In a couple of weeks, we’re going to be closing on a big house that will need quite a few small repairs and upgrades over the next few years.
Things like painting the interior, minor patching, a few electrical fixes and upgrades, new copper downspouts and leaf guards, sealing some foundation cracks. Nothing structural, and all within the $500-$3,000 range.
In a few years we’ll probably put in a new patio, update a couple of bathrooms, and replace the mechanicals.
What do you use to ballpark your costs for this kind of thing, and to get your short list for bids? Years ago I had a subscription to Angie’s List, but they annoyed me with their constant sales calls or review solicitations when I did so much as search for something, so I quit and had me put them on their do not call list.
Is HomeAdvisor any better? Anything else I should be using?
I’ve been a member at Angie’s List since 2005 and it has served me well. There was definitely a period when they were constantly bombarding me with calls and it pissed me off. But I can’t remember the last time I heard from them - I can imagine that their members reached out and told them to KNOCK IT OFF.
I let my friends and relatives log in and use it too. I like it because the contractors don’t pay to be on it, you can see other peoples’ job costs (if they put them up) and while a local Facebook group is a good free way to get names, I find that it’s almost ALWAYS the contractors themselves or relatives of the contractors that are recommending in an open forum like that. Angie’s List is going to be people who have used or at least gotten a quote from the contractor.
Oh I also like that Angie’s List has the mediation if things go wrong.
Got a top rated contractor from there. A complete and total disaster. Mrs. FtG checked around. Turned out this contractor had negative ratings elsewhere for what we experienced. (Had to know the problem to Google for.)
Why not on AL? Well, AL blackholes all poor ratings for advertisers! Something that isn’t exactly prominently displayed.
And AL most certainly did not care one bit about our complaints about all this.
Found my floor contractor via porchdotcom. Had two stellar reviews, was local, and very honest with me when he came over to do the estimate. Showed me every step of the process so I’d understand why he was doing what he was doing. He’ll be the first one I’ll ask if I need something done.
I will never use Angie’s list again. There is a real reason why some people who are truly terrible have such high ratings.
We decided to sign up for Angie’s list. We had a toilet that stopped working. I used Angie’s list to find a highly rated plumber in our area. Surprisingly, this guy was very close by and although we have been living here for years I never heard of this guy before. So I called during the day and went to voicemail. I explained the toilet stopped working and to please call back so we could schedule the repair. I didn’t even ask what he charged, just wanted to make an appointment. Well, the call doesn’t get returned, except I get voicemail immediately after I left a bad review. I simply said I called to get a toilet repair and it’s been three days and have not gotten a call back.
The guy calls and leaves this voicemail message how upset he was that I left him a bad review! He DEMANDED I go back on Angie’s list and remove it. Meanwhile, he doesn’t even ask about coming out to fix the toilet, doesn’t even freaking mention it! He continued to hound me for a couple more days until I finally just decided to hell with him and Angie’s list, and removed my bad review. I don’t need a stalker. I also canceled the Angie’s account. Only THEN does he call and leave a voicemail wanting to schedule to come fix the toilet. Of course, I had already gotten someone else who fixed it without a problem recommended by a neighbor.
Screw Angie’s list! The people who have high reviews on there are because they are hounded by the vendors to do so. I mean, come on, a toilet NOT working is important. The next business day there should be a return phone call to schedule the repair. Nope, this jerk only cared about the bad review and only after I removed it did he then call to schedule the repair.
Home Advisor, the guy wanted photos of the job to fix. I sent them, and never heard from him again. You want good people, you go back to looking at BBB.org for reports and do a Google search about them online, look at Yelp, ask around. Using those methods I can find the right person within 5 minutes.
I’m a renter but friends who have bought houses have sometimes used recommendations from the real estate agent for tradespeople (plumbers, handymen, etc.).
How local are these things? These sites are all at least *potentially *national. But the services you’re looking to buy are 100% local to your area, wherever that is.
So if one site has lots of info about tradesmen in your area and some other has very little, that’s how I’d choose which site to pay attention to.