How to Recruit Contractors and Build a Real Depth Chart

TLDR

The strength of your flipping business is tied to the depth of your contractors pipeline. Ross explains how to profile candidates, scout them, and maintain a first string, backup, and third string by trade.

Table of Contents

• The Four Practical Contractor Roles.
• How to Profile a Contractor Before You Say Hello.
• The Non-Negotiables.
• Where to Actually Find Them.
• How to Approach Them Without Being Weird.
• Building the Depth Chart.
• FAQ.

The Four Practical Contractor Roles

Before you can recruit, you need to know what you’re recruiting for.

Ross grouped the roles slightly differently in the two recordings behind this lesson. Taken together, they describe four practical buckets.

Specific-job contractors include plumbers, electricians, roofers, and siding crews. They focus on one trade or a small set of related trades. They are often easier to locate and efficient at their specialty, but waiting lists and extra trade handoffs can create more coordination.

All-arounders are the meat and potatoes of Ross’s operation. They may handle flooring, carpentry, cabinets, tile, and cleanup. One crew covering several jobs can create repeat-work and cost efficiencies. The tradeoff is that you need clear checkpoints, and pricing can creep as the relationship becomes comfortable.

Handymen are experienced bottleneck breakers who can solve the smaller problems between trades. They are flexible, but Ross describes them as expensive by the hour and often difficult to schedule.

General labor is useful for directed work such as cleanup. This role takes more supervision, so confirm worker classification, pay, and insurance before using it.

The exact work still has to fit each person’s skill, license, insurance, and the permit rules. Build your core pipeline around all-arounders, use specialists where their trade focus helps, and keep handymen and lawful general labor available for the gaps.

How to Profile a Contractor Before You Say Hello

The recording gives a blunt scouting shortcut: Ross tends to pass on the billboard, polo-shirt, and wrapped-truck operation because its overhead often shows up in the bid.

That sounds harsh. Here’s why Ross avoids them. Larger branded operations have marketing, sales, office, and crew overhead. Their price has to carry it.

His usual target is an owner-operator or small crew that is still hands-on. In the recording, the plain white van, magnetic sign, work clothes, and tools are visual clues that help him decide who to approach.

Those clues are not proof of price, skill, safety, or reliability. They are not a hiring screen. The scope, bid, required documents, availability, and actual work decide whether someone gets the job.

Here is the spectrum Ross describes in the recording:

Ross treats the low end as higher delivery risk and the high end as higher cost. His target is usually the middle. That is a portfolio preference from the lesson, not a promise that every business fits the label.

Ross also says his own results with multiple-crew operators have been poor. He found them harder to manage and too expensive for his model. Treat that as his experience, then judge the actual company in front of you.

Ross’s target is usually an owner-operator or small crew that is hands-on and wants repeat work. Verification still comes before hiring.

The Non-Negotiables

Before work starts, collect and verify the documents that apply to the trade, worker relationship, project, and jurisdiction:

• Verify general liability insurance.
• Verify workers comp coverage or a lawful exemption.
• Verify each license required for the trade.
• Collect the tax and business forms that apply.

The transcript also tells investors to confirm lawful work status. Do that through the process required for the actual employment or contracting relationship. A photo ID, W-9, business entity, license, or insurance certificate proves only what that document covers. None of them alone proves lawful work authorization, independent-contractor status, or every hiring requirement.

You do not need to request documents during the first scouting conversation. Before work starts, verify licenses in the official database and confirm insurance with the issuing agent or carrier. Make sure the policy covers the work and dates involved.

Where to Actually Find Them

Ross does not start with polished websites. His view is that a large sales and ad budget often reaches the bid through overhead. That is his sourcing choice, not proof that an online firm is a bad hire.

Match the search method to the role. Ross prioritizes in-person scouting for all-arounders. For specialists, online and phone listings can fill the funnel quickly; ask for a nonbinding typical unit price, such as a roofer’s price per square, to see whether you are in the same range before requesting a real bid. For handymen, ask about hourly or service charges and whether they actually want investor-grade rehab work.

Here’s what does work.

Home Depot or Lowe’s. Ross says he found 90% of his contractors this way at the time of the recording. His aim was to meet the business owner, not recruit one person’s worker behind their back.

Trade supply houses. The recording names HVAC, power, and pipe supply stores as places to meet licensed trade firms. Follow the store’s rules and do not slow down a person who is there to work.

Gas stations and other ordinary stops. If the timing is respectful, a work vehicle may give you a reason to introduce yourself and ask what kind of work the person does.

Driving for dollars, contractor style. Notice crews doing good work in the neighborhoods you already drive. Do not enter a site without permission, interrupt active work, or try to poach a crew from another investor’s job.

Local Facebook groups. Ross looks for people who post that they want handyman or trade work. The post is a lead. It is not a license, skill, or safety check.

Thumbtack. Ross used it because he saw a lower barrier than larger lead sites. Platform rules and fees can change. Treat it as one lead source and run the same checks.

Referrals, with care. Ross is wary when another investor gives away a core crew. He puts more weight on a trade-to-trade or agent referral because the source has a name to protect. That is his filter. Verify every referral the same way.

Advanced: official license lookups. Where the trade is licensed, search the responsible state or local board. The recording describes looking for electricians by license age and online presence, then calling prospects. Use the official record to verify status and discipline; do not treat a database entry alone as proof of fit.

How to Approach Them (Without Being Weird)

You meet a contractor at a supply store. The moment is respectful and store policy allows it. Here is the kind of conversation Ross describes.

Don’t interrogate him about rates right out of the gate. Flip it to yourself.

“Hey man, drywall, right? I’m a real estate investor and I’m looking for a drywall contractor. I have a real job coming up. We work hard to set clear scopes and pay approved work fast. Would you be interested in looking at it?”

The useful signals are a real opportunity, a clear process, and reliable payment. Only promise repeat work when that is true.

If you don’t have a job ready to show him, that’s fine. Don’t manufacture urgency. Get his number, tell him you’ll be in touch, and follow up the next day: “Hey, it’s the guy from Home Depot. Just making sure I had the right number. I’ll be getting you out to look at something soon.”

That text locks it in. Now you have a warm contact.

Don’t misrepresent where you’re at. If you’re about to close on your first house, say so. Describe the real job without inventing a track record.

Building the Depth Chart

Think like a football team. You need a starting quarterback, a backup, and a third string.

Your first-string all-arounder? You’re reaching out every few weeks to keep the relationship warm. Your third-string guy? He’s in the list. You’ll call when you need him, but you’re not babysitting that one.

Keep a CRM (even a simple spreadsheet) organized by trade. All-arounders, roofers, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, drywall, flooring. Your all-arounder list will be the longest and that’s right.

Ross says he has built a list of hundreds over years of ABR: always be recruiting. When he moved and started from scratch, building that list felt daunting. The depth of the list became part of the strength of the operation.

When something goes sideways on a job, and it will, you need to know you can pick up the phone and have a replacement. That confidence only comes from a full depth chart.

Never stop recruiting. Not when you have great guys. Not when jobs are going well. Always.

FAQ

Do I need to work with the same contractors every time?

Not necessarily. Ross’s system keeps a first string, backup, and third string by trade. Keep the strongest relationships warm while continuing to recruit replacements.

Can Facebook groups or Thumbtack produce useful leads?

Yes. Ross looks for people actively seeking work in local Facebook groups and uses Thumbtack because it has a lower barrier than larger lead platforms. Those are scouting sources, not substitutes for the profile and pre-work verification.

What do I do if a contractor can’t provide insurance?

Do not start the job until you have verified the insurance or state exemption required for that trade, project, and jurisdiction. Ross treats general liability and workers’ compensation documentation as pre-work gates.

I’m on my first flip. How do I get contractors if I have no track record?

Be honest about where you’re at. Ross’s example is: “I’m about to close on a house as a real estate investor, and I was looking for somebody to do drywall.” Give the contractor a real opportunity to look at the job without claiming experience you do not have.