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CONTRACTOR REFERRAL SERVICE MYTHS

When searching for contractors, homeowners often turn to contractor referral services or user review sites. But do they tell you everything you need to know?

While at first glance this may seem like a great way to find a contractor, it’s important to keep in mind why these referral services and review sites are in business and — arguably more importantly —  if their focus is in your best interest.

Here’s how it works:

Many contractor referral services are in the business of charging contractors for project leads (i.e. homeowner referrals). They are not carefully screening the contractors they refer.

While many user review sites position themselves under the guise of consumer protection, they’re filled with anonymous reviews from the general public. Moreover, the site’s staff has little knowledge of the services they refer as a result of the reviews received on their site. Yet, the more reviews on their sites, the more valuable the sites are from an advertising perspective — not necessarily from a user perspective.  

Most contractor referral services and user review sites screen contractors on the obvious points like licensing, insurance, and bonding.

However, few conduct criminal, financial and legal background checks as well as check client and trade references. On top of all that, they also don’t assess an acceptable level of contractor competence.  

Wouldn’t it be nice to have information about the contractor’s ease of communication? What about their interaction with neighbors, and whether there were clear lines of responsibility for every detail?

And wouldn’t you like to know the responses to behavioral questions that reveal past performance in similar situations are predictors of future performance?

The next time you find yourself looking for a contractor via a referral services or user review sites, ask yourself some questions. Is how they screen contractors a reliable barometer of the contractors’ quality? Is the contractor really worthy of being referred to you?

The bottom line, you want to know whether they’ve gathered information that will help you make the best hiring decisions.

Stay tuned next week where I’ll give you a few hints on how to research and find a good contractor!

Also, check out more of my blogs about home remodeling services!