Not every GC is a customer: how to vet general contractors before you bid

Some bids cost you the estimate. Some cost you the whole job, because you won, did the work and then waited months to get paid. For a commercial division working with general contractors, the second kind can hurt far more than a lost bid.

Many owners getting into commercial respond to every invitation that arrives. More bids feel like more chances. In practice, chasing every GC wears out the estimator, spreads the team thin and puts the company on jobs where payment, changes and closeout were never going to go well.

This piece covers how to vet general contractors before you bid: what to look at, who should do it, and how to make bid fewer, bid better a habit instead of a slogan.

Why GC vetting is its own step

Qualifying an opportunity and qualifying the customer are related, but they are not the same thing. A job can be the right size, the right roof type and in the right area, and still be the wrong job because of who you would be working for.

If you already sort opportunities with pipeline qualification, treat GC vetting as a layer on top of it. The question is not only "should we bid this job?" It is also "do we want this GC as a customer, on these terms?"

What to look at before you bid

You do not need a thick file on every contractor. You need a few honest answers before estimating time gets spent.

• Payment history. How do they pay subs, and how long does it usually take? Ask other trades who have worked for them. Ask suppliers you trust. Look for patterns, not one bad story.
• Retainage and closeout. How much do they hold back, and what releases it? Is it tied to your scope or to the whole project finishing? How long does closeout tend to drag?
• Change orders. How do they handle extra work? Do they expect it in writing before it starts, or do they ask for it on the roof and argue later? Your scope discipline only protects you if the customer respects it.
• Access to the decision maker. Can you meet the project manager or the person who actually awards the work, or are you just a number in a bid log?
• Fit with your crews. Does the work match the systems you install well, the crew size you can commit and the schedule you can keep?
• The contract. Read the subcontract terms before you bid, not after you win. Have your attorney review anything you do not fully understand.

A GC who looks great on paper but pays slowly, fights every change and holds retainage for a long time may be a worse customer than one who sends fewer bids and pays clean.

Meet them before you estimate

Bid lists are easy to join and easy to waste time on. A short meeting, a call or a site walk with the GC's project lead tells you more than another blind bid.

Use that conversation to learn how they run jobs and how they treat trades. Ask what makes a roofer easy to work with on their sites. Ask how they handle schedule changes and who signs off on extra work. Listen for how they talk about the last roofer they used.

This also works in your favor. A GC who has met your team, seen your paperwork and heard how you run a job is more likely to bring you in earlier, on negotiated work, instead of only calling when they need a third number.

Build a simple go or no-go habit

Vetting only helps if it happens before the estimator starts. Put it in the flow.

1. A bid invitation arrives and gets logged
2. The person who owns win-work checks it against the opportunity qualification you already use
3. They check the GC against a short list: payment, retainage, changes, access, fit, contract terms
4. If the GC is new, the next step is a conversation, not an estimate
5. The decision and the reason get logged, so the team learns which GCs to pursue and which to pass on

Keep the list short enough that someone actually uses it. A handful of honest questions beats a long scorecard nobody fills out.

Review the bid log in the weekly operating rhythm. Over time, you will see which GCs turn into good jobs and which ones only produce estimating hours.

Who should own GC vetting

In many companies, the owner holds every GC relationship in their head. That works until the owner is busy, and then bids go out to whoever asked last.

Give vetting to the seat that owns win-work, often the commercial sales seat. The owner can still weigh in on large or unusual opportunities, but the default decision should not wait on one person. If it does, that is the owner bottleneck at work.

Connect vetting to getting paid

Vetting is where getting paid starts. A clean handoff and a solid billing rhythm help, but they cannot fully fix a customer who was never going to pay on time.

Tie what you learn on each job back into the next decision. If a GC stretched retainage or fought every change, note it. If one paid clean and closed out quickly, note that too. Your award handoff and cash collection rhythm produce the evidence. Vetting is where you use it.

A quick self-check

Before your estimator opens the next set of plans, check whether you know how this GC pays subs, whether you understand their retainage and closeout terms, whether changes need to be in writing before work starts, whether you have met the person who awards the job, whether the work fits your crews, and whether someone other than the owner made the call to bid. If those answers are fuzzy, the next step is a conversation, not an estimate.

Next step

If you want to think through which general contractors are worth bidding for your company, talk it through with our team. It is a one-on-one conversation about your company.