>Please be patient with my newbie questions because I'm completely unfamiliar with contracting.
>
>What hourly rate range would be typical for a company to pay a high quality VPF contractor?
>
>What other costs would the company typically pay (e.g. travel, lodging, etc.) for out-of-town contractors?
>
>What methods are most effective for finding high quality contractors?

If it is VFP project, I would say definitely to look in UT Classified/Independent Consultants section