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Contractor Referal Sites?
Thu, 09/13/2007 - 13:50 — klum00
I am in the process of looking for a contractor to remodel my bathroom. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area I have litterally thousands to choose from. I cam across a couple sites www.allaroundthehome.com and www.calfinder.com who apparently match homeowners with contractors in the area. Has anyone had any experiences with these sites or others like them? Are their contractors good quality? Thanks in advance.
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Whom do you trust? Word of Mouth is still the best referece - from your friends, your neighbors, your community. GenieTown provides Word of Mouth on the Web - at the online marketplace for local services
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DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
All Contractor Referral Services claim to have pre-screened their database of companies to choose from. Don't count on it! Most are well intentioned and DO perform a background check upon signing up a new contractor to their service, but many drop the ball on re-checking periodically.
I worked as a Dispute Resolution Specialist for an internet based Referral Service for 8 years and have seen it all. My company DID check out each company annually, and still experienced many problems. I can imagine the trouble you will have if you rely on ANY 3rd party validation process! More than 90% of companies listed as a "Home Improvement" or "Construction" company live hand to mouth! That leaves very little room for error before some unsuspecting homeowner pays the price!
So, to answer your question: There is no way ANY Referral Service can/will guarantee the quality of their contractors.
However, I recommend that you still use these services, but only with the expectation of getting a company to show up for an estimate! You MUST do your own homework before making ANY final hiring decision. I discovered an outstanding resource that really nails the screening process called www.HiringToolBox.com and walk you through the hiring process step-by-step.
I publish a blog: www.ContractorCons.Blogspot.com to offer further advice from my own experience in this unscrupulous industry.
Good Luck!
A Reply from CalFinder
Hi klum00,
Thank your interest in our services. Sorry I didn't see your post sooner but I hope I can still help. CalFinder certifies contractors before we refer them to homeowners such as yourself. What that means exactly is that we check the contractors last 10 jobs, and make sure that the homeowners of each of those jobs is completely happy. We feel if those homeowners are happy and the work looks great, then we should refer them to other homeowners. Hope that helps and your able to read this.
Dean