I’ve got a large tree in my backyard near a rectangular concrete slab that I could build a sun room on. The back part of my house faces east, the direction the sun comes up, and gives me great shade in the intense summer months which, where I live, are almost 9 months a year. So, anyway, I buy a extended pole chain saw. The plan is for me to get up on the roof and trim the branches away from the house before the next hurricane. I do not have a ladder. So I trim a few outlier branches and the chain comes off the chain saw.
I can’t get it back on so eventually I call a tree trimmer specialist. I have an old business card probably from a guy who was in the neighborhood a few years ago. As a side note, I paid a guy to trim the tree a few years ago and he practically cried he needed the work so badly. I am not making this up. We were on the phone and I hedged about needing to think about it, he realized I was going to get other estimates, and he told me a long story about how his dad was sick and he hadn’t worked in a long while and he was practically in tears. I gave him the job then and there.
So I call what I think is the same guy. It wasn’t. The new guy comes over gives a $3,200 estimate in part because my wife tells him she wants a front yard tree gone and two smaller back yard tress gone also and the stumps removed and that throws off his estimated but even so that is way too high. I type “how much should it cost to remove a large tree” in Google and end up on Home Advisor. I put in all the data and within minutes I have the phone numbers to three professionals near me.
The first guy calls. Super nice guy. He tells me HA charges him $35 just to call me and he might not even get the job. I am shocked. I apologize. I tell him I do not want to waste anyone’s time. He says it is all part of his job nowadays. Two other guys contact me. The second estimate is for $1,900. The third estimate, by email, is $750. The fourth and final guy knocks on the door unexpectedly and we go in the back yard to look at the tree. He is the super nice guy I talked to on the phone. I really like him and how he explains everything to me and want to hire him. His estimate is $900.
So, by calling HA I probably saved money but I do not think I will use it again. It bothers me, I’m not sure why, that it cost these guys money just to pursue the job. HA is actually adding costs to the job by siphoning revenues off the top that I would rather pay to the service provider. I am going to hire the $750 because I am pretty sure he is down on his luck. I hope I don’t regret it. All I wanted, at first was to trim the tree away from the house, but 3 out 4 of the experts suggested I get rid of it either because of the roots or the tree falling on the house because it will get much bigger and it is huge now.
I guess this is how business will be done from now on but it bothers me that HA makes easy money in the deal.
I generally ask around and try to find satisfied customers and then interview those companies. I wouldn’t be happy that the service is charging folks to be given my contact info if I MAY hire them. I generally choose based on referrals combined with gut feeling.
I am leery of choosing folks who are down on their luck as wwe have ended up wildly overpaying one yard guy who was always low on funds to make payroll. Finally fired him. My folks also hied the low bidder twice–one would do shoddy work and cry when asked to fix it. The other took the “down payment” on the work and vanished!
Well, sure. They’re in business to make money. Their business model is to get paid to act as matchmaker. No one is forcing the contractors to sign up with a referral service, so they can’t complain about a fee they volunteered to pay. For the $35, they’re getting the opportunity to bid on a project they likely would not have otherwise known about.
My skepticism about services like Home Advisor is that I just don’t believe they vet their list of contractors in any meaningful way. I used to be a fan of Angie’s List, which was a site where you’d pay to join and get honest reviews of contractors from actual users, but as the site has grown and has been sued a number of times for questionable practices, I think it’s lost its luster. I now depend strictly on recommendations from friends, neighbors, and other contractors I trust.
Oh yea, I also get referrals from our property manager who has to maintain a lot of properties. He got us a much more reliable yard service who doesn’t call us with his money woes. He’s also good for appliance repair referrals. He vets his contractors and they like to keep him and his customers happy.
A friend who just relocated, so didn’t have local contacts to ask, used HA for a couple of things that needed to be done in her new home before move in and was happy. I suspect she’ll develop a network of people she can ask for recommendations as she settles in, but it was good for someone new to the area.
I used that service also…and since they pay to "play"the companies can be very aggressive in contacting you. I have used it 3 or 4 times including to find a tree service for large trees. tile work, roofing etc… I have found good people who are licensed and insured. a few people who came out were a little shady and very aggressive.
p.s. yes if you replace my flat roof you are getting a permit and inspection. (those folks did not get the job)
One of the guys I talked to had a very, very low opinion of Angie’s List. He HATED AL with a passion. I don’t recall why. I am sure it had something to do with what he felt was an unfair rating.
And that is the thing. I will probably hire the low bidder but my risk of him doing a poor job is offset by his utter fear of a poor rating. I don’t want a backlash if I give him a poor rating, I don’t want to see him outside my bedroom window at night, so we both have incentive to be fair to each other.
I understand @MommaJ that HA has to get paid but I do not like their business model at all even though I admit they do add value. I much prefer the yellow pages method. The vendors/service providers pay a fixed amount to hang out their shingle and I call as many as I want to and it costs them nothing to talk on the phone to me or it costs them pennies in gas to drive out and give me an estimate. The HA model puts much more pressure on them to get the job. That might result in them low bidding which I probably should not be complaining about.
It certainly enhances competition which os always good for the consumer. Literally, the hungriest guy is going to win. I’d bet $50 that the guy I hire is down on his luck. He bid as low as he did because he has to win this contract. I don’t like how HA gets paid even if I hire someone not from HA. It reminds me of the way the music industry used to work where a few companies controlled distribution and the artists ended up getting ripped off. A few fat lazy slobs siphoned off 50% of the industries revenues. Like slum lords. They controlled the market and acted like you were lucky to get paid at all. I’m not sure my analogy makes sense but there is something I do not like about the HA business model. I don’t have yellow pages anymore so …
I guess it worked for me this time. I agree with the earlier comment that I do not think HA vets anyone in a meaningful way and, like AL, started out as a good thing but will turn into a cheap money grab eventually.
I have used both Angie’s List and HA (HA because I have a second small home where I don’t subscribe to Angie’s List.) I have been happy with both services – got very good referrals via Angie’s List over many years, liked being able to read the numerous reviews and found them reliable. Once, Angie’s List even contacted me to interview me about one of their providers who consistently got excellent reviews and was nominated for an award, and I was happy to do so and was quoted in their magazine.
BUT Angie’s List seems to have revised their approach a while ago – now seems to have a different orientation, and is always e-mailing me with special offers from their merchants. NOT what I wanted them for.
In my second location, I used HA for a paint job and for a one-time cleaning service. Got good reviews and results from both, would hire both again. Worked for me.
Frankly, I have been steered wrong in the past by going with people friends used, had regrets. In my second location have few friends anyway so the reviews matter a lot to me.
I have no issue with the fact that HA charges its participants a fee, but will keep that in mind when using that service in the future. I thought I was given a list with contact info, and I decided whom to contact based on the reviews I saw. For what I wanted, quality of work mattered more than lowest price. But that may differ depending on the job.
Anyhow, I do not miss the yellow pages days – love being able to see customer reviews.
Heavy user of TripAdviser too (as well as of CC!)
Yes, he looked at the tree. I was at work, I left the gate open, so he emailed his estimate based on looking at the work that needed to be done. I do not know for a fact that he is down on his luck but I think he is. I will get my tree taken care of and I will help this guy stay afloat.
Speaking as a contractor who has worked with AL and Home Adviser (I think they’re a rebranded Service Magic), Angies is the better one to go through. Home Adviser really only cares about generating their revenue - case in point, we were once charged almost $70 (contractor bill is based on the perceived value of the work, in this case a bathroom remodel). I called the “customer” to set up an estimate and it turns out they were renters and not able to actually hire for the job. I contested the charge from Home Adviser because it really was not a lead or potential work at all and they sent me to collections! Angies List has been better, it costs us a flat rate to be on there and we decide what offers, if any, we want to post. Also, if you simply google what you’re looking for, the company who has offered to pay the most to google will show up at the top of your page. It’s the same brand of extortion, IMO. You’re best bet is usually to find the “Ask Seattle” (or wherever you live) page on Facebook and ask for recommendations. At least there, and on Angies List, the person recommending has to put their name along side it. Google has also recently changed to not allow anonymous reviews.
When we moved to our new home, I called the local Chamber of Commerce for recommendations – it was free, they were happy to help, and the handymen, and the plumbers, to whom I was referred were unilaterally good. No fees and happy to have some of my city taxes pay for the Chamber!
I hire a lot of contractors. Home Advisor is awful. From the consumer standpoint, it demands that you put all kinds of personal information in before it will generate any potential leads. No thanks.
Angie’s List, by sharp contrast, doesn’t do this. I would go with Angie’s List over Home Advisor any day, though Angie’s List is starting to put contractors through hoops too. I don’t know why it can’t just be easy. when Angie’s List went free, the quality deteriorated.
I really appreciate the practical on point advise. I really like the idea of using a COC or ask XXX on Craigslist. HA and AL are middle men. I prefer to cut them out of the loop, if possible. @threebeans you said it better than I could … Google is the same brand of “extortion” and I have the exact same reservations about finding services through Google and letting Google get bigger and richer when I’d much rather sort through the haze and find someone myself using back channels.
No, it is not easier.
Yes, it is a bit more of a hassle.
But, the amount I pay goes directly to the professional doing the work and that matters to me. I found an auto mechanic who is so honest it is embarrassing. He charged me $25 once for something. I couldn’t believe it. I have ordered, not suggested, ordered my sons to use him when they are in town and I will stand in line for an hour and a half if that is what it takes to make sure I pay him in cash so he doesn’t have to pay a credit card fee on the transaction. Most people will continue to feed HA and AL and that kind of irks me.
I too have been on the receiving end of quotes for $3200 for something I expected to be around $1000. I often think that the quotes are not based on the job itself, but rather on what they think you can afford to pay - so in essence the size of your home or the kind of vehicle parked in your driveway is their basis for calculation. I avoid the middlemen, go direct and get a few quotes. I usually do OK in the end and as long as the job is done properly I am happy. Then I make sure I keep that person’s information for the next time. If you have been in your home for some time you usually compile a pretty good list of people that you can rely on.
But if you really want to get aggravated, do a calculation of what you actually paid per hour when the job is done. Even for very basic jobs that involve multiple workers the per man hour is often well over $100. And this is for outdoor yard work that really doesn’t take a lot of skill - more muscle than anything else.
Presumably, contractors sign up with the Yellow pages, Home Advisor, Angie’s List or some other service because they find it valuable and they understand the tradeoffs.
Personally, contractors who manage to get themselves out to my house at the time they agree to show up are already pretty likely to get the job. So many don’t show up or have excuses for why they didn’t arrive when they said they would. If they pay by the lead, that might be an incentive to actually bid on the job.
I had a largish tree trimming job last year – several thousand dollars worth – and it was none too easy to get folks out to give me an estimate.
