Review Sites to Check Before Hiring a Contractor

Doing home repair or renovations such as duct cleaning, window replacement, basement waterproofing, or basement underpinning isn’t easy nor is it expensive. If you haven’t got an uncle or distant cousin working as a contractor then you need to do your research.

Check review sites for contractors and see if recent customers have been satisfied, what do suppliers say, is your contractor licensed or insured, did he/she give value for money. Sometimes life can be hard on all of us and your contractor could simply have some recent crazy client issues. So, keep in mind the professional and reasonable sounding reviews.

Here are the 6 review sites to check before hiring a contractor:

1. Google My Business

There is an algorithm that utilizes location and rankings to display relevant and local results. For this site, a verified account should be set up. This will make your search properly optimized. You get better results by also being rated, having comments and pictures. It is good for contractors too. The more content they provide, the more reputable are they.

2. Angie’s List

Here reviews cannot be anonymous (a good safety measure for crazy people) and businesses are graded from A to F. These two specific traits for Angie’s List make it most of the high-quality review sites. It has free membership, so you can use the site to promote or check a certain business or contractor for free. Plus each business has the option to respond to reviews, so you will get to see your future contractor’s defense too.

3. Porch

“Home improvement. Simplified.” Is the slogan for “Porch”, a review site intended specifically for contractors and home repair/construction. It gives you reviews for your local contractors and their prices. You can schedule appointments to get your work done by that specific contractor that has spiked your interest.

4. HomeStars

Suitable for Canadian homeowners is HomeStars which provides contractor reviews. A benefit of this site is that reviews can only be given after the payment was made. This makes reviews more honest; since people will give their opinions much more openly if money has been already spent.

5. Yelp

There are funny “Nathan for you” and “South Park” episodes for this site since it became a controversial review site. The reviews can be anonymous, but creating a profile is free of charge. The plus side of Yelp is that it is a wide community and people find their reviews very seriously. Maybe those crazy people aren’t so bad for you since they will provide you with extreme opinions which sometimes are good to have in mind.

6. Facebook

If you don’t want to go to the trouble of creating accounts, simply visit the Facebook account of the contractor you have found. Here you will find comments, pictures or videos which will help you get the feel or funk of your contractor buddy. Plus, chances are, you do not have to create new accounts or learn new concepts of sites. If you want to keep your style old fashioned while avoiding the phone book – Facebook should definitely be your choice.