The Expert Podcast

If you're working on any type of building project, large or small, you may have found it very difficult to get contractors to even call you back, much less agree to work on your job. Here are five things you can do to increase the probability and number of contractors that you have respond to you.

First, we're going to start with what's the general problem. The general problem is contractors don't have enough labor. They don't have enough employees or workers that can do all the jobs, so they have to pick and choose the jobs they work on. There are more jobs available to them than they can do. So how do they pick which ones to agree to, and how can you make sure you are one of the ones that are selected? That's the key—you have to understand why they're picking certain jobs over others. It's not always about the money. It's not always the most expensive jobs. In fact, it usually isn't the most expensive jobs. So you don't have to pay more money. You don't have to outbid somebody. You just have to be the most desirable job for that contractor, which is actually very easy to do. But just keep in mind that these contractors don't have enough workers to finish all their jobs or enough quality help to do their job.

The first thing to do is put yourself in the contractor's shoes. Imagine you, let's talk about a hypothetical job of building a fence all around a property—a pretty big property, maybe it's 500 feet of fence. You know that you and maybe two other people can build that fence, but you know that you're also not going to be able to get good quality help. You're going to get maybe one guy that knows what they're doing building a fence, and maybe one guy that's kind of just like a laborer who barely can just haul stuff out of the truck, and that's about it. So, if the project you're trying to do as a consumer is a very highly detailed, very exact, high-excellence, artistic fence, you know what that fence guy might say? Look, I don't think I can do it to the standards you want. I can't build you that perfect of a fence. But if you have a job that's a little more generic, it'll be a nice fence. It'll be decent. It's not going to fall down, but it may not have all the exact artistic details where everything has to be exactly perfect. Well, guess what? Now you might be on the short list for that contractor. They might not rule you out if they can see that you are a very highly demanding customer. They might not—not that they don't want to—but they just might not be able to provide that type of service right now because there's not enough skilled workers to provide very precise and excellent construction outcomes.

So until you know for sure that that contractor, whether it's a fence, windows, painting, or roof, is able to provide highly excellent results, don't call them on the carpet and say everything's got to be perfect on this job. Because guess what? That might rule out ninety percent of the contractors that know they can't do everything perfect. Sad place for us to be as an industry, but just being real.

Number two is try to have as much of the bureaucracy or details or paperwork or red tape out of the way. They don't want to have to deal with figuring out exactly what you want. If you don't have your design figured out, they can't do that for you. Where they maybe could in the past, maybe permits—maybe you do your own permits. We've talked about that before. Maybe you already have the job staked out. So when they come to talk to you about it, they see you're organized. Look, I want the corners here. I want the drain line here. I want this over here. Don't assume just because they're a contractor that they're going to do everything for you. Do as much as you can yourself. Remember, they're interested in being a builder/contractor. They want to avoid all the details. Now be flexible. If you say, "I want the four corners here. I already staked it out. This is where I want the drain line," but I'm open to suggestions from you if you see an opportunity to do it better, it might be easier for you. Let me know. See where I'm going with this? If they see that you have a clear-cut idea of what you want, but you're also open-minded, boom! You're a dream customer. And even if there's more than one builder that would do it for you, you might get a lower bid if they see you're easier to work with. Because if they see that there's always going to be changes or you don't know what you're doing, or you might want to upgrade your specs every couple of weeks, they have to factor that in of more labor and more of their time on the job. Because every week they're on the job, all their equipment, their overhead is running.

Here's number three. This is a very, very good way to get an excellent response from contractors. Have a written checklist of what you want. So if you walk around your job site, potential job site, and say, "I want the roof over here, I want this over there," they've got to write everything down and remember it. If you already make an organized, type-it-up, don't handwrite it, checklist of what your wish list is, what you want, what you're trying to accomplish, maybe even materials, specs, square footage, now that contractor, that builder, knows that you have a clear idea of what you want. You're documented for them. Make a bunch of copies, keep one for yourself. "Hey, you can have this one. You can keep it." They can make notes on it. Now they have a clearer picture of what you're looking at. Maybe put a little drawn map on the back of what you're trying to do. Now, again, they're not having to do the things that aren't in their expertise. If they are, that's great. That's a bonus. Maybe some builders will do that themselves. They have their own coding software, their own quoting documents or worksheets. But at least if you have it, they know that you're taking some of the initiative. They're not going to be out there alone on the job, and you're just sitting back and saying, "Just get everything done. I'm not doing anything. I'm not going to lift a finger." If they see that you're going to be involved, helping them, that might help you. Now again, you don't want to step on their toes. Tell them, "Look, I'm willing to leave this to you. I'm just trying to get you as much information as possible." Right? Be the best of both worlds: involved, but not intrusive. Assisting, but not interrupting. If you can do that, you're going to get better quality contractors to work with you, and maybe get a lower price.

What about your job site? Well, even before you bring somebody out to look at your job site, clean it up. If there's old tools and toys and uncut grass and mud holes on your lot, they're going to look at it like this is going to be a hard job site to navigate. If you've got junk laying around and you know your deck has stuff scattered all over it or dog waste all over the yard, that's going to be something that's going to be a factor. So police up your yard, clean it up, mow it good. If there's overgrown weeds, cut it low so they don't have to worry about stuff that they don't want to get involved with. They're not a weed-cutting operation. They can hire somebody, but now they've got to bill you for that and mark it up. Get it cleaned up. Mark it out. Maybe put some little paint lines on the ground. Clean up all the junk—toys, tools, everything laying around. Make sure the access is good. Move old cars out of the way, and now they can clearly see open access because you want them to keep a neat job site. And if you already have it neat, it's going to set the example for them.

What about timeline? What do we recommend for timeline? A lot of times the builder is going to ask you, "How soon do you need it?" It's a trick question. "How soon do you need it?" You don't want to say, "Hey, it doesn't matter whenever you get to it." That's a bad answer. You might think that's good, and the builder is going to be like, "I could take whatever time I want," but it's actually a trap. You also don't want to say, "It's got to be done by this day." Either one of them is going to make that builder run for the hills. Because if you tell them, "It's got to be done by this day," even if that day is a year from now, that is a tough position to put them in. Because now it's a hard deadline. If you say, "Hey, it doesn't matter when it gets done," now you're not a really serious buyer for that builder because you don't really have anything concrete. Like you don't care when it gets done, which means you might not even care if it gets done, so you might not even be worth taking the time to make a bid. Because you’ve got to remember, when that builder puts together a bid, they’re investing three or four hours of their time. They're making up a bid, and they have plenty of things to do. They don’t have all day sitting around doing nothing. They don’t have an extra three hours to put together a bid if it's unlikely they're going to get it.

So here's what you say: "You can say, 'Look, obviously this project is something I want to do. I want to do this project, so obviously the sooner it gets done, the better. Because if I'm putting on this addition, the sooner I have my addition that I get to enjoy, the happier I'm going to be. So if I get to enjoy it sooner, that'll make me happier sooner. But there's also no hard deadline, like I don't have an event I need this for. So I guess, Mr. Contractor, the answer is, as soon as it gets done, is good, but also there's no hard deadline. How does that work for you?'” And ask them, and they'll tell you what their time frame is. They'll love that answer. A builder is going to love that answer—that you're serious, you want to get it done, and you see the value in having this done, but also that there's no hard deadline. You're not going to just be breathing down their neck over and over.

And the last thing you want to do to make sure you get called back is select your builder wisely. Look at five or six or seven potential contractors and look at the jobs that they've done lately. Look at their building permits they've pulled, look at their recorded documents for jobs that they've already done, and even jobs they're already working on right now. Look at their job site, look at their equipment, look at their personnel. You don't want to stalk them, but maybe drive by, take a look. Don't make it obvious because now you can talk to that builder a little more intelligently. "Look, I see that you do spray foam for this insulation. I see that you use zip systems for your outside. I see that you have a John Deere, you know, JD30 excavator, whatever it is." Now the builder knows you're interested in their world, right? It's a collaborative partnership. You're not just going to sit back and call the shots. You're interested in their world, so find out as much about them as you want them to know about you. You want them to know about your project, your interests, your desires, your outcome that you're looking for. And if you're interested in their business as well, then they're going to see it's a collaborative partnership, like, "Hey, you know, you busy this month? Yeah, we're busy. We're down a couple of people. Equipment is good," you know, whatever it is. Help be part of that collaborative process so that way it's a mutual working relationship.

Those are five things that can help you get a very good contractor to work with you or at least increase the odds of getting a better quality contractor and maybe even a lower price.