[dcldcl]

1. Keep talking to people who've finished projects. Eventually you'll get to people who recommend their GC.

2. If you've run out of people to chat up, try going to your city's build permits department and see which builders have been getting permits in the last few years. Not a guarantee of quality, but gives you a list to interview.

3. Ask for referrals from your architect or engineer. And then ask the referrals for references.

But even if you do this, finding a good GC in Silicon Valley is very hard right now.

I tried getting contractors to bid almost a year ago. From 25 calls/emails, I got replies from about 8. Of those, half said some variant of "sorry, too busy to take on new projects right now."

I can't imagine how much crazier it'll be this year with the hotter housing market and the added demand for rebuilding after the fires.