house to replace. It had 3 8ft holes in it. I got quotes from 29K to 6K to fix it. I obviously picked the 6K.
Go to Craigslist and look get a quote from a few people off there. Since Craigslist is free, it draws the jacklegs and that is who us wholesalers use to fix property. Not licensed contractors. If you have to pull a building permit, pull it yourself. In most areas it is legal to pull it yourself if you say you are doing the work yourself and your friends and family are helping. They are “gifting” it to you. Doing the work for free. Your jacklegs can be your friends. After all, it is your house and you have the legal right to work on your house.
There are many people out there that are highly qualified but don’t have a contractors license. Lets be honest here, rehabbing houses isn’t rocket science.
I agree getting a licensed contractor will be more expensive,but also watch the people who are’nt.A licensed contractor is’nt a guarantee either,I had one that seemed real professional that turned out to be an idiot.I strongly recomend you get educated in basic construction and the codes for your area.You still need to check their work and that it would pass an inspection.I’m getting my inspector license soon to help myself know what will pass.It sux when an inspector finds something you paid someone to do thats wrong,then you’re out of more money/time.
Jake,
You are right. I shouldn’t freak. he might be quoting to high. I say that because I called the same contractor once and asked him to quote me an estimate of what it would cost to replace wood shingles with malibu tile and to kinda of reframe it and he quote 10k and it was 2000+ sq ft). This same contractor quote me the same price of 10k and the house is 1136 sq ft. So go figure.
Im gonna shop around and find the most bang for my buck.
Anyone know what it would cost to replace the sheet rock in a house?? Like 1136sq ft?