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My recent experience in choosing Handyman is not so good however, I realized loking back, there re lots of issues to consider - I am talking beyond the usual references, conversation.

First of all, let me go through what happenned so far - I looked up Craigs list for handyman as well as obtained a list of handyman reference from my friends network, invited a few unlicensed handyman to redo my bathrooms - essentially remodel THREE of my bathrooms. TWO of the remodels are very intense - they need intense changes to plumbing, rework wiring while one of the remodel was only re-tile and install new vanity. As soon as I realized this, I chose a handyman (I am not rich to bring in a licensed contractor) who came with good references. Guess what? He came in, did the demolition of one of the bathroom and disappeared! He later on reported back with a fictitious story however, I went through a very tensed week and a half looking for a new handyman.

 This time, I changed my strategy - network or high references, these are not enough. I had to find a person who is not only reliable to work with but also competent. As said above, my bathrooms needed plumbing, wiring and re-tiling besides the minor skillset of demolition, etc. Here is what I decided:

a. Usual things first: Conversation: ask questions what is the challenging issue and why? How long to complete and why?

b. Second: How much of your experience is plumbing, electrical wiring and tiling?

c. Check the references. Did they deliver satisfactorily, were they flexible to hear your ideas, did they give you good ideas, did they clean-up before they left, what were the payment schedules, did they maintain their schedules etc.

For 3 handymen I shortlisted, 2 of them fared well for a. b. while the other handyman group who were yalking a lot failed in a. It sent me a message, although they spoke a lot, they were not competent. Of the remaining 2, basic reference check of quality deliverables passed just fine however, one of them was slow with attention to details and a good listener and second one did not clean-up before they left.  I chose the first one over the second not because they did not clean up however, I chose him because, he was slow and was paying attention to details.

So far, he has demolised both teh bathrooms and completed plumbing for both. I will write again to see what happens.