How to Hire a General Contractor is a new online e-book, written by HOME ARCHITECTS ®. It is now available for general distribution.
The e-book, How to Hire a General Contractor is 21 pages long and beautifully formatted and intended to be only for electronic consumption by the public. No hardcopy edition is planned. Since this architectural firm designs custom residences and has for decades, they are one of the most knowledgeable sources of information relating to the design and construction of your residential project. The firm has written multiple books about the subject, which can be found on the new website format .
To Hire a General Contractor: the How – to process
The term: How to Hire, means in this context: the process through which you are led to advance, resulting in the actual selection and signing of an agreement with the General Contractor that will build the design of your house. In this example, the “design” is meant to be the documents defining the design of your house created by an Architect.
The book, How to Hire General Contractor, makes a point in its preface that it is about hiring a GENERAL Contractor. By that, a LICENSED General Contractor. Not a “builder” or a “construction guy,” like HGTV and other “reality” shows pretend to suggest as their construction workforce. The company is talking about real, professional, licensed General Contractors (GCs). There is a big difference.
With that established, the book makes a point that not all General Contractors are good and not General Contractors are bad. And some are in-between, just like any group or trade. The important point is made that the General Contractor selected must respect all of the project team members, just as they deserve respect, so that the team can work together effectively.
How to Hire a General Contractor : 10 Lessons
The book is broken down into 10 Lessons:
Lesson 1: Hire Your Architect First
Lesson 2: License (of the General Contractor)
Lesson 3: Complaints
Lesson 4: Bidding
Lesson 5: Organize Your Finances
Lesson 6: See For Yourself
Lesson 7: Meet with the General Contractors AFTER the Bids
Lesson 8: Final General Contractor Evaluation
Lesson 9: Hire Your General Contractor
Lesson 10: Finalize Your Construction Funding
Click the photo above to see the company’s Bidding-Pricing Services page.
How to Lesson 1 brief:
You are counseled to hire the Architect first, quite simply because, the Design comes before the Construction. And also because your Architect will be your greatest ally in finding the most appropriate licensed General Contractor for you to hire. How this happens is spelled out in the book. And Architects design. Builders build. Neither should try to do what the other does. Mastering either of these tasks is a full-time job. The Architect helps you find and hire the General Contractor.
How to Lesson 2 brief:
Only hire a LICENSED General Contractor. The USA and the world is full of misery created by the unlicensed variety. What you spend on a licensed firm you reap with more quality and durability. Get what you pay for.
How to Lesson 3 brief:
Your Architect knows how to investigate the license and complaint file of your interested General Contractors. Complaints need to be exposed to the light of day and examined to see if they are a trivial matter of administration or misunderstanding, or if they are identifying really bad, wrongful deeds committed during the construction of the houses the General Contractor has built. You really need to know this. Forewarned is forearmed.
How to Lesson 4 brief:
Have your Architect manage the Bidding process for you. Very few lay people (those with little to no construction experience) understand what General Contractors are doing, much less what they are pricing, or how to answer technical questions that occur while the Contractors are pricing the work to create proposals. Your Architect can keep everything “Apples to Apples” rather than “Apples to Oranges.” This is so that your Architect and you can properly evaluate the bids. There is a lot more to this. Read the book.
How to Lesson 5 brief:
Get your money. Be ready to spend it on your project. Your bids from the General Contractors, obtained through your Architect’s managed bid process will help you inform the lending institutions what you need.
How to Lesson 6 brief:
Personally drive to and walk through a couple of the houses previously built by the General Contractors that you are considering finalists from the bidding. Take photos and notes and talk with the past clients of the builder that live in the house.
How to Lesson 7 brief:
Meet with the General Contractors that you deem a finalist AFTER receiving the bids from all bidders. Meeting with them before this only wastes your time. Your Architect has detailed what you want and his documents have informed the bidding Contractors. After you see their numbers is the time to discuss hard cold facts and cash to see if you can afford to build what you want.
How to Lesson 8 brief:
You and your Architect evaluate the General Contractors. Your Architect can rank them in a spreadsheet, along with pros and cons and bid amounts. There may be some review at this point of you and possibly your Attorney of possible finalist Contractor contracts for legal review.
How to Lesson 9 brief:
Hire your General Contractor and sign and agreement for him to build your house, “subject to funding”.
How to Lesson 10 brief:
Get your money ready to be used now. Your lender will want to see your agreement with your Contractor.
YOU SHOULD NOW BE UNDER CONSTRUCTION!
There is a lot more detail in the online e-book. Download it now. Look for the image of the book on this page and click it.
Contact Architect to design your custom house and help you hire your General Contractor:
Rand@HomeArchitects.com 828-269-9046
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