5 Things Your General Contractor MUST Be Good At
Tags: Condo Remodeling, Marco Island, Florida, General Contractors, Home Improvement

5 Things Your General Contractor MUST Be Good At Growingcitycorp Mar 4·7 min read

With over 27,000 general contractor firms in the U.S. and many of them working here in sunny Florida, there are definitely some contractors that you DON’T want to do business with. But how in the world are you supposed to know who’s good and who isn’t? Unless you have extra time on your hands, you probably don’t want to spend too much of your energy requesting dozens of quotes and “interviewing” all of these people to see if it’s the right company for the job at hand.

To save you time and potential headache, let’s look at five of the most critical components that a general contractor must be good at in order to weed out the good from the bad in less time. We’ve not listed this in any particular order. It’s all important!

Here’s the overview of what we’re going to look at…

They Need to be Easy to Reach They Must Be a Good Listener They Have to be Able to Identify a Client’s “Wants” vs “Needs” They Ought to be “A-Z Qualified and Ready” For Your Project They Better Be Able to Stick to Deadlines and Budgets

Hiring a top-notch general contractor begins with some initial communication, so let’s start there.

Your General Contractor Must Be Easy To Reach

This seems so obvious but there are a lot of “professionals” in the industry that don’t seem to know how to answer their phone or return a call. If you expect anything to be done even halfway right, then they better be good at customer relations. Many times general contractors are extremely busy especially if they are good at what they do. But the best contractors excel at managing their “hammer-swinging” duties as well as their responsibility of communication to the customers that keep their company alive. Just like any business, it’s really the customer that pays the electricity bill.

Communication must be good all the way through the project too. Keep in mind that some contractors can make a great first impression and then once you’ve paid them to start the project, they seem to fade away or drag their feet on everything. We suggest doing your due diligence of googling the company and looking for reviews. And if they don’t have any web presence or reviews, that’s a strong indicator that you may want to look for a different company to handle your project. This is not worth rolling the dice on.

Your General Contractor Must Be a Good Listener

If you’re going to hire a general contractor to lead and execute your next condo unit, or commercial project, they need to be a good listener. Yes, they are the expert and it is their job to understand the specific complexities and overall steps to complete the project. But they also need to hear what your goals are and the overall reason behind the project in the first place. Something that comes along with good listening is the ability to recite back what they’ve heard and inject their professional outlook into the conversation. At the end of the day it’s your project, not theirs. A less than ideal contractor may very well take your project and run with it, carrying out their ideas instead of truly creating the vision that you have set out to achieve.

The initial conversations and walk-throughs should be a dialogue between you and the professional that better defines what can and cannot be done as well as what should and should not be done within the scope of a particular project. Let’s look at this in greater detail.

Your General Contractor Must Understand a Client’s “Wants” vs “Needs”

When Steve Jobs first set out to create the iPhone, nobody was asking for it. Nobody wanted it. But he knew that people were going to need it in the near future. His mission became that of giving people what they needed before even knowing that they would want it. A good general contractor knows how to distinguish the difference between what a customer needs, versus what they want. It’s true that we think we know what we need, but in reality many times, only the professionals in that particular field truly know what it is that we need — assuming they did a good job listening in the initial stages of the conversation. We may say we want something included in our project, but there may be a cost associated with it we may not recognize yet.

For instance, a retired couple wants so badly to have a fireplace in their new living room remodel. Seems doable right? Well technically it is, unless they live in a condo, then that’s probably a no-go for many reasons. But a good contractor knows that wood-burning fireplaces are tough to work with given that all the wood has to be hauled inside, perfectly placed in the fireplace, and managed with heavy iron tools so as not to get burnt. There’s a lot of back-breaking work that is involved with the dream of cozying up by the fire with a good book in the living room. In this case, a good contractor would recognize that their “need” is a comfortable atmosphere that allows her to stay warm and enjoy peaceful moments at home. Maybe that contractor would suggest a remote-controlled electric faux fireplace that’s equipped with a heating feature, a beautiful flame replica display, and even the emulated sounds of a crackling fire that is authentic and soothing. This solution would satisfy their “wants” and allow for the “need” of being hassle-free given their age and lifestyle.

This point is not to be confused as though your contractor should change up all of your plans. But they must know how to protect the safety and longevity of your investment by considering your “wants” and prioritizing your “needs”. They need to be good at communicating this to you as well.

Your General Contractor Ought to be “A-Z Qualified and Ready” For Your Project

One of the great perks of hiring a general contractor is that GC’s are licensed to handle every aspect of a home or condo project. Many general contractors will hire out portions of the job to subcontractors that specialize in a certain craft or skill. For instance, bringing in an electrician for the wiring of your new kitchen, while a plumber from a different company is handling the water lines and drains. Although this “Tetris-like” coordination and strategy is not at all uncommon, it is still a major juggling act that requires intelligent high-level strategy while accounting for every inch, every detail, and more importantly, every penny of your budget. Just because someone is technically licensed, doesn’t mean they are very good at keeping up with this monumental responsibility. There are plenty of horror stories of general contractors that lost leadership over their sub-contractors who ended up bailing on the project and ditching a 30% completed job site. Imagine being the homeowner that comes home to a kitchen with exposed wires, no flooring, no sink, and your contractor won’t pick up the phone. Don’t let that happen to you.

Let’s shift back to the ideal and very attainable scenario, where you only have to meet with one person and one company to dream up, plan out, and execute an entire custom home build or renovation. Your general contractor doesn’t cut corners in the quality of laborers, they update you at every checkpoint along the way, and they are just as invested in the project outcome as you are! That’s what we’re talking about. Make sure you ask them how they plan to fully execute the build-out and feel free to ask about the companies that they may subcontract. If they seem “A-Z” ready, and can answer your “A-Z” questions confidently. You’re on the right track.

Your General Contractor Better Be Able to Stick to Deadlines and Budgets

The final and arguably most important trait your general contractor must have is the ability to stick to the plan. And by that, we mean deadlines and budgets. It’s extremely important to your calendar and your wallet. If you’re about to start a full kitchen remodel in late August and the plan is to host fifteen members of your extended family for Thanksgiving dinner, then there’s a lot riding on the general contractor to keep the project moving along.

We’ve all seen the HGTV renovation shows where the hosts are working down to the last minute to get everything ready for the big reveal. That only happens because there is a timeline that cannot be extended whatsoever. That’s the type of hustle and professionalism your general contractor must-have. But ideally, your project deadline would leave you with a little more time to spare before the aunts and uncles arrive!

The same thing goes for budgets. Your general contractor must be able to stick to the budget once a quote is proposed and everyone is in agreement. However, sometimes things change and there may be unexpected costs that pop up. Which in that case a professional general contractor should remind you of this potential reality before the project gets underway. Communication is key before, during, and at the end of the renovation project.

These five attributes should be found in any general contractor that you consider hiring. No matter the size and scale of the project, finding a top-notch general contractor is imperative to the end result, as well as the journey to get there.

We hope that you found this article valuable. What your thoughts? Are there any other items that we should’ve mentioned? Do you have a personal story that relates to what we’ve discussed here? We would love to hear from you!