Home remodeling quiz

[Anonymous]

Hi folks. I am market testing a possible new service to help homeowners decide whether to hire a home remodeling contractor. Basically it would help to eliminate a lot of the guesswork out of hiring a contractor. The value proposition is to provide an objective, data-driven way to validate a a contractor's claims on the type and quality of projects they have done.

The questions are meant for anyone who has either hired a home remodeling contractor in the past, or is planning to do it now or in the future. By "home remodeling" I am referring to any projects to enhance your home, whether it's a new kitchen, bathroom renovation, new deck, etc.

Would really appreciate your responses, in as much detail as possible please. I'd prefer 2-3 sentences responses rather than simple Yes/No answers. I'm trying to understand your decision process and the pain points you've experienced when hiring a contractor.

Here are the questions. If you can answer here that's great, or if you'd rather keep your reponses private feel free to email me km AT vrble.com. Thanks!!

Question 1. How do you find (or if in the past, how did you find) contractors to do home remodeling work for you? Please describe in as much detail as possible.

Example answer: "I ask around to my friends and family to get referrals. I've also used Angie's List and BBB information. Also, I talked to neighbors who hired bathroom/kitchen remodelers to find out who they hired and who I should stay away from."

Question 2. If you have used Angie's List or a similar service to find home remodelers, how satisfied are you with the reviews you found there? Was there any additional information about home remodeling contractors that you expected to see, but did not find on Angie's List?

Question 3. How would you evaluate whether to hire a potential home remodeling contractor? Are there any specific items that you look for? And are there any "red flag" items that would make you decide not to hire a home remodeling contractor?

Question 4. Would you use a service that gives you an objective assessment of a home remodeling contractor's experience and performance, based on public data, rather than recommendations or referrals? If so, what type of information would you expect to see to help you in evaluating a contractor?

[Anonymous]

And what are you offering in exchange for all this free market intelligence?

[Anonymous]

OP here, I am not offering anything, it's not that type of survey.

But I'd be happy to share the overall results of the survey with anyone who is interested.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Your concept is great, but I highly doubt anyone is going to pay for the actual value of what you propose. But I'll play along.

1. Referrals from friends and neighbors.

2. Never used, would trust about as much as yelp.

3. Due diligence into previous experience. Calling previous customers, ensuring adequate licensure and insurance.

4. No. You can't base this on public data, unfortunately. Contractor A might be a great contractor but not the right fit for a specific job.

Ultimately it's not just data that drives contractor choice. Sometimes having a contractor with a specific specialty (say, finish carpentry) might be important to someone completing an arts and crafts remodel with significant wood trim. It might be completely worthless for another customer.

I do wish you luck, would suggest you pair some other services (interior design maybe?) in order to have a better value proposition.

[Anonymous]

I'm not crazy when they drive up in a car more expensive than mine...

[Anonymous]

OP here.. thanks to 15:51 for your detailed responses.

[Anonymous]

I would do referrals and verify with checkbook / angielist reviews. Checkbook also breaks down how much they cost vs other contractors by a dollar amount and also their quality rating.

I have often found that the top angielist companies often are the most expensive not necessarily the best.

[Anonymous]

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

Anyone else care to respond....?

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

Friends and family first - people who actually lived through the process. Will do some online checking, but I tend to mostly pay attention to BBB. Everything else is too subjective. You never know with a bad review whether the contractor is bad, the complainer is nuts, or both.

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

I'd use referrals from friends and family, check references from past customers, check insurance, licensing and screen it all through something like Washington Consumers Checkbook. Angies list is ok....except that you have to identify yourself (there is no blind e-mail feature similar to what craigslist is using to protect commenters) if you are writing a review of less than glowing quality. That compromises the results. Angies list is more of a popularity contest so I prefer WCC instead.