Home remodeling quiz

[Anonymous]

1.) Neighbor/s.

2.) Angies List, et al, are almost ALWAYS slanted.

3.) References I know personally.

4.) Photos, if I ever decided to go that route, which would be unlikely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. take numbers of trucks I see doing work in the neighborhood. Nieghborhood listserv.
2. the contractors I've gotten from Angie's List have been very bad. No way to verify or compare the work poster had done with what I need.
3. I can't get much info about contractors without websites, but the ones with websites tend to overcharge.
4. I don't know what public data would tell me that would be useful in decisionmaking.

OP here. Thank you. Public data on building permits issued is a very rich source of data on which contractors are getting permits issued, for what types of projects, dollar values of those projects, project locations, etc. The data would not be the only way to decide to hire a contractor, but would give additional insight that the homeowner can use in addition to all the other ways they normally find a contractor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hard data about estimate versus actual (time-money) would be useful

as would information about estimated time & reality time; contractors always seem to go over, some more than others

OP here. Public data sources often include estimated cost, but actual cost/schedule may be harder to come by. I am investigating this right now. Thanks to both of you for the suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Thank you 16:15 for mentioning Checkbook (had not looked at that before) and your insights.

Anyone else care to respond....?

checkbook also does undercover operations and weeds out who tried to over charge them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Referrals from friends and family. The builder that I am using now has built 2 homes for my Mom and 2 for my Aunt.

2. I used Angie's List once. The company did nice design work, but did not listen to what I wanted. They also never fully finished the job. The reviews were good though. Sometimes I think they may write some of their own reviews.

3. I would want to see examples of their work and talk to their past clients. I very rarely buy things site unseen.

4. Don't know if public data would be helpful. How different would that be from reviews online?

OP again -- thank you. The "vision" is to analyze public data to offer a quick snapshot of a contractor's work history and overall performance. This objective analysis can be combined with the "subjective" stuff like online reviews, as well as the homeowner's own due diligence, to help homeowners make better informed decisions about hiring contractors.

That's my blue sky dream, at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if you had not considered checkbook before I think you may be ill informed to provide this type of service.

Troll much?

That's the reason I am doing this research. I don't pretend to know everything. And there is a lot to learn about how people decide to hire a home remodeling contractor. It's a process with a lot of "friction" and inefficiency. I hope to make the process more efficient and empower homeowners with data to support their decision making. The home remodeling industry seems ripe for this type of service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if you had not considered checkbook before I think you may be ill informed to provide this type of service.

Troll much?

That's the reason I am doing this research. I don't pretend to know everything. And there is a lot to learn about how people decide to hire a home remodeling contractor. It's a process with a lot of "friction" and inefficiency. I hope to make the process more efficient and empower homeowners with data to support their decision making. The home remodeling industry seems ripe for this type of service.

Oh and I'm OP and I wrote that response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. take numbers of trucks I see doing work in the neighborhood. Nieghborhood listserv.
2. the contractors I've gotten from Angie's List have been very bad. No way to verify or compare the work poster had done with what I need.
3. I can't get much info about contractors without websites, but the ones with websites tend to overcharge.
4. I don't know what public data would tell me that would be useful in decisionmaking.

OP here. Thank you. Public data on building permits issued is a very rich source of data on which contractors are getting permits issued, for what types of projects, dollar values of those projects, project locations, etc. The data would not be the only way to decide to hire a contractor, but would give additional insight that the homeowner can use in addition to all the other ways they normally find a contractor.

Just know that permit data is notoriously unreliable and inconsistent between jurisdictions. for example, MoCo allows placeholder permitting with no requirement to update. So a $300,000 renovation will typically be listed as $100,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. take numbers of trucks I see doing work in the neighborhood. Nieghborhood listserv.
2. the contractors I've gotten from Angie's List have been very bad. No way to verify or compare the work poster had done with what I need.
3. I can't get much info about contractors without websites, but the ones with websites tend to overcharge.
4. I don't know what public data would tell me that would be useful in decisionmaking.

OP here. Thank you. Public data on building permits issued is a very rich source of data on which contractors are getting permits issued, for what types of projects, dollar values of those projects, project locations, etc. The data would not be the only way to decide to hire a contractor, but would give additional insight that the homeowner can use in addition to all the other ways they normally find a contractor.

Just know that permit data is notoriously unreliable and inconsistent between jurisdictions. for example, MoCo allows placeholder permitting with no requirement to update. So a $300,000 renovation will typically be listed as $100,000.

OP again. Thanks for the insight. Data quality and consistency is a very important issue. I've already seen it across different VA cities/counties in terms of the type and quality of permit data available. If you have any other experiences with permit data problems please share.. you can also email me at km AT vrble dot com. Thanks!