[Zeke]

Another way to get leads on subs is to visit any ongoing work. I always tell people when they ask for a referral to patrol the neighborhood, indeed, the city, looking. Also contact neighbors and friends that had recent work done.

Any contractor is only as good as his current employees. They do come and go. Low turnover usually means the contractor is a decent person to work for and work is steady.

An ex partner of mine was greedy and would not hire (pay) good enough wages. It showed in his work and his turnover. As soon as he had a bit of slack they'd leave for greener grass. It wasn't worth waiting to go back to work when they were making low wages.

The moral of the story is that his work level rose and fell with each cycle of employees.

One thing I can say good about him was that he was on the job every day as an owner/operator. I want the contractor to be available at all times. Especially here where the job language default is Spanish. Way too many Spanish speaking folks acknowledge what you've said and didn't understand any of it. That's the rule more than the exception.