How contractors get more work — and actually get paid

Property managers buy reliability, not the lowest price

Someone managing a portfolio has a tenant complaining and a unit to keep habitable. What they want is certainty: that you will answer, turn up when you said, and finish. That is worth more to them than being cheapest, and it is why the same few trades get called repeatedly.

Answering fast is the single highest-return habit in the trade. The first credible reply very often wins the job, and the third rarely does.

Quote so the number holds

Most disputes about price are really disputes about scope. A quote that says what is included, what is excluded, and what would change the number ends nearly all of them before they start.

• What you will do, in plain terms.
• What is not included — the sentence that prevents the most arguments.
• Materials: whose, and at what cost.
• What happens if you open a wall and find something else. Say it in advance.
• When you can start and roughly how long it takes.
• When payment is due, and how.

Getting paid is decided before you start

Chasing money after the fact is the least effective moment to deal with it. Nearly everything that protects you happens at the beginning.

• Get the go-ahead in writing, even a message that says "approved".
• Take a deposit for materials on larger jobs.
• Agree payment terms explicitly. "On completion" means nothing without a date.
• Photograph the work before, during and after. It settles arguments instantly.
• Invoice the same day you finish, while goodwill is highest.
• For long jobs, bill in stages rather than one sum at the end.

Know your own paperwork

The trades that get the steady portfolio work are the ones an owner can put on file without worrying: licensed where the trade requires it, insured, and able to produce both quickly.

Licensing is set by trade and by jurisdiction, and the requirements differ sharply between them — Québec's RBQ regime is not Ontario's, and neither resembles most US states. Check the register for your own trade and area rather than assuming.

Turning one job into ten

A landlord with a dozen units has a dozen recurring problems and hates finding new trades. That is the whole opportunity, and it costs nothing to pursue.

• Ask, at the end of a job, whether they manage other properties.
• Leave the site clean. It gets mentioned more than the work itself.
• Follow up once, a week later, to check it is still right.
• Be reachable in a way that suits them — many prefer a message to a call.
• Say plainly when a job is not for you. Owners remember it, and it comes back as the job that is.

Common questions