We get this question all the time: How do you find a contractor?? Finding a good contractor these days can be a bit like finding a needle in a haystack – at times, hopeless. All the good contractors are booked for months, if not the year, which can leave you feeling like it’s worth taking a chance on a contractor with a few reviews. Scary! First, check out these past posts we’ve done on hiring contractors.
Hiring Contractors Vs DIY: Breaking Down The Pros And Cons
How to Hire a Contractor (And When We Do)
In Idaho, we found a contractor to do the exterior of our home/dining room based on Google reviews. It’s not the worst way to find a contractor these days, but it’s always possible that some of those positive reviews could have been incentivized. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a terrible experience, but now that we have the contractor we have now, we can see some things that were lacking in past experiences.
So how do you even find a contractor? Well, that’s a good question, and we’d love to hear what you have to say about finding your dream contractor (or dud) in the comments! We only have our own experiences, so we can only speak to that, but we HAVE learned that there’s nothing better than a recommendation.
Recommendations > Reviews
Always, always try to ask for recommendations! Reviews can be helpful, but sometimes there’s only a small sample to pull from. We’ve all seen the polarizing Google reviews where there’s one person with an absolute horror story, and one person who left a 5-star raving review. What are you supposed to do with that information? Whose experience is the norm, and whose is the outlier?
When we announced our move to North Carolina, we had a follower recommend a contractor to us (Kennon Construction for those local to the Triangle area), and we explored it. We didn’t have any other leads, and the recommendation was so sincere that we met for a consultation, saw a bunch of their past work (ALWAYS HELPFUL!), and they were so kind and communicative and reassuring!
While we still lived in Idaho, our contractor here demoed the floors, demoed the kitchen, installed new flooring… and they kept us in the loop with texts, phone calls, and photos every day. We were so stunned and kept saying to each other, “I can’t believe how great our contractor is.” A clear communication line is definitely something that you should ask about before hiring anyone.
If you can’t get a personal recommendation from anyone, turn to your local Facebook group or something like the Nextdoor app! There’s a search feature that lets you type in “painters,” and you’ll see any posts about painters in the group. If there aren’t many to go off of, definitely ask the question yourself: “Would love recommendations for great painters in the area.”
My sister, Andrea, recently did this in her neighborhood group, looking for someone who could tear out the carpet in her living room and extend the vinyl flooring. It’s a great place to start, and now she’s getting estimates from a few people to compare costs.
Another tip I would give is to mention to the contractor, “Oh, so and so recommended you to me.” I would say they’re more inclined to put their best foot forward when they’re representing someone you both know.
Other ways that we’ve heard of that we don’t have experience with are using Angi (used to be Angie’s List), Thumbtack, and the Handy app (although the trouble with the Handy app is you pre-pay and you don’t get to choose who you hire).
Ultimately, there are plenty of ways to find contractors, but to me, what makes a contractor great is one who communicates and is eager to turn YOUR vision into a reality.
How do you go about finding a good contractor??
The local Master Builders Association or Homebuilders Association! Most metro areas have one, and it’s usually contractors who are pretty established and involved in the community. Typically the contractors in the association have a good idea of the high quality, reliable folks in the area and can make recommendations as well if they’re not personally available to do the work.
I agree that always bear in mind that not all storm-related roofing contractors in your area are reputable. Thank you for sharing this helpful knowledge with me!
I’m really surprised Angie’s List is on here since a business pays to be on their list!
There are also FB groups and BNI groups that are compromised of different trades who only recommend each other to friends, family & clients. Regardless how awful the company is, they have a commitment and obligation to the committee to recommend each other.
Real estate agents can also get a kick back for recommending a business as many companies know real estate agents recommend many services to their clients.
When someone recommends a company, candidly ask “are you benefited in any way for recommending this company?” Also ask the recommended company when interviewing… “[Bob Smith] recommended you, do you provide any incentive to be recommended?”
Unlike others, I have had good results using Angie’s list, BUT, I read the reviews myself and contact contractors directly. I did not have a good experience with word of mouth, the GC I used for my kitchen renovation based on it was disappointing, some of his subs did sub par, in his defense he absorbed the costs of the redos and reduced my final costs. I would have rather not dealt with any of it and am now dreading finding GC to tackle our baths.
Realtor here … we hire contractors all. the. time. in preparing listings for sale and also refer them to new homeowners constantly. In this market, smaller jobs aren’t a priority for most contractors but the people I work with know that if they blow off or screw over one of my clients, they loose all of them. Highly recommend asking for recommendations from your Realtor, designers, or other professionals who work with contractors frequently, and dropping their name.