How To Get Your Contractors License | Fast And Easy| THE HANDYMAN BUSINESS |

welcome back to the handyman business YouTube channel today we're going to discuss a topic a very touchy topic I've been on YouTube making Home Improvement content for several years now and I've had a lot of interaction with uh the viewers via the comments I want to clear one thing up at the very beginning most places in the United States don't recognize the title handyman it's just something you call yourself or it's a type or style of hom maintenance work or home improvement work so I get a lot of comments that say um you can't do that you're a handyman well I can call myself the Easter Bunny but doesn't change the fact that I can do this handyman can't do that handyman can't do that well there is no handyman in a lot of places there is no handyman it's just a name I want to discuss how to get your contractor's license a lot of people think that it's this some impossible task and it's only reserved for the elite construction professional or the corrupt construction professional and in some places that's correct so I've worked in multiple States doing a large range of construction and Home Improvement projects from building hundreds of houses building probably hundreds of condos and Tow houses M it's not hard to build 100 condos in a 500 unit complex at one point in time the peak of my career I was closing 24 houses a month that was a short period of time at the end of a fiscal year where they were like we need more houses we need more closings we need more closings I was doing 24 closings a month it was ridiculous I've built hundreds of decks commercial decks done a lot of roofing a lot of siding a lot of electric God the list goes on and I've done it in a lot of different municipalities and a lot of different states so I have a lot of experience to uh to talk about uh even goes back to uh did my internship with a building department with the second largest city in the state is that a big deal it is kind of pretty much worked in the building department every single day I know the inner workings of Permitting among many other things that had to do with the building department so in most places all you have to do is go down to your building department and say I would like to apply to get my contractor's license they will say Okay fill this form out and pay this fee and that's it now on the form it's a basically an affidavit you put down your experience how many years you've been doing home renovations remodeling building houses additions you have to put down your insurance information and you have to list that municipality on your insurance most of everybody watching this video right now can go down and get a contractor's license and I'm going to refer to this guy that had submitted the question about separating himself from the competition he thinks he's losing ground uh happens to be in California uh they use they they spend a lot of money on putting on sting operations it's kind of baffling to me I've honestly never heard of it until I had a YouTube channel and people were telling me that this happens some places it's just going to be impossible and it's meant to be impossible because they don't want you to get a contractor's license who doesn't want you to get a contractor's license the large contractors in that City they don't want competition coming up from the bottom but a lot of cities it it's not that bad I'm to read you the requirements for my city and it's the largest city in the state 2 years of Building Construction field work as a construction Foreman okay uh for someone like me that that's pretty easy to come by um just building houses as a superintendent from from digging a hole actually from from site development to closing getting the CEO uh Foundation Framing and Roofing now what if you don't have that well you got to prove that you have that experience how do you prove it say you've been doing it off the under the table or off the books for a decade and you want to get a legit license where you can get notorized letters that show that you've done projects and they don't have to be projects in this municipality along with these requirements you have to pass an ICC exam not not a big deal at all if you went the superintendent route most likely your Builder sent you to the class to pass the test and they took care of all this for you we are going to have to take that test it's open book test there's uh online classes you can take like prep courses for that exam but that's all stuff that is not a roadblock what is the roadblock is the notorized letters all right this is where things get a little gray you need documentation in the form of notorized letters from homeowners past employers that's about it that's about all they're going to take you need to prove where the project was what it was the dates of start and completion to give you that 2 years of experience most handyman don't have Foundation management experience they don't have Roofing Foreman management experience and they've never managed uh the framing of a house in a lot of municipalities they have specialty licenses they've got ab and c and then there's a whole tier of specialty LIC licenses you can get a fencing contractor license no tests no letters no nothing you can get a roofing license no test no letters no nothing there's a remodeler license in a lot of municipalities where you don't need Foundation uh experience but you are an expert at remodeling a kitchen so you got to get on your building department and look for those specialty and Su levels of contractor's licenses that is a very important point uh you don't need a full residential contractor's license that that allows you to go out and build a house to a think like a threeory multif family is the lowest full contractor's license where I live how do you get these notorized letters well I'm just I'm just going to tell you you got to go find a buddy that works for a construction company and have him write you the letters that's how most smalltime guys that do remodeling get their residential contractor's license you got to know somebody that will write you that letter on a company letter head that will say that you were a foreman or a superintendent building houses for two years that's just the way it is for people who don't have that job it's impossible it's impossible to to to have that experience without having that job as an as as an employee building houses for a general contract it's unfortunate but that's just the way it is in big cities so just to recap easiest way is to go get a job as a construction superintendent and you have to manage the construction of a house from start to finish for 2 years well that's not the easiest way the easiest way is to get your buddy that works for that company to write you a letter that says that's what you did they do follow up they do call I don't know how many times I had guys ask asking me to write that letter I said no because I didn't want to lose my job and in fact one of our salesmen did that he wasn't even in construction he wasn't a superintendent a project manager or anything he was a Salesman that sold the house so what happened is he wrote a letter on the company letter head and they followed up with the main office and said hey uh we want to check on the employment status of this guy we we' got a letter from so and so that says he's worked there uh you know for several years managing the construction of your your homes that you're building and that guy got fired on the spot he'd been there for like 10 years and was fired instantly done so when you're in the construction industry uh it's good to make friends in that construction industry make friends with the foundation guys the roofing guys the framing guys form a Network and that network will give you the resources to get that license I know a guy that knows a guy that knows how to get you the license keep in mind this is Big City Construction politics it's just the way it is good luck out there questions put them down below or better yet submit them through patreon that's where most of them come from these days comment section on the main YouTube channel is crazy can't even keep up with it comments on this channel I only upload once twice a month so it's manageable feel free to have a discussion Below in the comments keep it positive keep it beneficial for other guys share your experience how you got your contractor's license share how often you actually use that contractor's license goodbye

Channel: The Handyman Business

Views: 615,803

Keywords: Markate, personal finance, small business, home improvement business, recession, handyman business, personal investing, marketing for self employment, self employed, sba, advertising during recession, handyman work, handyman jobs, remodeling business, manual labor jobs, business owner, contractor, highest paying jobs, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, investing, stock market, consumer confidence, contractor license, handyman license

Id: ddnF8j9uJC4

Length: 9min 18sec (558 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 12 2020