Top 3 Ways to Find Good Rehab and Repair Contractors – Part 1 of 3: Referrals

by Todd Smith** | Articles, Flipping Houses, Rehabbing Houses

Today’s question comes from Marcus Green. And the question is, “how to find a reputable contracting crew for repairs”.

This is actually a subject I deal with a lot on my blog. Then I’ve got some YouTube videos that go a lot more in depth on this topic of dealing with repair contractors, both how to find them and how to hire them.

I have a whole lot of details, tips, and tricks that I’ve picked up through spending tons of money on rehab projects, and getting rental properties repaired over the years… things that you won’t hear anywhere else!

So it won’t be too overwhelming, I’m going to break this answer down into 3 separate parts and articles…

Part 1 – Referrals
Part 2 – Licensed Contractor List
Part 3 – Driving for Contractors

This article will cover Part 1: Referrals.

✅ 1. Referrals

The number one way to find a good repair contractor is through referrals. In this article, I’m gonna share 3 different levels of referrals with you.

👉 A. Golden Referrals

When I talk about referrals, preferably I want to get a referral from a real estate investor that I know very well. If it’s a real estate investor that has, like myself, bought millions of dollars’ worth of property, then I know that I can trust their referral, especially if the contractor that they’re referring has done a lot of work for them.

This is what I call a Golden Referral.

There are contractors that I have hired, for maintenance or minor repairs, and worked with for years, without ever actually meeting them in person. This is because I got such a good referral from one of my close colleagues in the real estate investment business, that I have a lot of confidence in.

When I receive a golden referral on a small job, then I’ll just tell the contractor over the phone what work needs to be done, send them over there to the property, and tell them how they can get in the house (i.e. via lockbox or speaking to the tenants).

Then the contractor will do the repair and send me the bill. I have a plumber like that who I worked with for several years before I ever met him in person.

I wouldn’t do this on a major rehab job of course. In this scenario I would be dealing with a maintenance call or a minor repair, so I’d be dealing with a plumber, or an electrician, or a handyman, etc.

Again, if I’m going to hire somebody to do a $10,000 or $20,000 rehab job… then of course I’m not going to hire them without meeting them. But if it’s a small repair, something like maintenance on a rental property, and the referral is good enough, then I don’t really need to meet them at all.

Now, this isn’t just a referral from your buddy that “maybe” the contractor did one job for. No, that’s not what I’m talking about at all. I’m talking about a referral from somebody that I know personally, that has spent a lot of money renovating houses, and has bought a lot of properties, and has referred me to somebody; that’s the type of referral that I would hire sight unseen. But that’s not a typical scenario.

👉 B. Referrals from Investors You Don’t Know That Well

Now, let’s say that the person making the referral IS an investor, BUT I just don’t know them very well. The important thing is that they are referring me to a contractor that “claims” to have a lot of experience working with investors.

So, it’s important to me that I’m hiring somebody who’s done work for investors, and not just work for regular, everyday homeowners.

Homeowners typically don’t care as much about the price of the work, because they’re more concerned about how beautiful things look, and/or their personal preferences. In my situation, I’m running a business. I need to get quality work, and I need to get it done at an economical price.

This is going to allow me to give this contractor repeat business. Whereas with a homeowner, they’re going to be a 1-time customer, or an infrequent customer at best.

The homeowner is only getting their kitchen remodeled once, so money is no object because they’re focused only on aesthetics. In my case, I’m going to be remodeling MANY kitchens. I’m focused on aesthetics that are going to get me a return on investment in the resell marketplace.

I don’t want the prettiest kitchen. I want the prettiest kitchen that will also give me a good ROI (Return On Investment). That’s a very important distinction.

So, the first referral source was from an investor that I know very well.

The second referral source was from somebody who maybe I don’t know so well, but they’re referring me to a contractor who has done a lot of work for other investors.

These first 2 referral sources are the contractors that you’re going to get your best prices from.

👉 C. Regular Referrals

Now, the third referral source would be from someone that’s not an investor, but the contractor has done some work for them.

The referral source may a coworker, acquaintance, maybe even a Facebook friend, etc. The important thing is that the contractor would be someone who’s actually done some work for the person making the referral. It’s important that they’re not just referring the person because it’s their buddy, or their brother, or bff.

That’s still a much more valuable referral than just somebody saying, “Hey, yeah, my cousin, Vinnie, he does good work.”

“Well, has Vinnie ever done any work for you? No? Ok I’m out.” Lol

So that’s not as valuable of a referral as when I get a referral from somebody who they have actually done work for. That’s the ideal situation.

Once I get these referrals, as much as possible, I want to go out and look at a current job site that they’re working on. Especially if I’m going to hire them to do something that’s going to cost me money. I don’t mean like a plumber, or electrician; that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m probably not going to go out and inspect the plumber or electrician’s job site.

For something dealing with any kind of aesthetics, though, and we’re talking about a kitchen remodel, a bathroom remodel, a paint job, something like that, maybe a roofing job, I want to go out and actually physically inspect a current job site, or possibly a previous job site. Because I want to see it with my own eyes before I hire them. This is called doing our due diligence.

Anybody can say, “Hey, yeah, I do great work”.

(Nobody is gonna say, “Hire me. My work product is garbage, but I need the money, so hire me!” 😂💯)

And my response is “(Well, what’s the proof that you do great work?) Can I see some of your work?”

If somebody is a rehab/repair contractor for a living, then they should have some work that they could show you, at a live worksite or at least in pictures. They should have some clients that have enough confidence in them where they could show you some of their work or, at the very least, vouch for them verbally.

If a contractor does work for me and somebody wants to take a look at it, I could say “Okay, you can go look at this property at 123 Main Street and see their work”… especially if it’s a big job, and the property is vacant.

If the property is tenant-occupied, then I may (or may not) be a little more reluctant to let somebody in to see the work, but I’ll be more than happy to vouch for the work verbally if I thought it was great.

If it’s a big job, maybe I’ve got some pictures I can show them, but really, the contractors should be taking their own pictures. The truth is, though, that most of them won’t do that. Most of them don’t put that much forethought into it. They should be doing their own before and after pictures.

But even still, if they’ve got some current jobs going on, I want to go to that job site so I can see the quality of their work. I really want to see the quality of their work before I hire someone to do a big job (or preferably even a small job where aesthetics are involved).

Alright, so that was “How to Find Good Rehab / Repair Contractors, Part 1 of 3 – Referrals”. Please click here to check the blog post for Part 2, Top Ways to Find Good Contractors – Licensed Contractor List.

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