When hiring someone for a job, you're always going to want the best. Someone that will make you and your company look great. I can list many different specifications anyone is going to look for when hiring someone for a job... right?... "Why would hiring someone to do work on your property ever be any different?" It shouldn't be any different. You can ask yourself, well how do I know who is going to do the best job before they do the job? I can tell you a few different ways. #1 Any contractor that really takes pride in his jobs is going to always take pictures. They will have pictures posted for customers, or potential customers to see. From my own experience in this business, I can tell anyone I absolutely love what I do. With that being said you will see the passion someone has in the work they do. We can still love doing something but still be horrible at doing it right? That is why there is always a variety of different things to look at first before making decisions. As a contractor I am always seeing too many homes with shoddy workmanship, most likely someone was hired because he came in being the cheapest, we will get into that later on. But someone was hired without the person hiring them doing a couple minutes of homework. If more people took a few minutes to do this, we would all weed out the guys taking the money and getting out of dodge. There would be more trustworthy reliable companies, than hacks, or what we like to call fly by day companies. How about asking that company, if he has done any work in the area you live in. You can ask for a drive-by address, just to see the workmanship in or quality of the work on his projects. I guess the real question in the end is this " Do you prefer quality over quantity ? " Is price more important than the outcome on your home or property? My personal opinion is this... Whether it is a rental property or my personal home, for me quality is more important. References can be checked in several manners. As I said before ask them if they have completed jobs in your area, Ask if they are listed with the BBB, can they provide pictures of some of their work? I always say, write down a good list of questions about the tasks you need completed, along with personal questions to ask the contractor. Pay attention to how they answer each question. Did they respond with confidence? Did the contractor seem to really understand the job? Good companies don't always have to have fancy websites, but if it is a company that cares about his work and customers he will definitely have a portfolio. Find out if the contractor does his own work or if he will be selling the job to the smaller company. Then ask yourself if it bothers you or not what his plan is? Otherwise you can be getting over charged just so the company can sell the job to a sub contractor. The reason I had to post blogs on these topics is because I am seeing far too often, customers are losing their money, the contractors are cutting corners, underbidding the job and when the customer thinks he is saving money he is actually creating a nightmare by choosing the cheapest bids. Material, Labor help, Dumpster and trash removal, it all cost money, Over head, and extra cost that always appear, then to be a legit company there has to be enough profits being made to afford liability and workmans comp, tools, vehicle/company trucks insurance. People have to do homework, pay attention to gut feelings, look for red flags. I promise you if everyone started doing these things we would be left with more good companies out there, instead of pretend companies causing problems for good companies and the customers that become victims. I just had to quote a job this week for a company that way overcharged for a roof, he put no ice & water or paper. he put the shingles right on the plywood. it was a small job and he made plenty of money and decided to hack the job, These are the guys to avoid! And Good Luck to anyone looking to hire .

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