Hiring a Good Contractor
Fool's School

If you're in the market for a contractor to repair or spiff up your home, be thorough in your search. If you look in the Yellow Pages for a contractor, you might regret it (though you could get lucky, of course). Good contractors generally don't need to advertise - their services tend to be in great demand, and they're often overextended. A better way to go about it is to ask around and collect recommendations. Keep an eye out for neighbors having work done, or houses you pass by that are getting impressive facelifts.

Once you find some contenders, here are a few more tips:

• Check them out. See whether they have any marks against them with the Better Business Bureau and your state contractor board, and check your local courthouse, too, to see whether they've been involved in any lawsuits.

• Check their references and go look at some jobs they've done. Get some older references, too, so you can see how well their work held up over time.

• Check their licenses and insurance, too. Make sure nothing has expired. The www.contractors-license.org

Web site can help you.

• Get several estimates for your job, and ask that they be detailed and itemized, including materials, so that you can compare apples to apples. You shouldn't necessarily go with the lowest bid, but the range of prices you get will help you decide.

• Get your contract in writing, and keep records of everything, in case something goes wrong.

Contractors doing any of the following may want to rip you off, so be careful: soliciting business door-to-door, demanding only cash payments, offering unusually long guarantees, requiring payment in full at the outset, pressuring you to decide on the spot, offering to help you borrow money.

Learn much more about dealing with contractors at www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/ pubs/services/homeimpv.shtm and at www. fool.com/homecenter, which also features tips on buying or refinancing a home.