Finding Good Building Contractors
In property, you need to build a power team. The important issue is having the power team,but some team members are easier to find than others. More and more investor-friendly lenders, JV partners, estate agents, solicitors who are timely, and accountants.
The most important part of your team that has become much harder to find the builders who do not have builderitis. The demand for contractors is so high right now that even the bad ones have no trouble finding jobs. Your builders are the most crucial piece in a property deal, especially if you are flipping houses.
Some builders have the common ailment builderitis. This is being short sighted and not looking at the big picture. You need to keep your builders always working. Sometimes we are overwhelmed as we are now running multiple social HMOs and social family houses. However we have builders on the other side refurbishing properties in Blackpool in order to keep them until we find our next block of flats.
Big question is where do you find builders?
We used to find them at Home Depot when we lived in the US. So go to supply houses and ask around.
Referrals are the next issue.
As you probably know good reliablebuilders are so hard to find these days, you will actually have a hard time getting a referral from another property investor.
Most people believe that if your builder takes on another client, it’ll be harder to schedule them when you need them. I would argue that referring your builders to other good clients is a way to show them your appreciation for their work. Let’s not forget to mention that this will keep your contractor happy—but that’s beside the point.The referrals I am talking about are from other contractors. The old “birds of a feather” saying definitely rings true in the construction world. And if you really want to know who the good subs are, then ask the subs who do work following someone else.
The next easy way…Simply driving. Look for scaffolding on properties. Many times builders have their names and details on their work vans. So drive…as we drive looking for properties to purchase. I don’t mean driving for pounds in the conventional sense, but more so driving for contractors. I would argue this is just as important as driving to find houses since good contractors, even if they charge you more, end up saving you thousands of qid in the long run.
I have pictures on my phone of builders in various parts of the NW and NE.
Lastly we like to use https://www.mybuilder.com/
Any questions?
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