So you've decided to hire a professional house painter in Minneapolis to paint your home. But with all the different house painting companies in the area, it can be difficult to find a good painter at a reasonable price.

The following tips will not only help you identify reputable house painters in the Minneapolis area, but will also save you loads of time by arming you with the right questions and information.

One place to start asking about painters is your family and friends. Other good sources

of referrals include contractors, real estate agents or a local paint supply store. Your city may even be able to provide a list of recommended painters who are familiar with the codes in your area. When asking for referrals, be sure to check the type of job the painter was called in to do. Also, it's important to determine if the painter specializes in residential or commercial work.

Another place to look for painting contractors is on the internet. You can type "house painters" or "Minneapolis house painters" into a search engine like Google, and you'll get more possibilities than you may know what to do with.

You can also search Angie's list (www.angieslist.com) to find reputable contractors and get reviews from customers, and check the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) as well.

Once you have found some possible companies, you'll need to contact them to get answers to questions like: Do they have a contractor's license? Can they provide references? How long have they been in business?

You should get more than one bid so that you can compare pricing and services and know that you aren't getting ripped off.

It's important to note that small business painters will be much more affordable because their overhead is lower.

If you have a big job, ask a number of painters and discard the cheapest and most expensive options. The cheapest will more than likely have underestimated and will sting you for it later and the most expensive may not even want your business because they have more than enough jobs to do.

For more information about finding a quality Minneapolis house painter, visit www.MinneapolisHousePainters.com