The thought of remodeling your property sounds great until you come to the realization that you'll have to screen, interview and hire home improvement contractors for the job. There are countless stories and articles written about incompetent and unscrupulous contractors that take advantage of, no doubt, innocent homeowners. The problem is that good contractors stay busy from word-of-mouth advertising and they are hard to find so a homeowner has to make an additional effort to find the good contractors and most won't do it. Read on to discover what you are able to do to find an excellent contractor.

Starting with a sizable list of contractors. I recommend you begin with a list of 5 to 10 contractors.

Personal references from people in your network are always a excellent place to start. Another good place to find referrals is from the local major materials suppliers, a first rate local general contractor and sometimes the local home improvement store. Since materials suppliers and general contractors work with sub-contractors on a consistent basis, they can be a boon for information and advice if you play your cards right. You can use a website like http://handyamerican.com/ to fill out the rest of the list. http://handyamerican is a f ree website that connects homeowners to local contractors.

You can begin screening as soon as you fill out your list of potential contractors. One of the very first things I recommend you check for is a license to operate in the state. You can check to determine if a contractor has a license by contacting you state's licensing board. You can usually check with a license number, a business name or a personal name so it's fairly easy to do. Getting a license isn't as easy as it sounds; a contractor is fingerprinted, has his background checked and is tested by the state prior to receiving his license.

Another area you actually need to spend some time on is looking for reviews and complaints for your contractors. You can Google the name of the contractor or his business name plus the word review or complaint to obtain started with the process. A great place to check with is your state's licensing board because this is typically the first place an irate homeowner will go to file a complaint about a contractor. You can also use Google to search for complaints and reviews. It's best to be cautious with websites that claim to pre-screen contractors and take their recommendations with a grain of salt.

At this point you should have crossed off a number of names from your list. It's now time to call the remaining contractors on your list to make them aware of some other requirements you have.

When hiring a contractor to do work on your home it is critical that he be properly insured. General liability and workers compensation are absolutely required. Hiring a contractor that is not properly insured could literally cost you your home. Do not hire a contractor who is not properly insured.

The next thing you want to discuss are referrals. Ideally you'll want to speak with some of the contractor's past clients and preferably see some of his past work if you actually need to gauge the caliber of the contractor. You should really press the contractors for references because nothing will help you feel more at ease about hiring a contractor then seeing real-life examples of his past work. It's also a reliable idea to ask the contractor to help you set up meetings with past clients so you can see real life examples of his work. a great contractor will understand that this will only help him get more customers.

Hiring a contractor can definitely be a nightmare.