Let's analyze your code:
$contact = Contact::where('individual_id', '=', $id)->first();
$contact will either be an instance of your Contact model, or null.
If it is a Model instance, then calling ->count() is basically calling this:
Contact::count(); // 25
$contact = Contact::where('individual_id', '=', $id)->first();
$contact->count() == Contact::count(); // true
Models have a count() method, so you can do things like $model->where(...)->count(), etc.
If $contact is null, then your code will fail:
$contact = null;
$contact->count(); // Error: `null->count()` is invalid.
So, for your case, there is basically no reason to ever call Contact::where(...)->first()->count(), as that will not return 1, unless there is legitimately 1 record in your contacts table (pretty scary false-positive).
The other answer suggests to use ->get(), which is valid, as a Collection has a count() method that outputs the length of the underlying Array:
$contact = Contact::where('individual_id', '=', $id)->get();
$contact->count(); // 1
It will return 1, unless you have multiple records in the database where individual_id is equal to $id.
So, TL;DR: ->first() returns a single Contact instance or null and shouldn't use ->count() after, while ::all() or ->get() returns multiple and can use ->count() after.
