Reach out to local disaster relief agencies in your city for temporary help while you try to piece things together.  In the event of wildfires, agencies such as FEMA and the Red Cross will be willing to provide you temporary housing. Red Cross will also support you better in finding food and clothing for yourself and others who might have been affected by the fire.

1 Identify a couple of options

Ask your neighbors for recommendations, do a bit of online research, get someone local if you can (Woolsey fires: Malibu, Thousand Oaks, Hidden Hills and Simi Valley to Westlake Village), a general construction company is always close. Make a list of the ones you know and plan on working with. Keep the list to a couple of quality options. Afterwards, weed out the odd ones according to the subsequent guidelines.

2 Check their license

The state of California has standard practices in place which must be met before a legal general contractor can establish a business. If they are not licensed, don’t bother going further with them. To easily check if your preferred general contractor has a license to operate in the state, head over to the official Contractors State License Board website and run a simple search for free. Likewise, you should check if they are insured. That gives you the peace of mind that they will be able to pay for additional damages they might cause to your home. Without that, we do not advise that you pitch your tent with such a company.

3 Check reviews

The best way to know if a company is good at what they do is by checking customer/ client reviews. To get the true picture about a company, head over to independent review websites to see what people are saying. A company which doesn’t have online reviews to back up their services is usually a red flag. One without rave reviews is also a no-go area for you.

4 Check them out at BBB

The Better Business Bureau is another good place to check. Given that they are a non-profit organization, their opinions of businesses and companies are usually golden. See what the BBB thinks of the companies you are considering and you’ll have a better idea of whether or not they are a good contractor to work with.

5 Initiate contact

Following every step from above, you should have found a contractor who ticked all the boxes. Call/ contact them and let them know what you need. Ask them for a meet – which they would be more than willing to set up for you. This leads us to the final step.

6 Get a proposal

During your meeting, show them pictures of the damage. They will most likely want to inspect the site for themselves. That way, they can have a better hand on the degree of damage and how to work from there. Afterwards, the company should come up with a proposal for you. Ensure this proposal covers the changes you’d like seen in the rebuild. It must be detailed, actionable and reasonable. If it meets all those criteria, you should give them the go-ahead.

The style of the home you want, custom requests, funding and other factors can influence the duration of rebuild. On the average, your house should be ready again in about 12-14 months. Discuss with the general contractor beforehand so as to get their estimated timeline on your project. Going by everything here, you should be back on your feet – standing in your own house, that is – in no time again.