In a house renovation project, you need to hire someone for the work. A general contractor or a specialty contractor is the perfect person to these projects. But, before you choose a contractor, you should first know just exactly what is a contractor.

What to look for in a Contractor

A general contractor is a licensed professional accredited to perform construction-related activities in a certain jurisdiction. There are different types of contracting licenses that let you only do small renovation work to building hundred-story skyscrapers. Make sure your contractor is licensed and has an active contractors surety bond to do the type of work you are looking to do. If you want to build a brand new house from the ground up, make sure they have the license to do just that.

If you know you are going to have many different aspects and trades going on in your house flipping or home renovation projects at once; you will probably want to hire a general contractor to help you organize your whole project. On the other hand, if you only need help with one specialty trade – like electrician work – you can hire that specialty contractor directly yourself, so long as it is for your project.

The following is what consider on how to hire the right contractor:

An important factor to consider is the amount of experience a contractor has in the type of work you are looking to have them do. A mechanical subcontractor who has worked only on office buildings in your area for more than 20 years might not necessarily be a better choice than a mechanical subcontractor who has only worked on homes for five years. You also want a contractor with knowledge specific to your location.
Another important factor to look for is to see if the contract is responsible and responsive. That means a contractor should respond to your all of your questions and requests within a timely manner and respond with an answer that makes sense. Even though this sounds pretty simple, not all contractors can do that.

If they cannot respond in a professional manner, your project probably will not run professionally. When you are asking contractors for proposals for their work, you should have a rough estimate of how much it is going to cost and roughly how long it is going to take. If you hear back from a contractor with costs and durations that are either much higher and longer or much less and shorter, this probably means they did not understand the scope of work involved with your project.

Finally, and probably most importantly, get everything in writing. Having a written contract with the contractor that puts into writing everything you want them to do and everything you do not want them to do is critical if something goes wrong with your project or if you want to change something with your contract.

Put important and obvious things in your contracts like the schedule and the budget so everyone knows what you are expecting from the hired help. Also, put not so obvious things in the contract so if something unexpected does occur you are prepared for it. Do not hide information from your contractor. The more information they know, they better they will be able to serve your needs.