5 Tips on Hiring Home Improvement Contractors on Referral

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One of the biggest Household problems Americans face is, who to hire for their home improvement project.  While advertisements, yellow pages and referral services are widely used, the personal referral from a friend, family or neighbor has been the most trusted and commonly practiced method.  Here are 5 tips on what you should look out for when hiring the personally referred contractor. 

Tip #1  Comparing apples to apples:    Make sure that the home improvement work the contractor did for your friend is similar to the work you need done at your home.  Home improvement contractors all have specialties.  So if your friend hired them to do a kitchen remodel and they did a great job, don’t assume they will be the best contractor for your dormer addition.  Ask them about their history doing home additions, see if they have photos or other references from customers they did this type of work from. 

Tip #2  Make sure he is really available:  When a contractor receives a job on referral, he/she usually feels compelled to accept the job when offered.  They do not wish to discourage their former clients from referring them out again by telling you they are too busy.  But lets face it, the best home improvement contractors are almost always busy, so either be realistic in your time frame with them and let them know you are willing to wait till they can devote all of their time to your project, or let them know that you can hire someone else without it affecting their status with your friends.  If they are truly available, try to lock down a rough starting date for your project. 

Tip #3  Consider the source:  A referral is only as good as the source it came from.  Consider the taste and expectation level of the person doing the referring.  If your neighbor said that the contractor who did her bathroom remodel did a great job and it really looks great, make sure you go and see it for yourself.  Does your neighbor have the same level of expectations of craftsmanship? The same attention to details?  The same taste in styling?  If you don’t consider the source of your contractor referral, you will certainly be taking a shot in the dark risk with their contractor. 

Tip #4  Get Multiple Estimates and Negotiate:  Many home improvement contractors love referral work.  And not for the reason you think.  While they love hearing that their work is so prized and will be more than happy to run over to give you an estimate.  Some home improvement contractors will see this as an open ticket to charge you a lot more than full price, especially if you do not get other estimates.  Letting the contractor know that while they may be your top choice, you are still budget minded and accepting other bids.  This will help keep his ego in check and his estimate low.  Paying a little more to have a job done right by someone you trust can be a good thing.  Just make sure that your home improvement contractor of choice is truly trustworthy. 

Tip #5  Golden Rule – The payment schedule:  Make sure when you hire your dream contractor that you don’t fall asleep when you sign a payment agreement.  And if your contractor does not give you one you should request one.  It should include an estimate for time of completion for the job and a schedule of when payments are to be released.  If you have a small home improvement project it may specify 1 week to complete the job which will be started by the 15^th of the month.  Payments will be 50% , one week prior to start date and 50% at satisfactory completion of project.  For larger jobs, you should have more detailed explanations of what stage of project completion to release money and what time frame you should expect them to work at.  The golden rule is that you always hold the last portion of payment until after the project is complete and you have made a complete walkthrough of the work.

If you keep these tips in mind when hiring your next referred contractor, you should be well on your way to a happy home improvement project.

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