Hiring a contractor can be a frightening experience. How do you know whether he or she is the right one for you and for the job? A recent article on MotleyFool.com, a premier multimedia financial education company, discussed ten of the most pertinent signs that the last thing you should be doing is dealing with this contractor.

Of course, trusting your gut instincts is an incredible part of all this; however, if a contractor is trying to swindle you, they will try to use your gut instinct against you: they will usually seem nice, which is the most important part of their scam. Along with your feelings, these ten signs should be watched for:

Excess Materials
Be extremely wary of contractors who happen to be in the neighborhood and have excess materials because they have just finished a neighbor’s project, and can therefore offer you a discount. The warning signs here are that (1) professional contractors should not order more material than is necessary for a job, and (2) legitimate contractors will assess each job based on individual needs.

Lack of Identification
The two things you should be looking for are (1) business cards that contain contact information, and (2) a proper street address (i.e., not a post office box). It is perfectly acceptable to have someone working out of his or her home, but it is decidedly fishy if they are using a post office box.

Hasty Quotes
If the job is very simple, or something basic for which they would have a standard rate, then a hasty quote is quite suitable. However, if the job is large, then never accept a quote that is oral, hasty, and/or written on a scrap of paper. For large jobs, estimates should be in writing, and broken down by the different costs for materials and labor.

No Referrals
Do not be fooled by a contractor telling you they have no referrals because they respect their clients’ privacy. A legitimate contractor will have the names and contact details of people they have worked with who have given them permission to give out their details.

Scare Tactics
Legitimate contractors will tell you that more damage, or leaving the item alone, could cause it to collapse within a year. A scare tactic is to say that the item will collapse any minute. Avoid contractors that are simply trying to help you avoid a lawsuit, or prevent your roof from collapsing on you during tomorrow night’s dinner.

Pressure Tactics
Equally disturbing are contractors who try to pressure you to sign up with them right now. Reasons can be due to ending specials or rising manufacturers’ prices; however, legitimate contractors will usually give you about a month to consider their bid, without the risk of rising estimates. Such pressure tactics are usually to prevent you looking elsewhere at bids that are more competitive or legitimate.

Cash Discounts
Offers of a cash discount are usually indicative of someone who is not declaring all of their income to the IRS. The big problem for you is that if something goes wrong, you will have no receipt, no guarantee, and therefore very little chance of recourse! Legitimate contractors will never carry on in this fashion.

Payments Upfront
There are circumstances when an upfront payment is acceptable, like when the job is large, there is a proper contract, and you have thoroughly screened the contractor. However, in any other circumstance, this request should trigger some warning bells. The last thing you want is to have your contractor disappear with 30% of your project budget!

No Written Guarantees
Every legitimate contractor should give you a written guarantee for his or her work, specifying what is covered, and how long it is covered for. Never accept an oral guarantee. Again, this is an attempt to disorient your gut-instinct, by making their oral guarantee sound incredibly genuine…maybe even better than a written one!

Referral Discount
Finally, you should be wary of contractors who offer you a rebate for referring friends, or a discount if they can use your property as show property. Although these can be legitimate offers, they are often simply ways to get the quote down to a competitive level. A little shopping around will usually yield equally low quotes, but without having to refer people, or be a showcase home.

You can never be 100% certain about the people you are dealing with, especially if you have to resort to randomly plucking a name out of the phone book. However, by watching out for these signs, you will significantly reduce the chance of being swindled by your contractor.

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