Finding and evaluating a home improvement contractor is a difficult process. Do it right, and you will be happy with the work. But do it wrong, and your project could be a nightmare.

Unfortunately, most people don’t have a clue how to go about it. According to a survey of its members by the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, customers are asking the wrong questions.

The most common ones: When can you start? When will you finish? What time will you start each morning? What time will you stop working for the day? Are you going to work every day? Can you finish by a certain date? How much will it cost per square foot?

In other words, “How fast and how much?”

Certainly these are important questions, to which you will want answers. But there are far more important things you need to know. After all, you are not only going to be inviting a stranger into your home, you are asking the contractor rip up your house and interrupt your life, perhaps for a long period of time.

Here’s what you really need to ask.

-- License. Ask for the contractor’s license number and confirm it with your state or local government regulator to make sure it is valid and current. Many jurisdictions set minimum experience and educational requirements, and administer exams to make sure the contractor is up to snuff. Fail the test? No license.

Many places also maintain relief funds for homeowners whose projects go wrong and are unable to secure satisfaction. But they cover only licensed contractors.

-- Tenure. How long has the contractor been in business? Generally, the longer, the better. It indicates he or she is a pro and is delivering the work consumers expect.

There are many skilled construction workers who try their hands at general contracting. Typically, those who flounder do decent work, but have no clue about how to run a business.

-- Insurance. By law, remodelers must carry both business insurance and worker’s compensation. If they don’t, you could be liable, especially if someone is hurt while on the job.

Ask for a copy of the certificate of insurance and call the issuing agency to confirm coverage is valid and up-to-date.

-- Verify. Something else to confirm is the company name, address and phone number. Do you really want to hire someone who runs the show out of the back of a pickup truck?

-- Referrals. Get a list of previous customers. But not just any customers: Ask for a list of people whose jobs were similar to what you are contemplating. And request jobs that were completed recently, within the last six to 12 months. Being unwilling to provide references is a bad sign.

The list will probably contain their best customers -- why give out the names of dissatisfied clients? -- but check them out anyway. Obtaining a firsthand description of the way the contractor works can be invaluable, and go a long way toward answering the questions mentioned above.

Also, check the contractor out with your local Better Business Bureau, as well as the state or local consumer affairs agency where you live and where he or she is headquartered.

-- Supervisor. Taking to a nice, well-dressed, well-spoken salesperson is one thing. But you’ll want to know who will actually be the supervisor on the project. If you can meet and speak with him or her, even better. You’ll want to be able to communicate with your contractor, for sure. After all, this is the person who will address your questions and concerns once the project starts.

Now, a few things that indicate the contractor may not be trustworthy:

-- Beware of high-pressure tactics such as “sign a contract today or lose out on special pricing.” Don’t be rushed into making a decision. Take your time. If they want your job, that “special” pricing will always be there.

-- Be cautious about a demand for a large down payment. Many states don’t allow contractors to take more than a certain amount upfront. Certainly, don’t put up more than a third, and never in cash. A contractor who wants nothing in advance is rare, but it usually means he or she is well capitalized and doesn’t need your money to buy materials.

-- If contractors don’t inform you of your right to cancel the contract within three business days, don’t sign anything, and ask them to take a hike. The law requires notification in writing of your “right of recession” if the contract was solicited in your home or someplace other than the contractor’s place of business. This is a grace period that allows you to change your mind without penalty.

Divorce is never easy. And when real estate is involved, it can get downright exhausting.

Sometimes neither of the spouses wants to keep the house -- too many bad memories, perhaps. So the simple answer is to sell and move on.

When kids are involved, though, the breakup becomes much more complicated. Often, one spouse wants to remain in the house so the children aren’t uprooted, so the other has to move out.

But how do they split the value of the family residence? If one spouse just wants to bail, they can sign over their share of the property and walk away. Problem solved -- or at least alleviated. Or, if one spouse has the ability to buy out the other’s interest, a major stumbling block can be avoided.

Those two scenarios are rare, however. More often than not, the parties go to war over the issue.

If they can’t come to some kind of understanding, a judge will do it for them. But it need not get to that point if the parties consider a cash-out refinancing.

For simplicity purposes, say the house is worth $100,000 and the balance on the mortgage is $50,000. By refinancing to the full $100,000, there is $50,000 on the table that the remaining spouse can use to buy out the spouse who is leaving.

Simple enough, except that there often isn’t enough equity in the place to do a normal cash-out refi. For example, Fannie Mae, perhaps the largest source of money for home loans, requires an 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) to be retained in the property. And the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the government agency that insures loans against default, expects an 85 percent LTV.

Consequently, in the example above, the parties would only be able to pull $30,000 out of the house if Fannie Mae was purchasing the loan from the primary lender, as is often the case. If the FHA was underwriting the new mortgage, they could pull out $35,000.

In neither case, then, would there be enough money to buy out the departing spouse’s half-share. But both Fannie and the FHA are aware of the housing and mortgage issues divorce can cause. And each one has a special refinance option, neither particularly well-known, to help solve the problem.

Under the FHA “divorce” option, one spouse co-borrower can refinance the property up to 97.5 percent loan-to-value ratio instead of the 85 percent ceiling required of other borrowers.

“This has a huge advantage, especially when a property has declined in value or has not gained enough equity for a normal FHA cash-out refinance,” says George Souto, a loan agent with McCue Mortgage in Middletown, Connecticut, who blogged about the program on the Active Rain real estate website.

There are rules, though. As Souto points out, the remaining co-borrower has to use the proceeds of that loan to pay off his or her former co-borrower. Also, the spouse who retains the property must obtain a divorce decree, settlement agreement or other legally binding and enforceable equity agreement that documents the amount of equity awarded to the other spouse.

Of course, the spouse who remains on the new mortgage must qualify for the loan with just his or her own income and meet all the other FHA guidelines. And in no case can he or she receive any of the proceeds from the new loan.

Under Fannie Mae’s divorce-refi option, the property can be refinanced up to 95 percent of its current value, as long as the property was jointly owned for at least 12 months prior to the day of the application for the new loan. And the parties must document that fact.

Again, the spouse who remains must not receive any of the proceeds, and must be able to qualify for the new loan on his or her own. And both parties must execute a written agreement stating the terms of how the property is to be transferred, the purpose of the transfer and how the funds from the refi will be used.

Freddie Mac, another major investor in mortgages, also has a refi option for divorcing couples. Under its program, the property must have been owned by the warring factions for at least 12 months. Also, the loan file must state that the property was occupied as a principal residence, and there must be a written agreement stating the terms of the transfer and the disposition of the refi proceeds.

The new mortgage amount is limited to the amount of equity used to buy out the other co-owner, plus the amount needed to pay off the old mortgage, any junior liens and closing costs, financing costs and any escrows and prepaid items such as property taxes.

Move over, real estate companies. There’s a new game in town.

Nonprofits that work with mostly low- and moderate-income families to widen their homeownership opportunities are expanding their missions into helping clients actually buy and sell houses.

Take NeighborWorks America, for example: It’s a Washington-based, Congressionally chartered nonprofit network, and a leading trainer of professionals in community development and affordable housing. Typically, local nonprofits in the NeighborWorks network educate would-be buyers about the ins and outs of ownership and, if necessary, help them straighten out their finances and boost their credit scores. Then, when people are ready to take the next step, they are turned over to an outside realty professional.

Now, though, 30 or so NeighborWorks member organizations are keeping their clients in-house, offering not only realty services but also, in some cases, financing and insurance. Some are even building houses.

Over the next few years, Marietta Rodriguez, NeighborWorks’ vice president of national homeownership programs, expects the number of nonprofits that build, sell, finance and insure houses to grow as they look to become less dependent on shrinking federal and state dollars.

“The housing industry and the funding options for the nonprofit community business are changing,” Rodriguez says. “To adapt, more and more NeighborWorks organizations are building complementary businesses that generate revenue that they funnel back into their mission-based operations. The result is a more complete social enterprise that offers double bottom-line benefits for them and the community.”

The move toward self-sufficiency makes sense. Nonprofits see thousands of families who yearn to be homeowners. After these people go through an extensive education program, many are mortgage-ready. But then they go off to buy a house through an often unknown real estate agent and mortgage company.

In many cases, then, the nonprofit is helping agents and lenders, but getting nothing in return. So it’s “only natural,” says the NeighborWorks executive, for local groups that have the capacity to add realty services to do so.

“Vertical integration in this instance makes a lot of business sense,” she says.

For NeighborWorks of West Vermont in Rutland, the move into realty services “fills a gap” for its clients, says Ludy Biddle, the group’s executive director. ”They’ve gone through our classes and built their credit scores, and they are excited about homeownership, and then we didn’t have anyone to help them. So we decided to fill that piece.”

The Vermont chapter has only one agent on staff just now, but he’ll do 28 sales this year, says Biddle. “He got tired of selling ski condos, and wanted to do something to help people.”

To which, Riddle adds: “All of us in the nonprofit world are working to become self-sufficient and still support the people who need our help. If we can make a little bit of profit, we can be less dependent on state and federal grants.”

To help the trend along, NeighborWorks has embarked on a three-year program to educate more of its 250 member organizations about how to build revenue streams that they can pour back into their core functions.

The goal is to be something like Homewise, the 31-year-old New Mexico nonprofit that began adding realty services to its menu about a half-dozen years ago. Today, it has seven agents on staff in Santa Fe and two in Albuquerque. It also finances the houses its clients buy, and has just started insuring those properties, as well.

“Anything we get in terms of grants or funding is used for growth,” says Communications Director Laura Altomare. “Our day-to-day operations are funded by our real estate services.”

In Homewise’s most recent fiscal year, 372 families who went through its education programs went on to buy houses. Of those, 271 used one of the group’s agents. Clients don’t have to use a Homewise agent, say Altomare, but most people choose to.

With the increased competition for business, you’d expect some pushback from the local real estate community. But the opposite has been the case so far.

For one thing, real estate agents tend not to like working with low- and moderate-income customers, who require too much work for smaller commissions. Beyond that, real estate agents often refer clients to the nonprofits.

“We have a great relationship with our local Realtors,” says Altomare. “We get quite a few referrals from them about people who are not quite ready to buy.”

Another vertically integrated nonprofit, NPHS in Rancho Cucamonga, California, also has a good relationship with the local real estate community.

“You never want to ruffle any feathers,” says Communications Director Victor Ramirez, “but we’ve been well received. They’d rather be doing easier deals, so they’d rather have us do the more complex ones.”

NPHS has two agents on staff: one to handle residential clients and the other to work on commercial deals, which is a new line of business the organization has just launched.

So low-income buyers can take heart: More homebuying options and help are available every day.