By Suzana Mikolova 
Finding a contractor is a headache in home repair, causing the most anxiety of all phases. In a contractor you are looking for someone trustworthy who puts effort in a good job and charges a decent price. Unfortunately, contractors cannot offer guarantees. However, do your homework and you can improve your odds, finding a winning home remodeling contractor can take a ton of weight of your shoulders and relieve you of that throbbing headache.
The Overseeing General Contractor
General contractors are the people hired to oversee your project, responsible for managing every aspect of the project. Purchasing material, hiring sub-contractors is all included in the expectations of a general contractor. Usually, a contract is signed between the contractor and the party needing work performed, in order to ensure payments only be made to him. At that point, the contractor is responsible for being sure the sub-contractors and suppliers get paid. The general contractor act as a general in the military would, you can go to them if you have any concerns.
How to Find a Reputable Remodeling Contractor
Common knowledge tells us to get at a minimum three bids on the project. Most people would say ask around at your local hardware shops like Lowe’s or Home Depot and consider the word-of-mouth candidates. Ask your friends and family, even neighbors about remodeling contractors they have used in the past. In this field it’s important to believe in your instincts, consider if the contractor respond back to you promptly did they show up early or on time to your appointment? In meeting with the contractor pay attention to see if they answer questions with elaboration ask for references, lay out the expectations of the job. After the meeting has concluded ask yourself if the communication between the potential client and contractor was where it needed to be? Most importantly, you need to be sure that you can be comfortable speaking directly to this person throughout the entire process of your project you will be communicating back and forth.
Bidding
When asking contractors to bid jobs make sure you provide an identical scope of work with your plans, also include a materials list. You want every contractor to receive identical plans, otherwise they will be bidding upon different basis then you will have inaccurate bids for comparison which probably wont work out well for you. The remodeling contractor should send you bids in writing that contain itemized labor charges and a list of material.
References
When your contractor submits their references, put forth effort in checking the credibility of the reference, call and find out if it is okay that you do a drive by to take a look at the work personally. Before signing the contract, it would be a good idea to check up on how this person conducts business. Run a background check, you probably don’t want a person who is a known burglar in your house. Confirm the contractors worker’s comp as well as the liability insurance, be absolutely positive that the contractor does not have multiple lawsuits against them.