It was hard finding good contractors when I lived in a small town in the midwest.
We had a handful of plumbers and electricians, and possibly two or three residential building contractors. I think there were only a handful of auto mechanics as well. The reason I left my tiny hometown in the midwest for Albuquerque, New Mexico had nothing to do with access to businesses though. I accepted a job in this city when I couldn’t find a good work position in my home state that paid enough money for me to survive on. When I looked for apartments in Albuquerque, I found a studio on Alcalde Place that had a view of the Rio Grande River just to the southwest. Since this was the first time I had ever lived in a metropolitan city, I was surprised by the sheer selection of businesses from grocery stores and restaurants to doctors and veterinarians. When I needed a new air conditioner for my apartment, I called a number of heating and cooling companies within a 10 mile radius. The quantity of HVAC dealers within driving distance was impressive compared to my hometown. Back then I had to install a window air conditioner myself because the only available HVAC dealer was charg\ing too much money to do it themselves. Thankfully I had no problem at all finding an affordable heating and cooling business in Albuquerque to install a window air conditioner in a studio apartment for me. It’s smarter to leave this work to the HVAC professionals, especially if you live above the ground floor on a multi-story building.