Most operators select a GC the wrong way. Here's what to look at instead.
Twenty-four years of construction management across 500+ projects teaches you something about how operators choose general contractors: almost universally, they start with price and stop there.
The lowest bid wins. Or the second-lowest bid wins, because someone told the operator once that you never take the low number. Either way, the decision is made on a number that represents, at best, an educated guess about what the project will actually cost — and at worst, a deliberate lowball designed to win the job and recoup the margin through change orders later.
Price is not the right selection criterion. It's not even in the top three.
Here's what to look at instead.
1. Relevant project experience — not just construction experience
There's a significant difference between a GC with twenty years of commercial construction experience and a GC with twenty years of experience building the specific type of project you're about to build.
A GC who primarily builds office tenant improvements has limited value on a QSR build-to-suit. A GC who builds medical offices doesn't know the mechanical complexity of a commercial kitchen. A GC who does big-box retail might have no idea how to handle the equipment coordination and hood suppression systems that determine whether a restaurant opens on time.
Before you put a GC on your bid list, ask for a list of comparable projects completed in the last 36 months. Not "commercial construction" broadly — specifically the same building type you're building, in the same size range, with a similar finish level. If a GC can't produce five comparable projects with references, they're probably learning your project type on your dime.
What to ask: "Of your last 20 projects, how many were [QSR / medical clinic / fitness / specialty retail]? Can I speak with the owner's representative on three of them?"
The references matter. Call them. Ask two specific questions: (1) Did the project close out within 10% of the original budget? (2) Were change orders presented with documentation showing the reason for the change, or were they sent as a lump-sum request?
2. Subcontractor relationships — the part of the GC's business you don't see
A general contractor is a coordinator. The actual construction — the concrete, steel, MEP systems, millwork, roofing — is done by subcontractors. The GC's ability to deliver your project on time and on budget depends almost entirely on the quality of their subcontractor relationships.
A GC with a deep bench of subs who have worked together repeatedly on similar projects coordinates faster, resolves conflicts faster, and builds a better product than a GC who is piecing together their sub list from lowest-bid responses.
The question you want answered: who are their regular MEP subs, and what percentage of their work do those subs represent?
If the GC tells you they competitively bid every trade on every project, that's a yellow flag — not necessarily a disqualifier, but a signal that their relationships are transactional rather than ongoing. Transactional relationships produce transactional quality: the sub does the minimum the specs require, because there's no expectation of the next job.
If the GC's response is "we've worked with [specific electrical sub] for twelve years and they work on 80% of our projects," that's the answer you want.
What to ask: "Who are your regular MEP subcontractors? How long have you worked with them, and how many of your projects do they participate in?"
3. Superintendent quality — not just principal availability
Every GC principal who shows up for the interview will tell you they'll be personally involved in your project. Most of them will not be personally present on your jobsite more than once a week.
The person actually running your project is the superintendent. They're on your site every day, managing sub schedules, resolving field conditions, making decisions about how to handle the gap between what the drawings show and what the existing conditions require.
Superintendent quality is the single biggest determinant of project outcome. A strong superintendent on a mediocre GC's crew will outperform a mediocre superintendent at a strong GC. And most operators never meet the superintendent before they sign the contract.
Ask to meet the superintendent who will be assigned to your project before you sign. Watch what happens: if the GC says they haven't assigned a super yet, that's a flag — it means they're capacity-planning, not project-planning. If they assign a superintendent after you ask, you'll have a sense of whether they're the A-team or the whoever's-available team.
In the meeting, ask the superintendent about the last project they completed in the same building category. Ask about one specific problem they had on that project and how they solved it. What you're listening for: specificity, accountability, and an instinct toward problem-solving over blame.
What to ask (of the superintendent directly): "What was the hardest problem you solved on the last project you finished? What was the issue and what did you do?"
4. How they handle bid clarifications — the signal that tells you everything
When a GC submits a bid with a long list of clarifications, exclusions, and qualifications, they're telling you something important: they don't fully own the number they're submitting.
Clarifications like "MEP bid is allowance pending final design" or "sitework is allowance pending geotech" or "structural steel is allowance pending final structural drawings" mean the GC is submitting a placeholder, not a price. The actual cost of those line items is unknown, and you'll find out what it is when the change orders come in.
A GC who submits a clean bid with a short list of specific, reasonable clarifications has done the work. A GC who submits a bid with twelve pages of exclusions has done a competitive exercise and left the risk with you.
The lowest bid on a project with twelve pages of exclusions is not a low bid. It's the beginning of a negotiation. And the GC who wins that way knows exactly how it ends — they make the margin on the other side.
When you receive bids, level them before you compare them. Pull each exclusion and allowance. Estimate what filling the gap would actually cost. Add it back. The true picture of what each GC is actually proposing is the leveled number, not the submitted number.
I've seen owners accept a bid $250,000 lower than the second number because the first bidder excluded the sitework. The sitework came in $380,000 over the allowance. The "low" bidder ended up being the most expensive project the owner ever built — and the owner had no leverage by the time they found out.
5. Financial stability and bonding capacity
A GC who doesn't have a surety relationship, or whose bonding capacity is thin relative to your project size, is a GC whose financial position is worth examining carefully. Bonding isn't a bureaucratic requirement — it's a credit check on the contractor.
Surety companies underwrite contractor financial statements before issuing performance and payment bonds. A GC who can't get bonded, or whose bond limit is substantially smaller than your project, either has financial distress the surety has identified or has never built relationships with a surety company because they've never been asked to.
For any project above $2M, require a performance and payment bond as a condition of contract award. The premium is typically 0.5-1% of the contract value — $10,000-$20,000 on a $2M project. It's the cheapest insurance you'll buy on a construction project.
What to ask: "What's your current bonding capacity, and who is your surety company? Are you bondable for this project at full contract value?"
If they're not bondable, disqualify them.
The practical framework
Before you receive bids:
- Prequalify GCs on relevant project experience and superintendent quality — only bid-list GCs who pass
- Require a superintendent introduction before award as a condition of bid
When you receive bids:
- Level bids before you compare them — account for every exclusion, allowance, and clarification
- Eliminate any GC who can't provide bonding capacity
Before you award:
- Call references on the last three comparable projects — ask specifically about budget performance and change order discipline
- Require a performance and payment bond as a contract condition
The GC who wins this process may not submit the lowest number. They'll almost always produce the lowest final cost — because the surprises are known quantities before you start, not invoiced surprises on a Tuesday in week fourteen.
Working through a build-to-suit and want a second set of eyes on the GC selection process? I've managed the GC evaluation on projects across fifteen states. I can help you level bids, structure the pre-qual questions, and identify the flags before you sign.