Great remodelers are a gold mine

Friday, February 26th, 2010

It may seem as an unlikely source for an opinion, but specialty trade contractors are a likely source to refer some of the best general contractors. Modern Tech Floors is a specialty trade contractor and we have worked with a number of general contractors around Portland. Over the years I have noticed that the following shared traits define the best remodelers:

1) Humble attitude about experience. They won’t tell you how much experience they have or how great they are. However when you ask them very detailed questions about a project they will have an answer or agree to finding an answer for you.

2) They encourage VERY thorough communication between homeowners and all parties to conduct the work. This avoids any chance of failed expectations, which I have seen waste thousands of dollars and countless hours for all parties on a project.

3) They listen intently and allow everyone to speak in turn, as opposed to the general contractor whose phone is about to explode with phone calls and is answering the call while you are talking to them. That is a huge sign of disrespect in my opinion.

4) They have a genuine love of people and that is what drives their process and how they work to help the customer get value out of a project.  They will inform customers where to invest money in a project based on experience so that they are yielded a project with great longevity.

5) They are diligent about paying all parties quickly. This is something so HUGE I cannot explain enough. We will perform much more responsively for a quick paying contractor. We generally avoid working for slow pay contractors because it is just an indicator of other potential problems in their business.

6) They have a team of specialty trade contractors (or “subs” even though I hate that word) who know each other and work like a well oiled machine. A remodeler that has a long time crew of the same subs really doesn’t even need to be at the job too much because the subs should almost be able to run the project amongst themselves.

If you would like a referral for a qualified general contractor in Portland, Oregon please feel free to call. We have a large list for enthusiatic referrals and will help make a good match to your needs.

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