How to Choose a General Contractor: What the Bids Won't Tell You

The three-bid process is standard advice for a reason: it gives you price anchors and a rough market check. The problem is that it selects for willingness to give you a low number, not for reliability, craftsmanship, or communication. The lowest bid often reflects a GC who is hungry for work, who underestimates the scope, or who plans to recover margin through change orders once you're committed. Getting three bids is not a sufficient vetting process on its own — it's a starting point.

Beyond the bid, verify the following before anyone signs anything. Colorado requires a C2 General Contractor license for projects above $2,000. Ask for the license number and verify it at the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) — takes two minutes. Require a certificate of general liability insurance with at least $1 million per-occurrence coverage and workers' compensation insurance covering everyone on the job. Ask them to name you as an additional insured on the GL policy. If someone gets hurt on your property and the GC doesn't carry workers' comp, you can be liable. This is not hypothetical.

Check the permit record. Every substantial remodel in Denver requires permits — kitchen structural work, bathroom additions, electrical panel work, plumbing changes, and room additions all require city or county permits. The permit record is public. You can search the City of Denver's building permit portal by address or contractor. A GC who has been pulling permits for years in the Denver metro will have a trackable record. A GC with no permit history in the system for projects in your scope range is a red flag.

Reference calls matter but only if you ask the right questions. 'Did you like working with them?' is not a useful question — people who are willing to be references tend to give enthusiastic answers. More useful: 'Did the project come in on time and on budget?' And then: 'What was the first problem that came up on the job, and how did they handle it?' The second question is the revealing one. Every remodel project encounters an unexpected condition. How the GC communicates about it, absorbs it or charges for it, and manages the schedule around it tells you more about what it's actually like to work with them than any summary of the finished project.

Red flags that should prompt you to walk away: a GC who suggests you pull your own permit (this is a known tactic to shift liability to you and avoid the permit record). No written contract or a contract that consists of a one-page proposal without scope detail, payment schedule, and change order terms. A bid that is dramatically lower than the other two — not 10% lower, but 30-40% lower. Someone will pay for that difference, and it will likely be you through change orders, inferior materials, or abandoned scope. A GC who is unavailable or slow to respond during the bidding phase will be slower and harder to reach once they have your deposit.

Payment schedule is where you can protect yourself most clearly in the contract. Industry standard is 10–15% deposit to mobilize, progress draws tied to defined milestones (rough-in complete, drywall complete, finish work complete), and a 10% holdback at final until the punch list is complete. If a GC asks for 50% upfront, that is a warning sign — a financially stable contracting operation does not need half the project cost before the first day of work. Holdback protects you; don't negotiate it away.

The most reliable predictor of what it's like to work with a GC is how they communicate before you hire them. How fast did they return your initial inquiry? Did they show up to the walk-through on time? When you asked a question they didn't immediately know the answer to, did they follow up, or did you have to chase them? The communication pattern during the bidding phase is not an accident — it's a preview of how they'll manage your project for the next three to six months. Pay attention to it.