Re: Finding good contractors for work on a house?

InvisibleAerobar wrote: Tue May 20, 2025 2:01 pm

LoveTheBogle wrote: Sun May 18, 2025 10:28 pm

No. Drywall is the bottom of the skills needed in a trade. They are also some of the lowest paid people of all the trades. You can get their supplies at any hardware store.

Don’t get me wrong, drywall work is hard (hanging) but it is still relatively inexpensive. If doing patch work that has to be some of the lowest skilled work of any trade in my opinion.

You’ll want to get a painter after drywall or better yet if you have some time do both if only don’t patch work.

Thank you for the advice.

il0kin wrote: Mon May 19, 2025 12:05 pm

Sure, glad to share my experiences. $100/hour gross really means about $60 per hour net, and with a few weeks off per year, means that one-man handyman is actually only making around $80-100k when you account for downtime, providing/writing estimates, doing paperwork, etc.

$100/hr sounds like a lot but with business expenses and taxes it’s really just making a decent living.

I think the issue here is just the major disconnect many white-collar workers have when they see the price.

Now, I’d gladly pay the master electrician and the master plumber $150/hr, but for whatever reason, handyman at $100/hour seems a bit high.

And even then, I’m only making the statement b/c my wife and I have more than enough. Median HHI at my MCOL locale is ~$90k/yr. I’d think a family would need to make double that to feel like they could afford to pay for it.

visualguy wrote: Mon May 19, 2025 12:17 pm

I’ve hired for major renovations and new construction in the past, so I get asked sometimes by friends and others. My advice is typically to avoid the whole thing to begin with if you possibly can. For those who are buying a property – can you afford to pay the extra to buy one that doesn’t need work? If yes, do that. Your current house needs a lot of work? Ok, can you afford to upgrade to a house that doesn’t need that? If yes, do that. Saves a lot of time, stress, and aggravation. Life is too short, and there are much better things to do with your time, so if you have the resources to avoid dealing with this, use the money to avoid the whole thing. This may actually be the more financially sound decision as well. Dealing with a big construction or renovation project is hugely distracting from career, family, etc.

Now, say you don’t have a choice, and you really need to do it. Referrals from friends, colleagues, etc. are critical. All the relatively good contractors I found were referrals. However, some of the referrals were bad. The problem is that things change. Contractors are small or very small businesses. They could have been good yesterday, and bad today. They lose critical crew members, encounter personal problems, health issues, get too old, etc. I’ve seen all that. You need a referral based on recent work, and even that is no guarantee. You need to interview them well and know how to look for red flags, but this comes only with experience. You get good at it only after getting burned a few times, and then you know what to watch out for.

Another point is that if you can’t find someone you can feel confident about, just delay the project if you can. Don’t just take the chance on someone who is not well vetted. You may get lucky, but chances are against you.

All this is for major work. It’s less difficult if it’s a small project, of course, although I’ve had a relatively small one turn into a big one as more and more Pandora’s boxes were opened. With renovations you know where things start, but not where they end. This is dangerous because you may hire someone who is qualified for the more limited project, but it ultimately turns into something that’s more than they can handle.

Very good points all around. All this takes oodles of time just for vetting. And even when someone finds a highly recommended contractor (e.g. recommended by the local contractor supply store), one could still be left disappointed.

Also a minor quibble about the first point, as it generally comes with quite a bit of upcharge. Based on observations of my MCOL locale, I’d think the upcharge on a turn-key ready to be at least 15% compared to a similar property that needs some updating. The former would get listed at say $750k with the possibility of getting bid up to $800k or even $850k; the latter probably would sit unsold at $675k, with the house eventually selling at $650k.

Of course, time is money, and having spent 80+ hours researching, calling, and coordinating, I can say that it really wasn’t fun. Basically every Monday morning for a few weeks, I’d spend 4-5 hours trying to reach out to various contractors. And I did this for a good 8 weeks. But even with the cost of repairs and cost of my own time, it’s still quite a ways cheaper than buying the turn-key ready property.

Regarding the disconnect on $100/hr for a handyman versus $150/hr for a master plumber – I understand it. I also understand behavioral economics, and almost never charge anyone hourly for anything. I quote 95% of my estimates with a labor/materials price, and I do not tell the customer how many hours it will take me.

$350 fixed price to patch a drywall hole sounds a lot more reasonable to most people than a bid that says 3.5 hours @ $100/hr, even though the check is written for the same amount