I have a sub $5k project, thoroughly spec'd out (I'm a dev myself) from UI down to the DB. What's the best way these days given the tight market to get a tightly scoped project like this of this size (small) constructed well, specifically finding a developer or development shop?
Well it depends on truly what the scope of the project is. You could possibly find freelancers and coders at<p><a href="http://www.rent-acoder.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.rent-acoder.com/</a>
<a href="http://www.project4hire.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.project4hire.com/</a>
<a href="http://www.freelancer.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.freelancer.com/</a><p>or other sites that could match you with programmers. It also depends on what the project is exactly for, mobile, web app etc. and how many hours it is going to take to finish the project (an estimate). From my experience, it is very hard to get a US based programmer to do the job in that tight a budget, but it is of course dependent on the projects scope.<p>Hope that helps.<p>PS I do know some development companies that can give you a quote.
I wrote this comment on the India specific HN version that has some suggestions on how to go about finding a good offshore development firm -
<a href="http://hackerstreet.in/item?id=1058" rel="nofollow">http://hackerstreet.in/item?id=1058</a><p>The suggestions are quite generic and might be of some help even if you are looking for a freelancer/firm in any other geographic region as well.