We bought a house that Scott had built for 1 prior owner 4 years earlier and I was introduced to him through our real estate agent. He came by and gave lots of the history and ins/outs of the house - very helpful in the buying process. No pressure on doing a project or pitching any work, just great info for us in the buying process.
As we were nearing closing, I asked him to roughly give a quote to add and extra room by digging out a ~15x15 crawlspace with a lot of complex re-plumbing and heating challenges and he gave an estimate quickly with no pressure to move forward.
The first winter he gave me a call to say that we had a problem with ice dam buildup on the roof. He had been driving by, saw the problem, sent pictures with links to info online. In asking how to take care of it, he offered to take care of it inexpensively - again no pressure, just information with an honest offer to help. This was the first time that I actually paid him for anything and it was ~$200. Easy $ to spend given I didn't have to crawl on the roof in the epic snow of 2010 and chop ice 40-50 feet off the ground.
Two years after purchasing the house, we asked for a formal bid to build out the room which was about 20% higher than the "off the cuff" initial estimate, which was reasonable given the changes to the project scope and further review.
In a 10 week period over the fall, he started the project on time, finished the project on time and came in about 10% under budget - when does that ever happen? As this is a second home and we live in the Bay Area, he managed the project from start to finish, keeping me up to date regularly and only asked that I come by once in person to check in and make some bigger decisions. Best of all, final quality was excellent.
We couldn't be happier with the house and the project result (timeliness, quality, budget, basically everything) and I will be hiring him again for any project that we need assistance on in the future. I just wish he did work in the Bay Area as my search for someone comparable has not been successful.
I'd be happy to be a reference, just ask Scott for my info.