With the real estate market in its current state it’s essential for a real estate agent or house flipper to get the most profit out of every home sale. With most homes needing at least a little work to get the best sales price out of them, it’s essential to know exactly how to find and hire good handyman services or a good contractor depending on what you need done.
Personally I like to have a good handyman or two in my rolodex as I find them more versatile than contractors and they’re typically more willing to do some of the more mundane stuff, like a yard clean up or something, than a licensed contractor. But I should also note that sometimes you just need a licensed contractor for a bigger job or a more complex job and in those situations it’s best to go with a licensed contractor. But for everything else I like to use handymen because they get a lot done in a short amount of time and I only have to deal with one person versus several independent contractors.
The key to finding a good handyman is to review at least three to five good bids from several, well-qualified handymen or contractors. This isn’t practical to do before every single home you need to get ready for sale and that’s why it’s best to the job right the first time so you can just continue to use the same handymen over and over again provided they do a good job for you.
Initially getting started is the hard part since you’ll have to come up with the names of at least 3-7 handymen. I like to get a few more names than I need so I can eliminate a few during the screening process without having to go back and start all over again. To come up with these initial names I’ll ask anybody and everybody. While I would prefer to only use the names of handymen that were referred to me, that’s not always possible and it doesn’t really matter since I’ll be screening all the handymen before I ask them for a bid. If you need some suggestions on where to get referrals from, try your friends, family members, neighbors, work associates, other real estate agents, the local home improvement stores, hardware shops and don’t forget to use social networking sites like Facebook to ask your local friends for referrals as well… Now onto the screening process…
My screening process is actually quite simple. The first things I check for are the basics. I begin by looking for a local address and phone number. I look for handymen that have been in business for a long time and preferably handymen that have been serving my community for the same length of time. Now it’s time to check for complaints.
For checking complaints and checking out reviews I absolutely love the internet. I like to start out by doing a search in Google for the handyman’s name or business name and sorting through the results while looking for complaints and/or reviews. It’s also a good idea to do searches for the handyman’s name along with keywords like “complaints” or “reviews” to get more specific results. For more reviews and feedback from past clients you may want to check out sites like www.yelp.com or www.insiderpages.com. To finish my search for complaints and reviews I like to contact the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) and ask about any complaints that have been filed against the handymen I am pre-screening.
At this point you’re ready to contact the handymen and have them come in for a bid on your project. Before I ask a handyman to bid on a project I like to get on the phone and ask him what his favorite types of projects are or what his area of expertise is. The fact of the matter is that handymen come with a wide variety of skills and it’s really up to you to determine what a handyman is good at and what you should hire someone else for.
While I have him on the phone I also like to let him know that I’ll need to see some work references prior to hiring a handyman. Asking for and checking a reference is one of the best ways to ensure that you’ll be working with a reputable handyman. Too often homeowners will just ask for references and never check them and that’s a big mistake. To get the most out of references you’ll have to call them and ask about the handyman and his quality of work.
The biggest mistakes most homeowners make when hiring a handyman is they hire a handyman based on a personal reference (without further vetting the handyman) or they don’t check references. Unfortunately these mistakes can cost a real estate agent both time and money and that’s going to cut into your profits. Don’t let that happen to you. Follow the tips and advice above and make sure you find a good handyman to help prepare your homes for sale.
Related posts: