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My brother is an honest contractor in the Bay Area and he gets called several times per day by potential clients. The problem is that he can't scale to meet de
by hardtke 5y ago
My brother is an honest contractor in the Bay Area and he gets called several times per day by potential clients. The problem is that he can't scale to meet demand because of a dire shortage of labor and subcontractors (painters in particular at the moment). The contractors that will answer your call and give you an estimate tend to be what he calls "paper contractors" that don't have their own crew and subcontract out everything. These are the jobs that end up taking two years where there never seems to be anyone actually working. I don't think matching technology can fix the market -- what's needed is efficiency gains on the contractor side as well as some way to increase the labor pool.
- kornish 5y agoIs he...reasonably honest? (asking because as a bit of trivia, there's an SF handyman named Reasonably Honest Mike who's both hilarious and effective. http://reasonablemike.com/about.html http://reasonablemike.com/about.html)
- vm 5y agoWhat type of contracting does your brother do? We see what you’re describing with general contractors but rarely with plumbers who are our initial focus
- hardtke 5y agoMostly kitchen and bathroom remodeling. For some reason, plumbing is one of the few types of work where it doesn't seem to be as hard to find someone (at least in the Bay Area). Unless, as happened recently to me, you have a leaking shower drain in which case you are completely hosed.