Subcontractors - How do you find reliable ones

Rehabbing, Fix and Flip, Rental Properties
1

Hello,

I haven’t begun real estate investing yet. I haven’t even purchased my first home. I live in Atlanta, GA where getting a home in more affordable than other places, but still not cheap. The types of homes and the areas I am looking for are out of my budget unless I get a fixer upper. I don’t mind doing this for my first home, but I am a little concerned about finding good subcontractors I can trust. Most of the homes I am looking at can be financed with a conventional lender such as Wells Fargo or Countrywide. That is a plus for me, but I am sure they are going to want to know how and who will do the work on the home and for how much. For those of you experienced in this business. How did you guys go about finding subcontractors for all of the work needed and how did you interview those potential subs to see if they were right for the job. There are many on craigslist, but I am sure some are poor and some are excellent. How do I know.

Also what is the best time to determine work that needs to be done on the home is this when the appraiser comes in and determines the “as is value” or the home and the ARV of the home after recommended improvements.

Thank you for helping a newbie out. Look forward to hearing from you. If there is a particular board for first time homeowners looking to buy fixer uppers, please point me there. Thanks!

2

Hey-

When I got started in rehabs I never used a conventional lender and still don’t use conventional financing (I use cash and a revolving line of credit) so I’m not the one to answer your questions about that.

Checking the references of the contractors will help but the only way to truly know about them is when they work for you.

When you get a property tied up get a home inspection first, then an appraisal of the as-is and ARV. Then you will need contractors to walk through the property to give you accurate quotes. Use craigslist or the phone book, it doesn’t really matter. You just need to find a lot of them to get a better idea of what a competitive price is for quality work.

Hope this helps.

3

Hey Danny the great,

I too have credit lines that I use for holding costs but not the purchase of homes. I will be applying for more in about a month in hopes of getting 200K or more. Just curious as to what info you can lend to me about your lines. Lenders? Amounts? Requirements? The lines I have been getting are stated, credit based, DTI, and D&B rating.

Nate-WI