As a contractor, I've found that allot of people hire based on first meeting and how much they like the person that comes out. This is why the bigger companies hire salesman. They are very good at being frienly and telling you what you want to hear. The best contractor in the world might very have terrible people skills, but is a genious at what he does. He doesn't get the job because most of the time, he makes a very poor impression when meeting new clients.
Because you really don't know any of this when interviewing contractors, it's very, very important to get refrences and to check them. Most people also hire the first guy they talk to. Make it a point to talk to at least five. More is even better, but five will give you enough variables to educate yourself on what you never thught of. Then interview more, or concentrate on those refrences.
When calling refrences, be sure to find out about surprises and if they did what they said they would. Did they show up every day or start the job, then disapear for two months or more? Did they spend all day working on old equipment? How much time was spent blaming others for them not getting the job done? Lousy equipment is a sure sign of a contractor who's in it for the short term and doesn't understand about taking care of business. Find out if there bid price was solid, or if there was changes. If so, why were there changes? Was it the land owner who made the changes, or did the contractor do this? Was it a surpise in the soil or did he underestimate how much work it would be? Some times it's better to hire hourly, but you have to be careful that they don't run up the hours, or charge for down time spent fixing broken equipment.
Then ask the reference if they know of anybody else who has used the same contractor. If the contractor has some bad references, he's not likely to give those out to you. But if you ask the reference, they might know of others that the contractor didn't want you to know about.
Every job has it's issues and hurdles. If it's taken care of, and he's upfront about them, it's all good. If he tries to hide them, or lies about it, then you might want to find another contractor.
Good luck,
Eddie
