Howdy again mattifer! No we don't know anyone in Cleveland and finding good contractors was our biggest headache because the banks would always require bids but no one wanted to give bids more than once or twice if they didn't get the work and we had one contrator who would underbid everyone.
The best way we found to handle it was to find two contractors who were very close in price so that they would usually take turns getting the jobs, of course the banks made the decisions and always went with the cheapest no matter what we recommended.
But I don't know if you're asking for your personal use on this rehabb or for your professional use as a Realtor so my information is probably useless. lol. Retail Realtors never had a clue as to what we did, that's how different an animal the REO's are.
The only way to do it is to just go by trial and error unless you know contractors personally and have seen their work. But we went through tons of contractors until we found a few that were similar in price. That process took a few years and they were still our biggest headache!
I'd say I'm asking for both reasons. We are doing the bulk of the work ourselves on this home, but in the future we plan to incorporate home rehabs into our nonprofit, The FairCosa Foundation. The idea is that we work with the Land Bank and/or HUD to purchase $1 homes, fix them up, then sell them to folks trying to get 'restarted' at significantly below market value. That will allow them to own a decent home, positively impact the value of the communities in which we work, and also support the Foundation. Good contractors will be a must for that!
Howdy mattifer! that's a noble goal there, I love the concept. If no one else is doing it then you guys can be the trail blazers!
Thanks for the vote of confidence! :-)