When, as the holiday lyrics have it, “the weather outside is frightful,” that makes it a good time to start planning the coming year’s home improvement projects. If you wait for ideal weather conditions to begin laying out your plans, you’re likely to wind up well behind schedule before you even start.

If the home improvements you are contemplating can be handled by yourself, you are probably a Do-It-Yourselfer who knows that you’ll need your ducks in a row before you pull the first nail or make the first cut. Having plans drawn and materials at the ready saves time and work (but you know that).

Should the scope of your contemplated home improvements go beyond the DIY approach, if you have experience in overseeing similar projects in the past, you know how important it is to hire the right tradespeople. True Beverly Hills crafts professionals are perpetually in demand not only because of their skills but because of that demand. It means that they don’t create more work than is necessary or stretch out a project to fill their week—their week is already spoken for (and the weeks after, too!). The issue is more that of reserving sufficient time for any given project. A corollary is that the more experience Beverly Hills tradespeople have under their belts, the more skilled they are at accurately projecting time requirements.

If you haven’t tackled any major home improvement projects before—or even if you have, if your own time is fully committed elsewhere—finding the right Beverly Hills contractor to shepherd your job is all-important. The best Beverly Hills contractors can be scheduled well in advance, so if weather factors into your initiative, winter is the ideal time to get planning underway.

How to find the right Beverly Hills contractor follows some familiar action steps—

Gather recommendations from friends with success stories and from experienced Beverly Hills real estate professionals (like me, of course!)
Call the likely candidates. A phone interview should provide you with a preliminary impression and a list of past clients you can contact
Meet the few who make your short list. Discuss the scope of the job; request preliminary cost and time estimates
After you make your decision, make sure scope and schedule are in writing—including bonus payments (it’s sometimes a good idea) and penalties. One thing to always keep in mind is that some of the most expensive words in the English language are “while you’re at it.”
Of course, a fast way to get started is to contact me in that first action item. We can discuss a short list of Beverly Hills’s best contractors—as well as some go-to tradespeople who have proven their value to my clients in the past. As with all your Beverly Hills real estate questions, we’re always happy to help!